EPTWCS Season Two
Premier League
WCS Premier Group D
iAsonu, 
Xenocider, 
Harstem, NXZBrackets and standings on Liquipedia
WCS Premier Group D
This weekend of WCS concludes with one of the weaker groups. Although three of the players facing off have shown a reasonable amount of potential in the past, no particularly inspiring runs have been made and none are forecasted. However, the relative weakness of this group means that a first place finish isn’t too difficult and could still lead to greater things in the offline portion of the tournament, while a lackluster performance would be even more of an uninspiring and early end to the tournament.
Rather than focusing on WCS,
iAsonu has instead spent his time usurping Jim and establishing himself as the current top player in China. Starting in early 2015, he has defeated every single player from his own country with only a few close calls against XY and Jim in last season’s WCS Challenger and the semifinals of the GPL Premier League, which he won. In particular, his ZvZ has been exceptional with easy victories against TooDming and XiGua, China’s best, and only a single loss in 2015 to Hydra. Unlike his predecessor, however, iAsonu’s failed to successfully take on Koreans or stronger foreigners, even in Chinese tournaments. While his overall record is quite good, it’s reduced to a poor 52-64 in HotS against non-Chinese players. Most of those games were only against neighboring countries or players decent enough to visit China, but it casts a dim outlook on his performance in later rounds of WCS. However, the notable lack of foreign stars in this first group makes his advancement in this group feasible, even with just one other Zerg.Two years ago, a young player named
Xenocider joined EG shortly after qualifying for the very first season of WCS in its current form. The move was an unusual for the team, as they had a reputation for picking up well known and accomplished players instead of those preparing to steal the spotlight for the first time. However, although the newly-EG Terran dropped out of WCS in the following season, he did make short work of IEF, notably defeating Ret and Welmu to take first place. This victory was a good starting point for Xenocider to make himself noticed, but nothing came of it and after some months he became mostly forgotten. Except for a single challenger run in 2014, ending with a 3-0 loss to HerO, it wasn’t until 2015 that Xenocider returned to WCS. Although he fell in Challenger again last season, this time to viOLet, he managed to qualify for Premier League just two years late with a victory against puCK. The difficulty of his challenger matches against approximately equal caliber opponents suggests that his group will be a challenge but not impossible.2014 was a promising year for the third player in this group,
Harstem. Two Ro16 spots, earned with victories over players such as Bunny and a relatively on-form jjakji, suggested that he would be able to take on a future WCS with fewer Koreans. The promise of a year of Harstem was renewed at the start of 2015, but a rocky start pushed this dream further and further away. Even qualifying for the year’s first season of WCS proved to be difficult, as he needed six of the seven available qualifiers to earn a challenger spot, and lost to multiple players such as GoOdy and Complain that didn’t even deserve a Premier spot. His opponent, Serral, demonstrated the gap between a player like Harstem and a clearly Premier-level competitor as he crushed him 3-0 in games that didn’t look particularly close or well-played by the Dutch Protoss. Unfortunately for Harstem, he had just as much difficulty getting through this season’s qualifiers as he took the very last spot; however, he did manage to get revenge on Serral in the Challenger match, winning 3-1. Whether this is an indication in a renewal of form or a one-time thing is something that remains to be seen.NXZ is the player in this group with the least history and fewest stories to tell. As one of the players hailing from Australia, he had to beat nearly everyone else from the Oceanic region to make it there, but as just about every notable player from the area had already qualified, it was a bracket where the third placed player was 
Frustration. More impressive is his victory against PiG, one of the two Australian competitors normally capable of taking games and series off most WCS players. Even so, with every match of his being either local or online, mostly against other permanently-home players, he lacks a supplement to this surprise Premier League appearance. NXZ has never defeated anyone outside his own region, so taking on a group with even one seasoned veteran, let alone one containing three more experienced players, is a huge step up that he likely can’t take.Predictions
Although he’d be much worse off in another group, Harstem has one of the best chances of advancing from this group. Although none of his matchups have recently looked exceptional, the Dutch Protoss has held a positive win rate against Zergs that are greater than either one in this group, particularly Serral. Additionally, neither iAsonu nor NXZ have looked particularly great in ZvP, with the former having the most trouble against the top Chinese Protosses. Xenocider has a chance at stealing first place out of the four, especially after reasonable results against most local Protosses, but if he doesn’t, the EG Terran will likely have to defeat iAsonu at least once in a matchup where neither player is comfortable with the style or race of their opponent. NXZ, although he avoided all of the big names in WCS, will unfortunately walk away with nothing more than Premier competition experience under his belt, a check and a challenger invite for next season.
iAsonu > Xenocider
Harstem > NXZ
Xenocider > NXZ
iAsonu < Harstem
Xenocider > iAsonu
Harstem and Xenocider advance!
