With the Old Breed

With over 8000 online and offline tournament games played during his eight year career, no one quite embodies the words 'old school' like Nerchio. Few players have been as consistently good as Mr. Bloch—ever since he started playing in premiere events in 2011, he's earned himself three championships, five runner-ups finishes, three top-four finishes, and eighteen top-eight finishes. Oh, and of course, he's now headed into his third consecutive WCS Global Finals.

The Polish ironman may be at the twilight of his career as he prepares to contend for StarCraft II's greatest prize once more. Years ago, his perseverance was tested in Heart of the Swarm—an expansion that saw him deliver poor results and many vocal complaints. However, the cagey veteran was reinvigorated by Legacy of the Void, and he surged back with a championship run at DreamHack Valencia 2016. Despite a slight decline in 2017, Nerchio was still in fine form, and a finals run at WCS Austin highlighted another impressive year. In 2018, Nerchio's form has fallen even further, and one must wonder if time is finally taking its long overdue toll.

The tale of Nerchio's latest WCS campaign begins at the conclusion of the last. At the 2017 WCS Global Finals, Nerchio was quickly eliminated from the RO16 group stage after losing to eventual finalists soO and Rogue. It was a disappointing but understandable result—Rogue was on a scorching hot-streak headed into the Global Finals, while soO was renowned as one of Korea's ZvZ masters. While Nerchio's chances at the WCS Global Finals were grim from the start, his ability to bounce back in the 2018 season never seemed to be in doubt.

Mental fortitude is an essential quality for a progamer and—notwithstanding a 'few' frustrated outbursts—Nerchio seemed to have it in spades. While he had won three major titles in his career, he had fallen short dozens of other times along the way. And each time, he had been able to pick himself up, learn from his defeat, and come back for to take another shot.

Everything proceeded as expected during the European qualifier for WCS Leipzig, the first Circuit event of 2018. Nerchio took down Ziggy and ShoWTimE to advance from his group in first place, and then swept his nemesis Snute 3-0 in the quarterfinals. Nerchio was subsequently swept by Serral in the semifinals but it was of little concern at the time—he had already secured a seeded spot out of the brutally competitive European region. It looked like he was well on his way back to contending for Circuit titles.

At the Leipzig main event, Nerchio advanced from his RO32 group in second place (losing to HeRoMaRinE) and then brushed aside SortOf 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs (RO16). It was the start of another deep run for the experienced, well-prepared veteran—just as everyone expected. Then, on January 27th, Nerchio met Serral in the quarterfinals and things started to fall apart.

The first game set the tone for the series. Nerchio's zerglings got into Serral's base early, scouting a move up to lair tech. However, it was nothing but a fake-out from the Finn, and Nerchio bit hard at the bait. Roaches and zerglings were soon swarming at Nerchio's front door, and he was forced to tap out at just under seven minutes.

Game two saw a more typical macro game from the two Zerg players, with Nerchio opting to focus on roaches and hydras while Serral went for roaches and ravagers. Skirmishes erupted all over the map as the two players looked to outmaneuver the opponent, but it was Serral who consistently gained an advantage. After sufficiently whittling down Nerchio' forces, Serral went in for the finishing blow.

Nerchio changed things up in game three, seemingly catching Serral unprepared with quick mutalisks. However, Serral responded perfectly to the potential crisis by going on the offensive with a relentless series of counter-attacks, crippling Nerchio's economy and tying up his mutalisks on defense. In the end, Nerchio was unable to earn back his investment in spire tech. When Serral’s army of hydralisks moved across the map, there was simply no ground army to challenge it. Nerchio's meager handful of banelings failed to dent the hydralisk count and the mutas were quickly torn to shreds. Nerchio's WCS Leipzig run came to an end.

The loss itself should have been no great surprise—Nerchio had both inflicted and suffered plenty of one-sided ZvZ beatings during his career, and he had plenty to say about how unpredictable the Zerg mirror could be in LotV. In the eye of the progamer, it may very well have been one of those matches where one player won three, subtle rock-paper-scissor games in a row. But looking in from the outside, the match couldn't have been more symbolic: Serral, a phenomenal, next-generation talent, had utterly outplayed a wizened veteran in Nerchio. Unfortunately for Nerchio, the series wasn't just a quaint passing of the guard—it foreshadowed his year to come.

As summer set in, a similar story repeated itself in WCS Austin. Nerchio made it through the group stages and past the first round of the playoffs, but was again stopped in the quarterfinals by another rising Zerg pro in a 0-3 sweep. Only this time, he lost to Lambo, a much less heralded player than Serral. Nerchio appeared to earn a reprieve at WCS Valencia when he was pitted against Has in the quarterfinals, with the perennial RO16 player looking like easy pickings for any 'true' title contender. Yet, Nerchio ended up being one of many the foreign elite to be humbled by the eccentric Taiwanese Protoss, who was making 2018 his year to rise from side show act to main stage star. In three consecutive WCS tournaments, Nerchio had become a stepping-stone in someone else's ascent.

On the doorstep of the autumn, Nerchio put in his most disappointing performance of the year at WCS Montreal. This time, he didn't even make it to the playoffs—after slogging his way through the first two group stages, he was taken out by Scarlett and Harstem in the third stage (RO32). What made the result especially damning was that Nerchio had a Global Finals spot on the line. Coming in at #6 in the WCS Circuit Standings, he had needed every point possible to secure his spot. Yet, Nerchio stumbled when it mattered most and ended up having to leave his fate in the hands of others.

With the RO16 bracket drawn, Nerchio did the math. If the bracket progressed as it was 'supposed' to, with favorites carrying the day, he'd keep his Global Finals spot. But a few combinations of results would still see him drop to 9th place and out of BlizzCon contention.

Ironically, Nerchio would end up surviving his nerve-wracking ordeal thanks to the young Zerg stars who had surpassed him. Reynor took out uThermal in the quarterfinals, ending the Dutch Terran's chase. Then, in the semifinals, Serral defeated Lambo 3-2, guaranteeing that Nerchio would return to the Global Finals for the third year running.

This is the third year in a row that Nerchio is playing in the Global Finals but he enters with entirely different credentials. In 2016 he entered as the WCS Valencia champion. In 2017, he was the WCS Austin runner-up in a year where Neeb had claimed three titles. In 2018, Nerchio is a player who never made it past the quarterfinals and needed some luck to make it to the Global Finals at all.

One imagines that Nerchio will head to WCS 2018's grand finale with mixed emotions. Disappointed, for entering the Global Finals in his worst shape in three years—but proud, for actually making it to the Global Finals three years straight. Despondent, knowing that another group stage elimination is likely against Classic, Rogue, and SpeCial—but liberated, knowing that he has nothing to lose. Feeling his age, after suffering a year of Serral on the WCS Circuit. But, perhaps, also hopeful, after seeing Maru prove that year eight is not too late to play at your absolute best.