EPTWCS America Group A Preview
by Gemini
Most WCS groups have an easy story line to them. There’s usually one or two big favorites, some middle goer, and an obvious weak link. In regards to their WCS points it usually follows the same pattern: too much, not quite enough, not even close. This is not one of those groups. Every person in this group except for the lone Terran have some shot at making it to Blizzcon which is hindering completely on this exact set of matches. It’s groups like these that make the last few months before the WCS Global Finals such an exciting race to watch, and with two of the participants being within 500 points of qualifying at the moment, this is a wonderful way to kick that race into high gear. This group is do or die for each player in it. If they lose here they’re almost certainly denied Blizzcon entry. They each need to win the whole tournament if they want any sure sights of qualification and making it past this group is one big step closer to a series of even bigger steps.
Starting with the rank 17 player with 2275 points,
viOLet is one of the last people we would have expected to be competing in the WCS point race. Coming back from the shadows of faceless Korean land while sorting his VISA issues, viOLet took some time to get back to his former glory. Since then he’s been slowly improving rather unnoticed. Being overshadowed by players like Snute, Jaedong, HyuN and others, viOLet has managed to eek out a vast number of WCS points seemingly from nowhere while not actually winning any tournaments. The points stem from a trifecta of 3rd place finishes that started with MLG Anaheim just a few months ago. viOLet makes it easy for us as well, losing all of his matches vs Korean Terrans. Besides being knocked out of MLG by the eventual winner Trap, viOLet was knocked to the losers bracket by his close friend Polt. Redbull Atlanta saw the Zerg eliminated by Bomber, and Redbull Detroit by Polt once more. The series weren’t always one sided however, viOLet has been able to kick back with some fierce power. With the only Terran in the group being a newcomer to the field, that match should go simply for the Korean Zerg if it does happen. With a strong ZvZ showcase having only lost one ZvZ match since Redbull North America, as well as scoring a Protoss who couldn’t be more confused with PvZ at the moment, viOLet is looking to be a strong contender for first place in this group.The Canadian Zerg
Scarlett is sitting a bit further down the WCS ladder sitting at 35 with 1400 points, however a miracle run in WCS can still give her hopes of a Global Final. Scarlett has had an interesting last few months with some solid 3rd/4th place finishes and a Redbull North America championship, but also some Ro16 halts. Inconsistency and mystery is the name of the game for the Canadian as she has shown that she can perform at the highest level vs all three races recently, just not when it truly matters. Just like her Zerg partner in Group A, ZvT seems to be her weakest link. The last ZvT she won was at MLG Anaheim vs Illusion, and before that vs Polt to win Redbull North America. Since then she hasn’t been able to put up the same results. Just like viOLet, she is lucky that the group of Terrans was a thing this season and she successfully dodged a potentially gruesome bullet. To go along with her slight inconsistency lately, she simply hasn’t played that many matches. It’s difficult to gauge her approximate skill due to the lack of material to make a claim on. What we can go off of is her words in a recent Acer interview saying that her worst fear at the moment was against Protoss, and especially the type of Protoss that is in her group. An inconsistent Protoss is a deadly Protoss since they can be so unpredictable according to the Acer Zerg. With Redbull DC not saying whether it will give out WCS points or not yet, right now this group is Scarlett’s last shot at anything remotely close to a date with the Global Final. Snute may be nearly guaranteed, but I’m sure one extra foreigner wouldn’t be too bad either.There aren’t too many groups that have a full set of huge tournament winner contenders, and sadly this isn’t one of them.
iaguz comes in as the overwhelming underdog in this group with this WCS debut being his only big claim to fame in the global eyes so far. He’s been able to make upsets happen in each of his matches that he’s played in WCS already so it’s not like we can count him out 100%. Taking out qxc, Alicia, and Jim is definitely nothing to scoff at, however the question is can he keep it up? The added pressure of a live event is a factor that absolutely needs to be considered when a newcomer is involved. It may not be a massive audience like a Dreamhack, but it definitely adds extra weight to each match when you’re not sitting at home with your normal set up (which is so far the only place iaguz has proved himself). To add to that, he has a group with two strong zergs, and after a quick look at his recent match history in tournaments, he hasn’t been looking too strong in the TvZ match up. This makes it quite interesting since it’s the same match up that the Zergs have been failing with as well so that could cause for some wonky games and strange outcomes. It’s still going to be a struggle for the lone Aussie representative as the viOLet still takes multiple games off of players like Bomber and Polt. iaguz is no where near the run for Blizzcon qualification, so this group is purely about pride. He needs to show that he’s a potential threat for further WCS seasons and mark his name down as a future regular to the WCS AM circuit. 
LiquidHerO comes into this group off of a fresh run at the WEC just two weekends ago where he took a nice, but not great, 3rd place finish. The predictions ended up being what was expected: His PvP looked solid and his PvZ remains clueless. The only maps that HerO dropped in that tournament were to Zerg and one Zerg in particular. Luckily for HerO, Jaedong isn’t in his group. Unluckily, neither is Protoss. This whole story comes down to one simple question: can HerO figure out PvZ. His Blizzcon life is almost hanging solely on that singular question. For nearly the entire year PvZ has plagued the Liquid Protoss as a match up that cannot be solved. No matter what he seems to try it does not work. He has splashes of brilliance against some lesser players than him but when it comes to the big names that he needs to be beating he always comes up short. When HerO doesn’t know how to solve something, he tries nearly everything to fix it. This gives us a lot of games with a different build almost every time. There is no way to analyze him except that he “isn’t good at the match up” and preparing for him isn’t exactly easy either. Even if he doesn’t come in feeling like his PvZ is better, there is always the added benefit of being a crazy Protoss. Scarlett already mentioned how a Protoss like HerO is difficult to prepare for as they are capable of quite literally anything and that can easily be used to his advantage. That is going slightly too close to desperation however, so of course it would be best if he came prepared with some hidden builds that he’s been keeping secret just for this particularly important day. With WEC not giving out any WCS points, there’s always that slight possibility that HerO purposefully kept his best builds from the public eye.
Besides PvZ, HerO has expressed some form of distaste for PvT recently. He risks his opening build orders a little too much by trying to open with the now out of style High Templar builds instead of the more stable, although some what boring, colossus openers. This could be iaguz’s chance to make yet another upset. He’s beaten two relatively good Protosses already in his WCS run, so don’t be too surprised if HerO suddenly drops two quick games to the Gimli Terran. However once the stylish Protoss makes it into the mid and late game be sure to see an explosion of multitasking and harassment that he’s made his legacy off of. On paper this group looks tough for the Liquid representative, but it’s a must win if he has any shot at guaranteeing himself a spot at Blizzcon this year. Anyone who knows anything about HerO knows his tendencies to crack in pressure situations, however those same situations sometimes are what he needs to push to his full capacity. With a motivation assist from WEC don’t be too shocked if we see a reborn Liquidian just in time for Winter.
Overall thoughts
This is one of the most, if not the most, important groups in the entire WCS AM Ro16. Three players have a shot at Blizzcon in this group with none of them yet confirmed. Two of them are just an arms reach away and this group is an absolute must win for them in order for a Blizzcon appearance. With viOLet’s ZvZ looking unstoppable lately and HerO’s PvZ looking shaky at best it’s looking quite good for the still teamless Zerg. iaguz is the obvious underdog, but if history repeats itself then we are for sure in for some even bigger upsets than what has happened already. Scarlett can be either hit or miss depending on if she shows up with her A game or not and a healthy amount of eyes will be set on her as she goes into Redbull DC just a few days after this as well. It’s going to be a close set of games and besides viOLet looking as the potential favorite for the group, the battle for second place is going to be an important one in more ways than one.
Scarlett 2 - 1 iaguz
viOLet 2 - 1 HerO
viOLet 2 - 0 Scarlett
HerO 2 - 0 iaguz
HerO 2 - 1 Scarlett
viOLet and HerO advance.
