Honours were split on Day 2 between Korea and Poland as our final set of qualifiers was determined.
The discrepancy in quality between the four open brackets has already been noted by many, and Bracket 3 was undoubtedly the toughest of the lot. GuMiho surged to victory on one side of the bracket, swapping maps with jjakji in an entertainingly chaotic TvT series before hitting his opponent with a quick reaper rush. Meanwhile, one of the crowd favourites held up his end of the bargain too. Nerchio noted in his interview that he was perhaps a little lucky that Bunny had fallen to Impact at the previous stage, given his uncertainty in ZvT at the moment, but he certainly looked impressive in the mirror matchup. He held an early 12 pool with consummate ease, before sealing the deal with strong roach / ravager / infestor play on Cactus Valley to cement his place in the groups. Finally, jjakji bounced back from his loss to win out in the losers' bracket with one of the toughest runs we've seen so far—beating Bunny and Impact in addition to his win over Losira.
Bracket 4 was initially a far more predictable affair. Two Koreans were present, and two Koreans advanced, with Ryung and Patience rolling on to the next round. It wasn't entirely as simple as that though; Patience repeatedly took early damage from Guru, before stomping over him with funky mid-game attacks, while the scoreline for Ryung's 2-0 over PtitDrogo probably flatters him slightly. Methodical play from Ryung in game 1 devolved into a complete slug fest in game 2, where Ryung threw away a massive army advantage with split drops, before the 1-2 punch of ranged liberators and ghosts proved too much to handle.
The real story of Bracket 4 though came in the lower bracket, where a resurgent MaNa recovered from an ugly initial loss to Guru to force his way to a rematch in the final qualifying round. One of the most entertaining series of the day began with swarm hosts and ended with a failed baneling bust and double warp prism shenanigans, giving Team Liquid their third participant in the round of 24.
Join us on Thursday for the start of the Group Stages for IEM Katowice.
Nerchio has a super easy group, he has a good shot to advance. I think Snute, Neeb, and showtime all have an off chance to advance, but they will have to put on an epic display. If I had to put money on it I think Neeb has what it takes to overcome Stats in PvP.
On March 01 2017 10:25 SlammerIV wrote: Nerchio has a super easy group, he has a good shot to advance. I think Snute, Neeb, and showtime all have an off chance to advance, but they will have to put on an epic display. If I had to put money on it I think Neeb has what it takes to overcome Stats in PvP.
Considering he is more likely to make the larger number of adepts, you probably right.
On March 01 2017 10:21 ParksonVN wrote: The only group that might have a non-Korean make it out is group C. The foreigners in other groups are pretty much dead.
Regarding group A then Snute is probably doomed, with all the terrans in group B Neeb and Harstem don't have chance, but I think Showtime and Uthermal have a fair chance to advance there from the third place as Gumiho isn't way better then any of them.
2 Foreigners in the RO12 is fair prediction (Nerchio or Serral from group C, in this group they can both do it, and Showtime or Uthermal from group D).
BTW, I think Serral is underestimated, and may be he is quite happy with 3 protoss players in his group, even though he is a zerg player.
On March 01 2017 17:18 CUTtheCBC wrote: funny reading the comments desperately dreaming of a foreigner beating a korean
But it has already happened in the bracket?
I can bet with you that at least one foreigner will be ranked above one korean in one of the pools. It's not really a "dream"
EDIT: I thought all this year main events were not region locked. So this post is irrelevant. Don't pay attention to it. I just leave it to undertake my own mistakes .
It's not funny for me. If foreigners can beat a random korean in the qualifiers, they will never win an event this year, never ever. The shortening of the korean scene and the end of region lock lead to this situation with 15 Koreans and 9 foreigners qualified for the main event. Even for the top foreigners like Showtime and Nerchio, the best result will be to qualified to stage 2.
This new format will make foreigners earn less money in tournaments and gaining less apparence for sponsors. Only top foreigners will survive and it has already happened, lots of foreigners have already leaved SC2.
But people whining about the region lock on TL has what they wanted, a SSL bis.
Anyway, I'll try to enjoy this games before the whole scene collapse...
On March 01 2017 19:46 Clevername02 wrote: Obviously we all expect Neeb to beat Harstem, and honestly anyone who isn't extremely Korean biased to an absurd level would favor Neeb over Stats because of his insane PvP.
Neeb vs Stats is maybe 50-50. Stats is commonly seen as the best PvP player in Korea and won their last match against each other in Shoutcraft.
On March 01 2017 17:18 CUTtheCBC wrote: funny reading the comments desperately dreaming of a foreigner beating a korean
But it has already happened in the bracket?
I can bet with you that at least one foreigner will be ranked above one korean in one of the pools. It's not really a "dream"
It's not funny for me. If foreigners can beat a random korean in the qualifiers, they will never win an event this year, never ever. The shortening of the korean scene and the end of region lock lead to this situation with 15 Koreans and 9 foreigners qualified for the main event. Even for the top foreigners like Showtime and Nerchio, the best result will be to qualified to stage 2.
This new format will make foreigners earn less money in tournaments and gaining less apparence for sponsors. Only top foreigners will survive and it has already happened, lots of foreigners have already leaved SC2.
But people whining about the region lock on TL has what they wanted, a SSL bis.
Anyway, I'll try to enjoy this games before the whole scene collapse...
What end of the region lock? This is the only open global event of the year. All the WCS Circuit events/Dreamhacks will be region locked. You will only see TRUE and Violet there.
On March 01 2017 17:18 CUTtheCBC wrote: funny reading the comments desperately dreaming of a foreigner beating a korean
But it has already happened in the bracket?
I can bet with you that at least one foreigner will be ranked above one korean in one of the pools. It's not really a "dream"
It's not funny for me. If foreigners can beat a random korean in the qualifiers, they will never win an event this year, never ever. The shortening of the korean scene and the end of region lock lead to this situation with 15 Koreans and 9 foreigners qualified for the main event. Even for the top foreigners like Showtime and Nerchio, the best result will be to qualified to stage 2.
This new format will make foreigners earn less money in tournaments and gaining less apparence for sponsors. Only top foreigners will survive and it has already happened, lots of foreigners have already leaved SC2.
But people whining about the region lock on TL has what they wanted, a SSL bis.
Anyway, I'll try to enjoy this games before the whole scene collapse...
What end of the region lock? This is the only open global event of the year. All the WCS Circuit events/Dreamhacks will be region locked. You will only see TRUE and Violet there.
WHAT ? My mistake then. I'm very surprised. I really thought it was the end of region lock....
So if I understand correctly, the WCS points you win in this event are like bonus points for your region WCS standing ?
On March 01 2017 17:18 CUTtheCBC wrote: funny reading the comments desperately dreaming of a foreigner beating a korean
But it has already happened in the bracket?
I can bet with you that at least one foreigner will be ranked above one korean in one of the pools. It's not really a "dream"
It's not funny for me. If foreigners can beat a random korean in the qualifiers, they will never win an event this year, never ever. The shortening of the korean scene and the end of region lock lead to this situation with 15 Koreans and 9 foreigners qualified for the main event. Even for the top foreigners like Showtime and Nerchio, the best result will be to qualified to stage 2.
This new format will make foreigners earn less money in tournaments and gaining less apparence for sponsors. Only top foreigners will survive and it has already happened, lots of foreigners have already leaved SC2.
But people whining about the region lock on TL has what they wanted, a SSL bis.
Anyway, I'll try to enjoy this games before the whole scene collapse...
What end of the region lock? This is the only open global event of the year. All the WCS Circuit events/Dreamhacks will be region locked. You will only see TRUE and Violet there.
WHAT ? My mistake then. I'm very surprised. I really thought it was the end of region lock....
So if I understand correctly, the WCS points you win in this event are like bonus points for your region WCS standing ?
Pretty much, you earn points for your region. WCS Circuit contenders will earn WCS Circuit points and WCS Korea contenders will earn WCS Korea points.
On March 01 2017 17:18 CUTtheCBC wrote: funny reading the comments desperately dreaming of a foreigner beating a korean
But it has already happened in the bracket?
I can bet with you that at least one foreigner will be ranked above one korean in one of the pools. It's not really a "dream"
It's not funny for me. If foreigners can beat a random korean in the qualifiers, they will never win an event this year, never ever. The shortening of the korean scene and the end of region lock lead to this situation with 15 Koreans and 9 foreigners qualified for the main event. Even for the top foreigners like Showtime and Nerchio, the best result will be to qualified to stage 2.
This new format will make foreigners earn less money in tournaments and gaining less apparence for sponsors. Only top foreigners will survive and it has already happened, lots of foreigners have already leaved SC2.
But people whining about the region lock on TL has what they wanted, a SSL bis.
Anyway, I'll try to enjoy this games before the whole scene collapse...
What end of the region lock? This is the only open global event of the year. All the WCS Circuit events/Dreamhacks will be region locked. You will only see TRUE and Violet there.
WHAT ? My mistake then. I'm very surprised. I really thought it was the end of region lock....
So if I understand correctly, the WCS points you win in this event are like bonus points for your region WCS standing ?
Pretty much, you earn points for your region. WCS Circuit contenders will earn WCS Circuit points and WCS Korea contenders will earn WCS Korea points.
And if you win this tournament you're qualified for Blizzcon.
On March 01 2017 17:18 CUTtheCBC wrote: funny reading the comments desperately dreaming of a foreigner beating a korean
But it has already happened in the bracket?
I can bet with you that at least one foreigner will be ranked above one korean in one of the pools. It's not really a "dream"
It's not funny for me. If foreigners can beat a random korean in the qualifiers, they will never win an event this year, never ever. The shortening of the korean scene and the end of region lock lead to this situation with 15 Koreans and 9 foreigners qualified for the main event. Even for the top foreigners like Showtime and Nerchio, the best result will be to qualified to stage 2.
This new format will make foreigners earn less money in tournaments and gaining less apparence for sponsors. Only top foreigners will survive and it has already happened, lots of foreigners have already leaved SC2.
But people whining about the region lock on TL has what they wanted, a SSL bis.
Anyway, I'll try to enjoy this games before the whole scene collapse...
What end of the region lock? This is the only open global event of the year. All the WCS Circuit events/Dreamhacks will be region locked. You will only see TRUE and Violet there.
WHAT ? My mistake then. I'm very surprised. I really thought it was the end of region lock....
So if I understand correctly, the WCS points you win in this event are like bonus points for your region WCS standing ?
Pretty much, you earn points for your region. WCS Circuit contenders will earn WCS Circuit points and WCS Korea contenders will earn WCS Korea points.
And if you win this tournament you're qualified for Blizzcon.
On March 01 2017 19:46 Clevername02 wrote: Obviously we all expect Neeb to beat Harstem, and honestly anyone who isn't extremely Korean biased to an absurd level would favor Neeb over Stats because of his insane PvP.
Neeb vs Stats is maybe 50-50. Stats is commonly seen as the best PvP player in Korea and won their last match against each other in Shoutcraft.
That's an online game, and as we all know, online games mean absolutely nothing. Just kidding, but still, an online bo1 is worth even less than an online bo3, and Neeb beat Stats offline in a bo5.
Stats may be the best PvPer in Korea, but Neeb is arguably the best foreign PvPer, and he is probably one of the best PvPers in Korea as well.
Everything has changed a whole lot since last Kespa cup. Neeb beat Stats in Kespa cup doesn't mean he can beat Stats now, considering Stats's form recently.
There is a common sense in foreigner Starcraft: whenever a foreigner beats a Korean (in ab bo3 or bo5) , everyone starts to think that player in GSL level and overhype him. Even months later ppl still believe that, then that player got rekt by the Korean, and the overhyping comes to an end quickly. Lets see how long "Neeb's PvP god" will last.
There was I think TLO who complained about the lack of major tournaments for foreigners, and how important the few are. Does that mean the online cups are basically pocket money? Is it also a matter of appearing in front of a live audience regarding sponsors?
On March 02 2017 08:06 ParksonVN wrote: Everything has changed a whole lot since last Kespa cup. Neeb beat Stats in Kespa cup doesn't mean he can beat Stats now, considering Stats's form recently.
There is a common sense in foreigner Starcraft: whenever a foreigner beats a Korean (in ab bo3 or bo5) , everyone starts to think that player in GSL level and overhype him. Even months later ppl still believe that, then that player got rekt by the Korean, and the overhyping comes to an end quickly. Lets see how long "Neeb's PvP god" will last.
The thing is, he got that nickname not just from beating Koreans, but by beating nearly everyone. Since the release of LotV, Neeb has an 77% map winrate, and he's had very solid PvP results vs both Koreans and non-Koreans.
And it's not that a player wins one series, and people think he's GSL quality but that he wins multiple series against GSL-level opponents, which, in this case, Neeb did.
The number of Zergs that qualified for the group stage is worrying .. feel so helpless as Zerg at the moment. Please make some reasonable changes to help the Zerg race holistically.
EPT
GuMiho surged to victory on one side of the bracket, swapping maps with 
Impact at the previous stage, given his uncertainty in ZvT at the moment, but he certainly looked impressive in the mirror matchup. He held an early 12 pool with consummate ease, before sealing the deal with strong roach / ravager / infestor play on Cactus Valley to cement his place in the groups. Finally, jjakji bounced back from his loss to win out in the losers' bracket with one of the toughest runs we've seen so far—beating Bunny and Impact in addition to his win over Losira.
Patience rolling on to the next round. It wasn't entirely as simple as that though; Patience repeatedly took early damage from 
.
