WCS Season One
Premier League

WCS Ro32 Group F
Suppy, Serral, Has, NaNiwa

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

Sunday, Feb 22 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)


There's really no other way to go about it. Try as we might, one name draws our attention to Group F more than any other: NaNiwa. As one of the big stories of early 2015, his comeback has been met with nothing short of hysteria in forums, live report threads, on twitter, and in articles. Regardless of one's opinion of the man's character, the Starcraft 2 scene is far more lively and eventful when he's around. He is one of the biggest personalities in the scene, and his return should continue to be a talking point this season.

Based on his qualifying and Challenger League matches, it doesn't look like his time off has really caused him to lose a step. He defeated SpaceMarine, MaNa, Hanfy and Happy to reach Challenger in a single try, where he proceeded to crush Nerchio 3-1. There isn't much to go on regarding playstyles and strategies as the game has evolved much since he was last active, but NaNiwa has always favored standard games where he overwhelms his opponents with his raw talent. It was just another normal day at the office for the Swede, but that isn't to say that he's invulnerable to Europeans. His last WCS run was ended in the Ro32 by Bunny and before that TargA, and WCS remains one of the few tournaments where NaNiwa has not yet reached the semi finals. His competitive nature has drawn him back to WCS, and his only goal must be to win it.

It'll be an interesting clash of styles when he meets Has in their initial match. As everyone knows, Has is the second best player from Taiwan and the region's most incomprehensible player. His popularity is based on his oddball approach to the game, and the Cult of Has continues to grow with every proxy tempest build he does against an elite player. He has a style all on his own, and while it seems to work in Chinese tournaments (3rd at TWOP, 5/6th at WEC), he's yet to do more than just make us laugh at more competitive events. In fact, he has only ever been in Premier League once and failed to even qualify for Season 3.

Back in early 2013, it was possible to say that Has had the element of surprise. Nobody really knew anything about him, and he used strategies that his opponents had probably never faced before. His reputation has grown, however, and his opponents now know that they must spoil the joke by scouting before the punchline hits them square in the jaw. Taiwan's court jester will have to go further in WCS if he ever wishes to be anything more than a novelty.

The yoe Flash Wolves player must be wishing that he was paired with one of the other two players instead. PvZ has always been his... "special" matchup, and zergs the world over have lamented at how he's taken the idea of "protoss bullshit" to it's logical extreme. However, neither of the two zergs in Group F will be pushovers.



Suppy, of course, was famously the first person to stop PartinG's Soul Train back in 2012. He did it on the biggest stage, too: at the quarterfinals of the 2012 World Championships. Knowing that the Won Won Won was coming, Suppy just walled his bases with spine crawlers and hoped for the best. He shockingly gained a 2-0 advantage, only to falter in the next three games. While that remains his biggest moment, it was a validation of his ability to prepare and respond. Should he face Has, the Taiwanese protoss will have to figure out something ingenious to best him.

However, Suppy has the disadvantage of being a semi pro. He hasn't participated in many tournaments over the past year, and when he has it hasn't gone smoothly. It took 4 tries to get into Challenger this season, but he did stomp Bails 3-0 in relatively easy games. He's still one of the more talented players from the United States, but it's difficult to imagine him going far in WCS without the same rigorous training that full time players have. Even though Suppy's play has always been more about intelligence and wile than mechanics, losses to Guitarcheese, goswser and the no name Night in qualifying suggest that he isn't in the best condition. ZvZ is a matchup very dependent on form, and his 7-7 record against North American zergs does not impress.

Whether Serral can take advantage of this possible deficiency in practice is unknown. Serral himself isn't exactly one of the most visible zergs in Europe, but he has developed a reputation among the keener observers of the game. While many fans may not be aware, there is a quiet buzz about him as Europe's next great zerg. However, this talk has been building over time, and we're still waiting for that one big moment where he announces his accession. It hasn't happened yet, and we've been saying this ever since the latter half of 2014. He needs to make his mark soon, or he'll end up blending into that glut of middle tier foreigners that get the same write up each and every time.

Based on form alone, it looks like this could be Serral's moment. Since qualifying for Challenger, Serral is 29-4, albeit mostly against lower rung Europeans in online tournaments. But it does include his 3-0 flattening of Harstem—who himself looked close to reaching Europe's highest tier—, a win over sLivko, 2-0 against elfi and a close 2-3 defeat to Welmu at Assembly 2015. In his Challenger League games, he used muta transitions in ZvP to frustrate and confound Harstem, but he also built just about every unit in the game. While he did show a dash of versatility, a protoss more familiar with stargate play could be difficult to beat should he continue his penchant for mutmuts. It's still his worst matchup statistically, and he'll likely have to beat one to advance, assuming he defeats Suppy.

Overall thoughts and predictions:

Without question, NaNiwa is the biggest name in this group. That's not reason enough for his advancement, but he's also proven in the past that he's on a level well beyond the rest of this group. Whether he's back to his old self or still picking up steam is another question, but his class should be enough to ensure survival. Has and Suppy should play a confounding match to decide who gets eliminated first, but my gut tells me Serral should outlive them both.

Suppy < Serral
Has < NaNiwa
Serral < NaNiwa
Suppy < Has
Serral > Has

NaNiwa and Serral to advance.

Writers: lichter.
Editors: lichter.
Graphics: v1.
Stats: Aligulac