WCS Season Two
Premier League

WCS Premier Group G
MaNa, iaguz, MaSa, FireCake


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by Shtanjel



The Ro32 of WCS is slowly coming to a close. The penultimate group does not feature a Korean player; instead we have four talented foreigners that will compete for two of the last four remaining Ro16 spots.

In the eyes of the community, some players grow to become mascots of their teams due to their long tenures on the roster and the results they have produced in that time. The most obvious example here would be MarineKing, who became practically synonymous with Prime, to the extent that even during the recent DreamHack he was labeled MKP by the commentators. If we had to pick one example for the foreign scene though, MaNa would perfectly fit the bill. He played for Mousesports since his transition from Brood War and it was in this period he achieved his greatest successes, including DreamHack Summer championship title, his 2nd place at DreamHack Winter and 3rd place at IEM Cologne - to name only the most prominent ones. Despite good results in WCS, he went through two difficult seasons at the end of 2013, when he was knocked out in Challenger already, and in 2014, when he was entirely unable to qualify for WCS. Forced to look to new venues of improvement to maintain relevance, he found a new home on Team Liquid. In the previous season, MaNa showed that his old self is still lurking somewhere as he beat viOLet and Bunny in his Ro32 group in order to advance in first place. Advancing from this group should prove relatively painless, but if he hopes to reclaim his old status again he must finally break past his Ro16 finishes.

When asked about a French player, the first thing to cross a Starcraft 2 fan's mind would be Stephano. Hardly a wonder, given his dominance on the foreign scene and the fact that he could go up against the best Korean players in an even fight on his best days. Though Stephano took a step back from professional Starcraft, his legacy lived on with his Zerg heir apparent: FireCake. However, the French Zerg player was mostly associated with his predecessor because of his playstyle, and less so on account of his results. Before the SH redesign, FireCake was an avid user of swarm hosts in both vP and vT matchups and one of the most prolific turtle players in the scene (amusingly, alongside Mana). But now, though some of the foreign Zergs still try to utilize them, it seems the French Zerg has completely discarded his past trademark unit. After a Ro16 finish in Season 1, his best result in WCS system yet, FireCake made short work of Zanster in the Challenger League to advance to Premier. In his Ro32 group, his biggest hurdle will probably be MaNa, with whom he has developed a small rivalry. As the two have faced each other at every major tournament lately, they have become well-acquainted with one another. The last time the two met, at DreamHack Tours, MaNa got the upper hand and knocked the Zerg out of the tournament. Without his favorite toy, FireCake went for a ling/hydra style to combat the Protoss which, ultimately, did not pay off for him. With his WCS tournament life on the line, FireCake must remedy his weaknesses in order to advance.

The current season of WCS does not look too promising for Canadian players. Scarlett's form is nowhere near its 2013 peak, with her inability to qualify for WCS persisting. HuK had quite a tough Challenger match where he went up against StarDust and narrowly lost 3 – 2. And while Kane looked like he could replicate his good run in Season 1, but was cut short in Ro32. As it stands, the last player to carry the Canadian flag is MaSa. His first prominent steps into competitive Starcraft 2 came in 2014 when he managed to break into the Premier League, where he reached Ro32. However, in the following seasons, he was unable to improve on his initial results, and a string of tough matches kept him in Challenger. Both times, he fell against Zerg players – first he got clean-swept by Slam, while in the last season he was knocked out by his teammate and eventual finalist Hydra. After two unfortunate seasons, MaSa is back in the Premier League. After confidently dealing with Astrea by utilizing doom drops to spread the Protoss thin in a manner rather similar to that which we have seen from Polt many times, MaSa made his way into Group G. Going into a non-Korean group, this is MaSa’s best chance to finally make his Ro16 debut.

His teammate from ROOT Gaming has found himself in a similar position. With NXZ already out of the tournament, it is now up to iaguz to defend the honor of the Land Down Under. The Gimli Terran's dislike for Protoss race has become somewhat infamous, but it seems that the more he hates them, the more likely he is to come face-to-face with the warriors of Aiur. Fortunately, iaguz has shown that he is more than capable of dealing with them, upsetting his Ro32 group in Season 3 of WCS America 2014 by beating Jim and Alicia. That said, his last Ro32 performance -- where he ended up in a group with three other Protosses -- did not go so smoothly. Although he dismantled MacSed in his first match, he was defeated by Welmu's two-base play in the winner's match and barely lost to the Chinese Protoss in their rematch. iaguz's first opponent of the night is MaNa, whom he could upset and make the group that more interesting.

Overall thoughts and prediction

I feel that the result of this group hinges mostly on FireCake's preparation. If he can prepare well for this group and find a suitable playstyle that can replace mass swarmhosts, he is well on the way to advance together with MaNa. However, the players are much more even skill-wise this time around, so the two Terrans could definitely usurp one of the Ro16 spots.

MaNa > iaguz
MaSa < FireCake
iaguz > MaSa
MaNa > FireCake
FireCake > iaguz

MaNa and FireCake advance!

Writers: Shtanjel
Editors: Jer99, Zealously
Graphics: v1.
Stats: Aligulac