Thursday, Feb 26 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) by Brindled
The Quarterfinals began in earnest with rather underwhelming bouts, which made for a rather hasty day. With only 6 players remaining in arguably the year's most racially balanced tournament thus far, one must begin to question this assertion. After the utter trouncing of 2 out of 3 remaining Zerg players in the Naver Starcraft II Starleague by players of the other races, only one remains: Life. Will he be able to rally what remains of the Zerg race in the tournament to push through to the semi-finals? Or will The Swarm's presence in the NSSL be snuffed out of existence?
Clash of Champions
Life versus Dear will not be a David and Goliath story. Both players have won championship titles in the past (albeit one has done so many more times than the other). This match may arguably be the most interesting one in the tournament thus far, after Maru versus Leenock, because of both players' champion statuses. However, it has been about 2 years since Dear has won his last finals and hasn't quite found his way into winning another. Life finds himself the lone Zerg left in a tournament where many may expect him to perish, a situation that he is not unused to from Blizzcon 2014 and which might even make him stronger. Dear's track record so far in the NSSL has been a series of 2-0 shut-outs against the likes of GuMiho and MyuNgSiK, and a solid 3-1 defeat of Patience. This may bode well for Dear at first glance, but this also means that Dear has not squared off against a Zerg player in this tournament to measure his performance level against Life. Don't count him completely out though, as he once was a champion; Dear clearly does know how to play to win. Unfortunately Life, on the other hand, is a more recent multi-championship winner who has been playing only Protoss and Terran players throughout the NSSL. Life may have to worry about perishing in this tournament, but it will not be from his match with Dear. It would actually be more prudent of him to worry about Super, should he make it through his series with Dream into the Semi-Finals.
"No my Dear, you are the least of my worries at this point."
Potential Upstarts?
Speaking of Dream and Super, we can only judge them based on their performances recently. They do not have the history nor the consistency that Dear and Life have with their Starcraft pro careers, but everyone can start somewhere. While Dream's claim to fame comes from finishing 2nd at IEM Katowice in 2013, and Super's from winning the most weirdly named tournament in the world. Not being in the spotlight for as long as the other two players remaining players in the quarterfinals means they have had ample time to prepare without virtually any intel on themselves for their opponents to study. Unfortunately, they face each other, negating any advantage that this might give either of them. With Super's solid defeat of FanTaSy back in January when he was an unknown unknown, and consistent wins against Terrans since then, Super most likely has this one in the bag. However, counting out Dream at this point will be foolish. Defeating Maru in the group stage was no easy feat to accomplish.
Predictions: I predict that Life will easily defeat Dear 3-0. All of the players that Dear has faced up until this point in the NSSL have not even been close to the caliber of player that Life is. Predicting Super versus Dream is slightly more difficult. Although Dream found it within himself to defeat Maru, once, it does not speak to his abilities in TvP. I find myself much more confident in the PvT abilities of Super recently, so I must give the victory to him.
Dear 0-3 Life Dream 1-3 Super Life and Super advance to the Semifinals.
On February 26 2015 05:22 Elentos wrote: So if I follow the current trends of TL predictions correctly... you might have just cursed someone.
If I follow the current trends of Life play correctly... he wins SSL without droping any maps in the RO8.
I mean, Dear did take a map off of him in Proleague, so I wouldn't go all-in on that bet, but I think Life advancing is a safe bet. (safer than Rain in his GSL group )
If you click on the pic on the front page it leads to Day 1's recap instead of this preview, just sayin' Also it's time to see if Brindled has the skill to be a true TL writer. Given the level of Life I'll accept it if only the Dream vs Super prediction is incorrect.
With Life being in a new team which contains Stats as a practice partner, I'd say Dear should go down pretty convincingly. I wonder if he plays quite cheekily, so Dear could have got his chances, or wether he has developed his macro skills more over the past weeks. Dream did not show real development in his gsl group with using old builds for tvz, but damn, beating Rain is something else then beating Super I'd say.
On February 26 2015 06:19 darr3n wrote: Dream did not show real development in his gsl group with using old builds for tvz, but damn, beating Rain is something else then beating Super I'd say.
I would have said that if I hadn't seen the games. Rain's play was abysmal (everything : decision making was off, micro was sloppy, engages were dreadful...). So yeah, I'll still favor Dream, but not because of his TvP victory of the day.
Not sure if I agree completely with the 3-0 score for Life vs Dear. Everyone seems to be underestimating Dear. Granted he hasn't been playing consistently, he's still in decent form. I could see it going to 3-2 either ways.
As for Dream vs Super. You'd think Dream will beat him 3-1 after getting knocked out last night. Unless he doesn't bounce back after the GSL elimination.
On February 26 2015 09:27 TheAnarchy wrote: When Dear was at his prime he was deadly at pvz. He outplayed soulkey many times. I just got the filling Dear will 3-0 Life
On February 26 2015 17:50 Motlu wrote: Lets hope Dear's victory vs Life in proleague is an indicator of how tonight will pan out. Except with better games of course.
I'm also interested to see whether Super will continue to play PvT the way he has been recently with a immortal/archon/chargelot composition.
On February 26 2015 17:36 stevethemacguy wrote: Where can we watch the NSSL? I don't see it in Lorning's thread.
You can find links by clicking the relevant event in the Event's section at the top right of the page.
Here's a link to the twitch stream:http://www.twitch.tv/sc2starleague
If he does, back Dream to beat him. Super went into his match with INnoVation in GSL using that as his only build... and got smashed in G2-4 after INno figured out what was going on. Dream will have more than enough of an idea of what to do against it. Plus, although I haven't actually seen too much of his TvP, it's statistically his best matchup
On February 26 2015 05:35 OtherWorld wrote: Also it's time to see if Brindled has the skill to be a true TL writer. Given the level of Life I'll accept it if only the Dream vs Super prediction is incorrect.
Eww no, Brindled is a grotty scrub at predictions without assistance.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/BOS7P1A.jpg)
