WCS Season Two
Premier League
WCS Premier Group E
Lilbow,
Hydra,
Snute,
KelazhurBrackets and standings on
Liquipediaby
DestructiconGroup E features two zerg powerhouses up against the two players that will be looking to upset them.
First off we have the rapidly rising French player,
Lilbow, who continued his streak of good 2015 results by securing his spot in WCS RO32 and getting a respectable RO16 at Dreamhack Tours, a run which included a kill against HyuN along the way. Unfortunately for him, he gets one of the toughest groups imaginable, including last season's finalist Hydra as well as the always dependable Snute. While Lilbow does statistically have a 72% win rate against Zergs including HyuN, which might give him hope, Hydra is on an entirely different level. Still, Lilbow has proven that he can prepare well enough for a BO5 at various points in WCS, and if he can translate that same preparation into the group stage he does have a decent shot against everyone else in the group.
Post-WCS final
Hydra's results have mostly been positive. Yes, Polt did successfully knock the wind out of his sails, and it showed by Hydra dropping the occasional game or series to foreigners in online cups. Overall though, he's still the same beast as he was last season. He had a fantastic showing at Gfinity's main event, defeating Symbol, San, sOs and Jaedong before falling victim to Solar, and he also had a decent run at Dreamhack Tours before being knocked out by TRUE. Overall, his ZvZ has looked weaker than it has been in previous months, but only against Korean Zergs. Meanwhile, his ZvP in particular looks frightening now and his ZvT is overpowering. If Hydra plays his cards right and doesn't allow himself to be blindsided, he should make it out without any huge obstacles.
The loss to Bunny last WCS doesn't seem to have phased
Snute too much, and he has rebounded nicely in the following weeks, sweeping several show matches and online cups in addition to defeating several Koreans in the Gfinity Summer Masters 1. While his Dreamhack Tours run was unfortunately cut short in the RO16 by Harstem, he did re-qualify rather easily for WCS Season 2 and he has had one of the most impressive months of all the players here. Snute should be a heavy favorite to make it out at least in second place, but he's strangely inconsistent in one of the worst ways possible. He has brilliant showings where he can go toe to toe with the best Korean has to offer, but he can immediately turn around and lose to a foreigner he shouldn't. No matter what, Snute can't let his guard down, not even when it comes to his foreigner opponents.
Kelazhur is making a case for himself as the best South American player. After his debut at IEM Sao Paulo, where he managed to make it to the second stage, he unfortunately followed up with a long and rocky period devoid of any further international results. Without a doubt, Kelazhur had used this time away from the limelight to train extensively, and after many months of toil it finally paid off with his qualification for WCS Premier with a 3-0 victory against CatZ. Kelazhur then also had a great showing in the group stage, defeating TLO in the first series and putting up a good fight against Polt before falling 2-1 to him and 2-1 in the rematch against TLO. Even though his worst matchup is TvT with a dismal 39% win rate, fortune doesn't seem to smile on him, for even as he's dodged terrans he still placed in a group with 3 very strong players. While he was able to upset TLO last season, this result alone doesn't seem as if it will be enough in the long run to advance from the group.
PredictionsLilbow > Kelazhur
Hydra > Snute
Hydra > Lilbow
Kelazhur <
SnuteSnute > Lilbow
Hydra and Snute advance!