NationWars IV - Group Stages

In December 2016 Norway and the United States of America were able to secure the first tickets into the Nation Wars IV Playoffs for themselves, eliminating Ukraine and Australia in the process. Both victorious teams relied heavily on their ace players to claim these wins however, already setting the stage for lucrative snipe attempts by their next opponents.

For now, though, Group Germany is next in the program. The Germans had a rather easy way into the group stage with ShoWTimE going on a quick hiking tour in the mountains of Switzerland to all kill the southern neighbours without much of a sweat. Their next opponents in Finland will be tougher though. The Northern Europeans soundly defeated Chile in their qualifier match, not even needing to use their ace player Serral in the process.

In the second match of the evening the Netherlands—having perhaps the easiest road to qualification, as their opponents gave up before the match—will meet Taiwan. The Taiwanese qualified over Japan showing a solid performance, but the Europeans surely will prove to be a much tougher challenge.

Germany vs Finland

Team Germany: ShoWTimE | TLO | HeRoMaRinE
Team Finland: Welmu | Serral | ZhuGeLiang

Germany never was a pushover nation in StarCraft 2 with several big names coming out of the country, but the team assembled right now might be the strongest one in the country’s SC2-history. Regarded as the best European Protoss player, ShoWTimE showed his merit in 2016 with numeral great achievements and sent a strong message to Germany’s opponents by quickly all killing the Swiss in the qualifier—neutrality doesn’t work out all too well in StarCraft 2.

Marching alongside ShoWTimE are TLO, a veteran of German national teams and certified creative god, and young HeRoMaRinE, the record champion of ESL Pro Series/ESL Meisterschaft in StarCraft 2. With such a line-up Germany has an enormous amount of flexibility and can adapt to any opponent, while still having the sheer star power necessary to overcome many teams with brute force. Germany oftentimes couldn’t fulfil the high expectations set by domestic fans for such international competitions, but if any line-up can finally bring a great placement back home, it’s this one.

Of course, Finland stands in the way of this dream, and it’s no small obstacle: The Fins field a dangerous team with veteran Protoss Welmu, who has often surprised superior opponents with his prowess in the past, the versatile ZhuGeLiang, ever striving to match his namesake in strategic thinking, and the ace Serral, Finlands young superstar.

ShoWTimE has already expressed on Twitter that Team Germany expects a hard fought match against Finland with a strong performing Serral, so the Germans surely won’t underestimate their opponents and act carefully. Indeed, with people like TLO and HeRoMaRinE involved, we can probably expect some special build prepared to take out the Zerg player and break Finland’s greatest asset. Things can turn around pretty fast in the all kill format—and the addition of the revive-option adds even more importance to star power—but both countries are equipped with equally strong aces. Seeing as Germany does have the better and more versatile roster over all, they are slight favourites to win—and start the march to Paris. We come in peace to play StarCraft this time, we swear!

Netherlands vs Taiwan

Team Netherlands: Harstem | uThermal | Optimus
Team Taiwan: Has | Nice | Cell

Since the Netherlands got a walk-over against Czechia we don’t know how exactly their composition plays out, but we can certainly say that a very solid team has been assembled: Harstem is one of the finest European Protoss players, uThermal has probably been the best EU Terran in 2016 and Optimus has been a very solid player competing in the top ranks of the ladder for some time now. On paper, such a line-up should do very well.

Practically they do face Taiwan though, and this means meeting Has in battle. Everyone knows what this guy is capable off, that he can simply ignore the laws of physics and StarCraft, bending every force known to mankind with his sheer willpower to do whatever comes to his mind at the time. Sometimes he just rolls over and dies, of course—it’s either hit or miss with him.

For that case Has did bring some good back-up, though. Nice took two maps against Japan, finishing the Japanese off and securing Taiwan’s qualification. And Cell is the ominous Zerg player, who eliminated Maru from the IEM Gyeonggi qualifier not so long ago, which should ring every alarm bell in the heads of uThermal and Optimus.

Be that as it may: The Netherlands field a solid team, while we have to put a bit of a question mark behind the Taiwanese line-up. Make no mistake: The Asians are the underdogs here, because they lack the consistency the Dutch have, and even though Has possesses a certain kind of star power, it’s not the power you’d really want going into an all kill match. The stupid gun only has so many charges, and the Dutch line-up is sturdy enough to take some hits.

Prediction

Overall the upper bracket of the group looks stronger than the lower bracket. Germany packs more punch than any of the other teams and is the only country that can field every race, giving them much more adaptability. An in-form Serral should bring Finland to second place, but if the Zerg can’t compete in top manner, the Netherlands might actually be able to pull through. It’s going to be hard to advance for Taiwan, but of course you never know what can happen with Has involved.

Germany and Finland to advance!