WCS Season Two
Challenger League

WCS EU Premier Grp A
Jim, Bunny, Kane, Petraeus

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by The_Templar
0m 0s

Expect the Unexpected

WCS Premier returns today with a potentially very exciting group. Given that zero(!) Koreans and multiple well-known and well-respected foreigners are featured, Group A represents exactly what most of us expected to see in WCS 2015, and perhaps also what many of us hoped the league would provide from the start. While the favorites are fairly clear, any two of these players do have a reasonable shot at advancing from the group, and it’s very possible that a playoffs contender could make an early exit.

Jim is the wild card of this group. As a Chinese star, he has historically won out against other players in his homeland to the point where he’s often considered the top player in China. He is a master of his own style, closely tied to the Chinese Protoss mentality yet also somewhat removed from the more abusive antics of his brethren. Even so, his skills were rarely enough to enable him to defeat Koreans. Meanwhile, outside Asia, something about Jim as a player always seems to be thrown off enough for him to lose to the average foreigner often enough (and in the rare event that he even meets one) to cast a poor image, a trend that was reflected in his early exit from last season’s WCS. While this pattern indicates that he might fail to advance, his recent matches have clouded his performance. Since he has been locked into China and Korea for most of 2015 with mixed results, in a tournament of unfamiliar players he might realistically land anywhere between the top 4 and an ignoble exit.


The group’s racial diversity will likely challenge last season’s top Canadian. After beating a path to the Ro16 by defeating an average quality selection of Terrans and Zergs including a 3-0 against qxc, Kane faced Has, his first Protoss of the tournament, in the opening match and struggled. After defeating him in a tricky (if you expected anything else of Has, you were and remain a fool) 2-1 series, however, Kane put on a display of masterclass ZvT against Bunny, and although Bunny played up to his usual expectations, Kane seemed to have almost no difficulty in the matchup. This impressive performance was cut short, unfortunately, by another Protoss: ShoWTimE. In a series that could only be described as a letdown in ZvP, Kane fell unceremoniously to the German Protoss and was promptly eliminated from contention. In this group, Kane’s first match is against a relatively quiet but potentially dangerous Protoss, and he will need to be on his guard before he can even focus on the second match, even though he is favored in this group.


Bunny, as the non-Korean with the best performance last season, is likely already looking beyond this group. Before he can advance, however, he must first defeat two out of the other three players, a requirement that shouldn’t prove too straining. The main story is his TvZ, which has been inconsistent throughout the mess of online tournaments he’s attended in the last few months. Few of these matches are offline or carry significant weight regarding Bunny’s actual performance, but he has been capably defeating everyone save Snute, Kane, and Koreans in the matchup. Against Protoss, Bunny has played far fewer matches, but his few recent series against Welmu, Has, MC, and Patience -- all of which were wins -- suggest that he could prove more than a match for Jim. Kane happens to be in this group, but it’s very likely that Bunny will either advance ahead of him, or pick up two wins elsewhere.


Rounding out the group is one of the weaker players of the four, Petraeus. As the only one in this group to qualify for Season 2, the New Zealand Zerg had to run through several gauntlets of Protoss players just to reach Challenger league, but he effortlessly 3-0’d MorroW to reach the Ro32. While Petraeus is by no means a bad player, his entire year thus far save WCS consists of scattered online tournaments and a quick elimination from Dreamhack Tours at the hands of Verdi and Heart. While not surprising, hardly worthy of a vote of confidence. Additionally, most of these online tournaments have pitted him against a mass of relatively insignificant players in the grand scheme of things. While the fact that none of these unknowns have beaten him is a positive point, his far less stellar win rate against WCS-level players add doubt to his chances in a group with at least two strong competitors. Petraeus has had his streaks, make no mistake, and could advance on the back of one such good evening, but he is fighting the uphill battle in this group.


Overall thoughts and Prediction:

Although Jim and Petraeus advanced comfortably from Challenger to Premier League, two of last season’s playoffs finishers in Bunny and Kane are likely to be more than a match for them. None of the players in this group are without experience, but the stronger players on paper also have better recent experiences at WCS, and have proven themselves against relatively strong players recently. Even so, if Bunny wins the likely head-to-head against Kane, it is possible that the latter could take an early exit.

Jim < Kane
Bunny > Petraeus
Kane < Bunny
Jim < Petraeus
Kane > Petraeus

Bunny and Kane advance.

Writers: The_Templar
Editors: Zealously
Graphics: v1.
Stats: Aligulac