The Invisible Star

Of the many justifications for the WCS system revamp, one of the most pressing claims has been the development of talent and growth of the foreign scene. If you look at the list of eight WCS Blizzcon qualifiers for this year, that might seem strange. Two are Koreans with a rich history in the game (viOLet and TRUE), which could have been boosted to four prior to Polt and Hydra’s forfeits. Two are stalwart EU zergs in Snute and Nerchio, while the protoss trio of Neeb, PtitDrogo and ShoWTimE have been tipped for success for years. Rather, the poster child of the new philosophy has been Elazer.

In 2014, Elazer was a nobody. He lost 1-4 to Tefel at Dreamhack Valencia, his only offline appearance outside of Poland, dropping out in the second group stage. But that was a mere blip on his sheet. Elazer played over a thousand maps online that year; despite being invisible to all but the most dedicated watchers, he kept on. He played day after day, tournament after tournament, in spite of no reward being in sight. Even when the 2015 WCS Season was announced, it took a tremendous amount of effort to qualify the tournament. After three different sets of brackets, Elazer found an opening against SortOf and Kas to reach Challenger. It was then that he got his first vague glimpse at glory, and subsequently he realized how hard it would be to obtain. In Challenger his opponent was ShoWTimE, a more promising rookie who held an impressive online record against him, and whose top four finish in the previous WCS Season was far beyond Elazer’s wildest expectations.

None of that mattered. When it came time to play Elazer looked past that. He looked past the unlikely nature of an upset, fought through the nerves, and performed like a man without fear. The result was a clinic on solid macro play, combined with just enough cleverness to bring him past the finish line. He made ShoWTimE look like a rookie brought low by big game nerves, even though by all means that was Elazer's place going into the series. Elazer had beaten his Goliath, and his 3-1 win guaranteed him his first spot in WCS Premier. One of the greatest difficulties of being a pro is knowing that all the fans and haters will never quite get it. They aren't privy to the countless hours of practice, the slow increments of improvement that register as small personal victories, the uncountable moments of disappointment that occur off-camera. All of those wasted hours were proved meaningful in this one series, but Elazer wasn't done.

For the rest of the year he remained a fringe player; a player of sharp highs and fierce lows, shown best when he followed up a series loss to Hitman with a victory over Hydra, and a close defeat to Polt. He might not have found a tournament victory, or even a particularly deep run, but he turned some heads. In response to this failure Elazer tried harder. He logged another 700-odd maps that year, pushing harder than many of his peers as Legacy of the Void—and a greater opportunity in the form of the 2016 WCS—loomed around the corner.

Before this year, Elazer was an inconsequential part of the StarCraft scene. Yet somehow he ends the year at BlizzCon, while dozens of more famous and accomplished competitors missed out. How did he defy the odds? So far there is no clear answer. Perhaps it took this long for his innate talent to mature. Maybe the hard work finally paid off, and the nine hundred maps he's played in 2016 stand as testament to his improvement. Maybe this iteration of the game rewarded his approach to the game more than Heart of the Swarm did. Whatever the catalyst was, Elazer is the living embodiment of the WCS system. He is a player who proved that dark horses can win, surviving the critical moments and moving up the hierarchy in the process. In 2014, Elazer was an online warrior; in 2015, Elazer was an offline dark horse good for an upset or two. In 2016, he's a Blizzcon participant.

The pressing question is, can he actually do anything at Blizzcon? Throughout his career, Elazer has done well against Polt and Hydra: last year, he showed that he could hang with them on a good day during the WCS group stage. Still there remains a gaping divide between the emigrants and those who stayed at home, a difference he will only experience when the fall breeze brings him to Anaheim. It's highly likely that Elazer is out of his league. Besides qualifying for BlizzCon he hasn't made any big impression this year. He has no major upsets to his credit and he has never appeared in a finals, let alone won a championship. Maybe, like so many times before, he has lacked the opportunity. Before that series against ShoWTimE, he was a player who never knew the pressure of playing for something. The pressure of having all of those years of practice on your back going into a series can be debilitating; knowing that if you lose, they're for naught. The Elazer of today is wiser and stronger. He's improved alongside his peers; but the most impressive part is that he's surpassed them.

Of all the Western players going into BlizzCon, Elazer has arguably the strongest online form. In the past couple of months, he's won a Corsair Cup over Nerchio and aLive, eliminated Polt from SGL 4, 3-0'd Nerchio and ShoWTimE at various stages of WESG, and most recently crushed Snute 3-0 at Wardi Open. These aren't nobodies anymore. These are no longer meaningless ladder sessions or fortunate victories unwatched online events. Elazer is a star. He's made it to the biggest tournament of the year—and more importantly, he's made it while looking like he belongs here. The BlizzCon stage is just another inevitable step for him. It's also the biggest stage he'll ever get; there is no greater time to shed one's weakness and transcend expectations than at Anaheim while everyone is watching.

The sweetest thing is, he could lose. Perhaps it's inevitable. He's facing players who have played this game longer, who have more experience, who have done greater things. By all comparisons Elazer is a mouse surrounded by ravenous cats. One could easily dismiss him as easy prey, a stepping stone for someone who actually deserves to be there—just like he should've been an pushover during ShoWTimE's journey to a successful 2015. In 2016 Elazer has been the Invisible Star, a player who has risen faster and harder than most expected, yet not far enough to straddle the worldwide divide like Neeb has so memorably done. He isn't a game-defining prodigy, but neither is he a nobody. At Blizzcon, Elazer is the greatest dark horse of all. He will either burn so brightly you can no longer ignore him, or he will be blotted out.