Americas: Scarlett, Cham, MaSa, Probe, Neeb, puCK, Astrea, TIME
Group Stage #3 (Round of 8) will begin on March 23rd. All eight players will compete in a combined round-robin group, with the top six players advancing to the live playoffs. The playoffs will be held in a 'gauntlet' format (similar to the KeSPA Proleague playoffs), with the seeding determined by Group Stage #3 results.
Apart from Special, Kelazhur, Harstem bombing out and Neeb/Serral losing a map to Puck/Rail, nothing else was surprising, great games, looking forward to the Ro8
On February 19 2019 14:23 AzAlexZ wrote: Apart from Special, Kelazhur, Harstem bombing out and Neeb/Serral losing a map to Puck/Rail, nothing else was surprising, great games, looking forward to the Ro8
Astrea topping his group wasn't impressive? Im super stoked! edit: i guess kelazhur bombing out implies astrea's success, but its worth noting
On February 19 2019 14:23 AzAlexZ wrote: Apart from Special, Kelazhur, Harstem bombing out and Neeb/Serral losing a map to Puck/Rail, nothing else was surprising, great games, looking forward to the Ro8
Astrea topping his group wasn't impressive? Im super stoked! edit: i guess kelazhur bombing out implies astrea's success, but its worth noting
uThermal getting last place was also kinda surprising I would say.
On February 19 2019 14:23 AzAlexZ wrote: Apart from Special, Kelazhur, Harstem bombing out and Neeb/Serral losing a map to Puck/Rail, nothing else was surprising, great games, looking forward to the Ro8
Astrea topping his group wasn't impressive? Im super stoked! edit: i guess kelazhur bombing out implies astrea's success, but its worth noting
uThermal getting last place was also kinda surprising I would say.
Surprising, i dont know about that, but satisfying to be sure. In typical uThermal fashion he lost a close series to a good player so he lost his mind and blown out. He has the weakest mindset of any high caliber sc2 player of the current days, most BM too probably
showtime getting 2-0'd by dns was surprising to me, even if showtime came back and 2-0'd dns in the tiebreaker. makes his pvp look shaky, and he's in group with neeb in wesg
On February 19 2019 19:22 herwo wrote: showtime getting 2-0'd by dns was surprising to me, even if showtime came back and 2-0'd dns in the tiebreaker. makes his pvp look shaky, and he's in group with neeb in wesg
He lost a long PvP against Scarlett offracing, his PvP is shaky indeed even though it’s technically his best ladder match up.
I really followed SC2 for a lot of years now, but this is the most boring format. I can't even get behind the formats, how and when events happen and which ones are offline and online.. are there even offline WCS Winter?! It hurts when a game format gets destroyed because of complexity... WCS has been changing all around nearly yearly, but now they've brought it to a place where I'm not willing to get behind it anymore.
I would say Drogo and Heromarine go out in EU and Probe and Astrea in NA, maybe Time if the lag is bad, but a month is a long time. Curious about Puck level of play he could mess with the results and sneek in second or first I think
On February 19 2019 21:43 Nakajin wrote: I would say Drogo and Heromarine go out in EU and Probe and Astrea in NA, maybe Time if the lag is bad, but a month is a long time. Curious about Puck level of play he could mess with the results and sneek in second or first I think
Isn't it the third phase offline? Or just the playoffs? Not sure if Puck is this strong and I wouldn't count Astrea out.
On February 19 2019 21:43 Nakajin wrote: I would say Drogo and Heromarine go out in EU and Probe and Astrea in NA, maybe Time if the lag is bad, but a month is a long time. Curious about Puck level of play he could mess with the results and sneek in second or first I think
Isn't it the third phase offline? Or just the playoffs? Not sure if Puck is this strong and I wouldn't count Astrea out.
3rd phase is online I think. I feel like Astrea will have though match against everyone, maybe he could go out he's good enough but promising young player rarely do that well in Starcraft lather on. As for Puck, I would give him an edge over everyone except Scarlett and Neeb (hard match for him but still) and I could see something like he upset Neeb, Neeb beat Scarlett and it goes to map score difference and he manage to place higher then one or both of them.
i don't think they meant to, but you could tell some of the casters were mentally rolling their eyes at Astrea's success & strongly implying he's a patchtoss. congrats to Astrea! it should always be celebrated when players step up to another level and find more success!
Can anyone explain why Serral played exactly like he did versus Rail in the 3rd game? The male commentator has the same question, then female commentator is guessing it was because he saw it with zergling, but she was wrong. Been watching this very closely 10 times in a row now, something feels wrong - I really need to understand this. At 5:18 min into the game the commentators even show Serrals view (he has not scouted if 3rd Nexus has been build or not). At 4:53 min he starts roaching and defends perfectly to win the game. Dont missunderstand this - I`m a huge Serral fan, it just felt so wierd watching it, and even more wierd as I keep watching it over and over - really want to understand this.
On February 19 2019 21:43 Nakajin wrote: I would say Drogo and Heromarine go out in EU and Probe and Astrea in NA, maybe Time if the lag is bad, but a month is a long time. Curious about Puck level of play he could mess with the results and sneek in second or first I think
Isn't it the third phase offline? Or just the playoffs? Not sure if Puck is this strong and I wouldn't count Astrea out.
Third phase is still online, but playoffs are played offline.
On February 19 2019 20:10 africola wrote: I really followed SC2 for a lot of years now, but this is the most boring format. I can't even get behind the formats, how and when events happen and which ones are offline and online.. are there even offline WCS Winter?! It hurts when a game format gets destroyed because of complexity... WCS has been changing all around nearly yearly, but now they've brought it to a place where I'm not willing to get behind it anymore.
New format for this event looks complex but I kind of like this new format for third phase, because it is not prone to bracket luck. Basically third phase and playoffs should be though as same as previous ro8 bracket. They could of course have 6 player bracket after third group stage, but that would greatly reduce meaningfulness of placements and matches of third group stage. I also like this continuous WCS content for previous three weeks. The only down side of this format is that matches are played online, but I view GSL like weekly offline matches kind of utopian when players are spread all over the world. Offline matches with 64 players being flown from all over to a studio to play only two to six matches over three weeks is not sustainable. Still it is unfortunate that SC2 is not part of DH events like previously. But considering current news about Blizzard, WCS Winter is great start for the year.
Also other WCS Circuit events still have same format as last year. Regional Challengers with online open bracket qualifiers to ro16 group stage and ro8 brackets, that give seeds with travel compensations to ro32 group stage at the offline event. The actual offline events with two group stages of "open bracket" to seed last 16 players to ro32 group stage and finally ro16 single elimination bracket. So, only event that has some what new format is this. But I'm worried that later events being played in only two locations will affect open bracket participation and offline viewership badly. I would maybe like seeing more online qualifiers to offline events instead of these offline open brackets. Especially if we get another three weeks of continuous WCS action per event.
I would say it's probably is just a build Rail love to do and Serral probably did his homework, or maybe he wanted to cancel the 3rd of Rail with a roach push and it just happen it was a fake one. He also seen no robo units at the front nor any archon, maybe that's what tip him of, immortals would have been rallied at the 3rd and seen by the lings at the front. Can't say for sure, I don't know the zvp timing.
On February 19 2019 23:17 MurderU wrote: Can anyone explain why Serral played exactly like he did versus Rail in the 3rd game? https://youtu.be/8XOAbQlK4Ng?t=1474 The male commentator has the same question, then female commentator is guessing it was because he saw it with zergling, but she was wrong. Been watching this very closely 10 times in a row now, something feels wrong - I really need to understand this. At 5:18 min into the game the commentators even show Serrals view (he has not scouted if 3rd Nexus has been build or not). At 4:53 min he starts roaching and defends perfectly to win the game. Dont missunderstand this - I`m a huge Serral fan, it just felt so wierd watching it, and even more wierd as I keep watching it over and over - really want to understand this.
so first you say that zombie is wrong, then you state that you don't understand why, and ask for reasons as to why you are right? lol
On February 19 2019 23:29 Nakajin wrote: I would say it's probably is just a build Rail love to do and Serral probably did his homework, or maybe he wanted to cancel the 3rd of Rail with a roach push and it just happen it was a fake one. He also seen no robo units at the front nor any archon, maybe that's what tip him of, immortals would have been rallied at the 3rd and seen by the lings at the front. Can't say for sure, I don't know the zvp timing.
ZG said that she believed Rail showed the same all-in in his previous matches.
On February 20 2019 01:35 BaneRiders wrote: March 23rd? Wow that is a drawn out tournament. The poor players have to wait a long time beforer get paid...
I think it is because of IEM and WESG so it kind make a lot of sence
On February 19 2019 23:17 MurderU wrote: Can anyone explain why Serral played exactly like he did versus Rail in the 3rd game? https://youtu.be/8XOAbQlK4Ng?t=1474 The male commentator has the same question, then female commentator is guessing it was because he saw it with zergling, but she was wrong. Been watching this very closely 10 times in a row now, something feels wrong - I really need to understand this. At 5:18 min into the game the commentators even show Serrals view (he has not scouted if 3rd Nexus has been build or not). At 4:53 min he starts roaching and defends perfectly to win the game. Dont missunderstand this - I`m a huge Serral fan, it just felt so wierd watching it, and even more wierd as I keep watching it over and over - really want to understand this.
he scouted that there were no gases at the natural at 3:40 and no other tech besides stargate, so he probably assumed warp gate all-in
On February 19 2019 23:17 MurderU wrote: Can anyone explain why Serral played exactly like he did versus Rail in the 3rd game? https://youtu.be/8XOAbQlK4Ng?t=1474 The male commentator has the same question, then female commentator is guessing it was because he saw it with zergling, but she was wrong. Been watching this very closely 10 times in a row now, something feels wrong - I really need to understand this. At 5:18 min into the game the commentators even show Serrals view (he has not scouted if 3rd Nexus has been build or not). At 4:53 min he starts roaching and defends perfectly to win the game. Dont missunderstand this - I`m a huge Serral fan, it just felt so wierd watching it, and even more wierd as I keep watching it over and over - really want to understand this.
5:04 Serral spots warp prism moving out. At that point Serral had made 7 roaches and starts adding more.
On February 19 2019 23:17 MurderU wrote: Can anyone explain why Serral played exactly like he did versus Rail in the 3rd game? https://youtu.be/8XOAbQlK4Ng?t=1474 The male commentator has the same question, then female commentator is guessing it was because he saw it with zergling, but she was wrong. Been watching this very closely 10 times in a row now, something feels wrong - I really need to understand this. At 5:18 min into the game the commentators even show Serrals view (he has not scouted if 3rd Nexus has been build or not). At 4:53 min he starts roaching and defends perfectly to win the game. Dont missunderstand this - I`m a huge Serral fan, it just felt so wierd watching it, and even more wierd as I keep watching it over and over - really want to understand this.
5:04 Serral spots warp prism moving out. At that point Serral had made 7 roaches and starts adding more.
he starts making roaches before the prism is even finished...
On February 19 2019 23:17 MurderU wrote: Can anyone explain why Serral played exactly like he did versus Rail in the 3rd game? https://youtu.be/8XOAbQlK4Ng?t=1474 The male commentator has the same question, then female commentator is guessing it was because he saw it with zergling, but she was wrong. Been watching this very closely 10 times in a row now, something feels wrong - I really need to understand this. At 5:18 min into the game the commentators even show Serrals view (he has not scouted if 3rd Nexus has been build or not). At 4:53 min he starts roaching and defends perfectly to win the game. Dont missunderstand this - I`m a huge Serral fan, it just felt so wierd watching it, and even more wierd as I keep watching it over and over - really want to understand this.
5:04 Serral spots warp prism moving out. At that point Serral had made 7 roaches and starts adding more.
he starts making roaches before the prism is even finished...
Only now finished watching the games. Man, I feel there's so much SC suddenly going on. Soon there's going to be IEM, WESG, GSL Ro16, WCS Ro8...Good times
On February 19 2019 23:17 MurderU wrote: Can anyone explain why Serral played exactly like he did versus Rail in the 3rd game? At 4:53 min he starts roaching and defends perfectly to win the game.
Serral usually plays in 1 of 2 ways: -He builds round of lings at @28ish supply to mess with opponents 3. base, or if he sees 2 gate adept pressure(in that case no roach warren, and often times with overlord speed, because he is going to have that access gas cuz of no roaches),like in game #1 or -He plays his most standard thing(game #3), focus on droning, safety vs stargate(spores, queens), than safety roach warren at 36ish drones, so he can get 6-7 roaches at 41-44 drones(3 gasses, 2 base full mineral saturation, and maybe a few more)
On February 20 2019 06:41 herwo wrote: he starts making roaches before the prism is even finished...
Rail made mistake this game not making probes while he was controlling adept on the map. There was 4 probes less than usual at the time of overlord scout at the expansion, which means no crono was spent on nexi, implying that he is NOT gonna play macro. And no gasses were added at normal time.
Watch minimap for ling movement after 4. minute, scouting around for flying units . Serral didn't see 3. stargate unit, so he knew that money went elsewhere. He expected prism 45 seconds earlier. He probably thought it was earlier main gas to afford robo too, and probes cut for prism adept drop(that's why he didn't even scout 3. base, and his roaches were rallied to main and 3. mineral line). It was nice attempt by Rail to sell it by adding an earlier gate overlord could see(to force Serral into ling cycle, after which he would make more drones, if he had played without warren).But it further messed up his timing.
This was a total smashing because of Rails mistakes and inability to cause any damage with adepts he put all early chrono boost into, and kept all but scouting 1 at home. He invested 450-400 early game into stargate tech, that costed Serral 417 minerals at later time(killed scouting overlord, 1 drone and forced 2 spores). Oracle placed trap for 2 lings and phoenix wasn't used in the fight.
EPT
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