EPTSPOTV Starleague 2015 Season 1
Ro16 Group C:
Dear, GuMiho, Rogue, MyuNgSiK
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Starcraft II Starleague
Getting There
by Heartland
The story of group C is that it is a group full of potential with players who are well known and respected but who have never, except for
Dear, been stars in their own right. They all, no matter their background, share that trait of being "pretty good" and sometimes looking absolutely stellar (with the exception of perhaps MyuNgSiK who suffers under the Artosis Curse). They are mainstays of team leagues and can go up against the best but they also tend to just somehow fall short of the goal sometime during each individual tournament. They give way to the legends of Starcraft, the constant favorites to win, and never quite make it. For two of them Group C will mean a chance to climb one step closer to the finals and to step out of the shadows and into true stardom. On paper it seems as if
Rogue and 
GuMiho stand above the other two. However, the matter of the group brackets complicate things. In his match against Rogue Myungsik laid the ground for an intense grudge match in the NSSL a mere few days later. Myungsik faced off against the Jin Air player for the third televised time in their careers and went victorious out of it just like he has in the both sets in the past, Rogue has only been able to snatch one map from the Prime Protoss. Rogue was noticably flustered and annoyed, slamming his keyboard, after he failed to notice the gateway/Oracle all-in until it was far too late. He probably wasn't too happy about the Prime player dancing his Zealots either.His strength against Rogue in particular is Myungsik's one advantage coming into group C with Gumiho and Dear as the other two players in the group. Myungsik sports a weak sub 50% win rate against Terran and if Gumiho manages to defeat Dear then he will have a tough time against the Towel Terran's genius. Myungsik's chances against Dear also look weak, but he did take out San 3-0 in the Challenger to the NSSL.
An interesting fact is that the road to group C through NSSL Challenger was one won through mirror matchups. Each of the players won their finals and quite a few other games through absolute stomps when fighting their own race. Protoss is the only race to give the option of a mirror here should fate put Dear and Myungsik against one another. Myungsik, Rogue and Dear have all also played a lot in televised Korean tournaments as of late. Do they have anything still left up their sleeves?
Dear's story is more sad than the others, a kind of plot he shares with other GSL Protoss winners such as Seed. Once he won a GSL trophy and led his team to victory in Proleague. Though he has picked up a lot after returning to Kespa he is still flimsy and looks shockingly weak on occasion. During his games in the GSL he made some crucial mistakes that the old trophy winner simply wouldn't.
Both Rogue and Gumiho have done well in online tournaments in November with Rogue taking home the MSI Beat It qualifier and Gumiho almost winning the 32 Boys 1 Cup hosted by the ever creative Basetrade team. Rogue's road to victory is marred by, as mentioned before, his new nemesis Myungsik and the way the pairs have been set up might ruin his chances. In a situation where Rogue is defeated and goes to meet Dear in a losers game, or even a Gumiho, he might win. But what happens if he meets Myungsik in the final game once more? Rogue's fate is not in his own hands but ruled over by the other players. This is not to count him out, Rogue has shown in the past that he is more than capable of out-strategizing his opponents and in the bizarre sort of games where both players attempt to cheese one another it's far from impossible that he might do what he did to Classic and just scream "wildcard!" and do something insane, unexpected and brilliant.
"I cut the brakes!"
The Towel Terran has lately soared in Aligulac ranks and harvested Leifeng cup victories. Gumiho has bloomed into a grand strategist who's builds keep surprising his opponents and delighting his fans. He looks like the strongest out of the four and the one most likely to realize that fast development in his career. All he has to do is to smash Dear and then dispose of Myungsik and he'll be on the high road to fame and glory. It will be easy, right?
Predictions:
GuMiho > Dear
MyuNgSiK > Rogue
GuMiho > MyuNgSiK
Rogue > Dear
MyuNgSiK > Rogue
GuMiho and MyuNgSiK to advance!
