EPTWCS Season Two
Premier League
WCS Premier Grp B
TooDming, 
ForGG, 
StarDust, SenBrackets and standings on Liquipedia
Undercover Champions
WCS Premier continues with one of the harder groups in Ro32. All group B players come from far east, but this is hardly the only thing they have in common - they are all big figures in their respective regions and they have left a mark in the international scene. It would seem this is a perfect group to round up the weekend!
One can hardly talk about the Chinese Starcraft 2 scene without mentioning
TooDming. He is one of the best, if not the best, Chinese Zergs, a position he solidified with a 1st and a consecutive 2nd place at Golden Professional League. His international performances though are mostly limited to the WCS system. He first attracted attention of the fans outside of China with his Ro16 finish in the WCS America Season 1 in 2014. Since then, he has been a regular face in Premier League, a considerable feat given the fact that the American WCS was dominated by good Korean players.Toodming's performances in 2015 have been mostly limited to his home region. Though he participated in WCS Season 1, his run was cut short by Jim who knocked him out of the Challenger League in a very back-and-forth series. Toodming bounced back in Season 2, where he was pitted against Xigua. This time, however, he managed to get the upper hand, beating the Watermelon Zerg 3 – 2. The group he was drawn into is indeed tough, but Toodming has shown us in the past that he is a clever player and is able to adapt to his opponents, so counting him out too early would be a mistake.
After joining Millenium,
ForGG left his home country and settled himself in Europe. There he was willing to embrace new culture and way of life, all with one goal in mind: to further his SC2 progaming career. The move seemed to pay off as ForGG had many high place finishes at international tournaments since his transfer. However, ForGG did not cross half the world to simply show good results – he wanted to dominate and become a champion. The title eluded him till last year's DreamHack Winter, when he could finally lift the trophy after beating Life, still fresh from his victory at Blizzcon. However, ForGG has to this day not been able to conquer the very top in WCS. He reached Ro8 several times, but was never able to break past it. The story repeated itself in Season 1, when, much to his chagrin, ForGG was stopped by Polt, the eventual champion.ForGG is especially known and feared for his prowess in TvT. Though his group does not feature another Terran, he is still a favorite to advance. Apart from his overall good play in other matchups, the statistics themselves speak in his favor. The last time ForGG lost to a foreign player was during WCS Europe Season 2 in 2014 where he was beaten by Vortix. As for StarDust, the other Korean in his group, ForGG holds a dominant record against him of 5 wins to 1 loss in matches.
Though being a part of the scene since 2011-2012 hybrid Proleague Season,
StarDust's career in Starcraft 2 truly exploded with his DreamHack Summer win in 2013. There he faced Jaedong in the finals, who was at the peak of his SC2 form, and beat him with his array of cheeses and all-ins, including his signature immortal all-in with +1 attack. Hence, the Korean Protoss gained the nickname CheeseDust, partly to honor his very effective playstyle and partly to mock his aggressiveness. Since then, the king of cheese left a big mark in the international scene with his impressive results that culminated with a championship title in last year's WCS Europe Season 2.2015 was relatively quiet for StarDust till now, as we have not seen him participate in many tournaments. But even those scarce performances have left us with a bitter aftertaste. Due to the changes to the WCS system, StarDust had to requalify for Season 2. He eventually succeeded in securing a spot in Challenger League, but the journey was far from pleasant. He was knocked out once against Warchief and once against Drunkenboi, two NA players that are, at least on paper, far inferior to him skill-wise. Even Challenger did not go smoothly, as he barely edged out against HuK with a 3 – 2 score. Placed in a relatively tough Ro32 group, StarDust will need to step it up, if he ever hopes to advance.
In a conversation regarding best foreign players, names like Stephano, Naniwa and Scarlett would definitely appear. Accompanying those would also be Snute and Bunny, two players that are currently considered to be at the head of the foreign caravan. There is a great chance though, that the name of the last foreigner to claim a Premier tournament in Starcraft 2 would be forgotten.
Sen has a prolific career behind him and he can boast with some good results in international tournaments, the most impressive being his 1st place at Taiwan eSports Open last summer where he went toe to toe with the likes of Bomber and Hyun. Despite his results and his near-god status in the Taiwanese scene though, Sen has never really been lauded as a foreign hope. One of the reasons may be that for every impressive win he mustered, there is a performance we would like to forget. A good example would be his WCS Season 1 appearance, where he was knocked out in the last place after two very quick series - one against ForGG, where he crumbled before ForGG's hellbat push, and other against Puck.Fate put Sen in the group with ForGG once more and maybe this is both the time for revenge and to prove his worth. But this time, the Korean Terran is only a part of his worries, as he has two pass to other dangerous players if he hopes to advance.
Overall thoughts and Prediction:
ForGG should be a clear favorite to win this group and advance in first place. It should not be a surprise, however, if second place is claimed by any of the remaining players. I still give StarDust an edge, but since he has not yet shown his last year's form in 2015, Toodming or Sen may make an upset and knock the Korean out of the tournament prematurely.
Toodming < StarDust
ForGG > Sen
Toodming > Sen
StarDust < ForGG
StarDust > Toodming
ForGG and StarDust advance.
