EPTChina Team Championship: Season 2
Week 3 Recap & Week 4 Preview
We've crossed the midway mark in China Team Championship Season 2 and we're starting to get a slight sense of the playoff picture. While TSG, Newbee, and Pixel 1 look to be near locks after starting 3-0, while Brave Star and Black Night are basically out of the race already. Everyone else? Their fates seem very much undecided. Perhaps it's no surprise then, that 
Maru will be making his first appearance for Jin Air this week as they look to lock-up a playoff spot.Group A, Week 3 recap: KaiZi fall, Newbee seize first place
by Ziggy![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/CTC/groupa_3.png)
Watch VOD
After a 2-0 start to the season, KaiZi Gaming ran into trouble after their star player INnoVation fell 0-2 to to Impact. Lao Paoer, coming in 1-1 after being upset by Invictus Gaming in the opening week and toughing out a win against Jin Air's star-studded roster in week two, seized the opportunity to snatch another important win.
Worth mentioning is Misaki's insistence on relying on gimmicky antics to secure points for KaiZi Gaming. I get it, at the end of the day, StarCraft is about winning, and Misaki generated yet another win with Drop-lord + Nydus tactics against Patience (Patience won a Nydus base-trade in game one). But predictable players tend to get figured out, and Misaki will have to prove he's exceptionally creative and devious to survive as this kind of sniper.
Watch VODs - (Match 1 - Match 2 - Match 3)
We've said that Rex is merely Jin Air Green Wings' league buy-in, but he actually made a positive contribution by scoring his first 2-0 in the CTC. After a rough 1-13 finish in the first season and a likewise worrying 0-4 start to season 2, Rex reigned supreme over BSG's Chinese representative Cyan with Rogue-esque Swarm Host play. Dream's third run-in with a Korean Protoss in the CTC once again ended in disaster, as Trap cemented JAGW's second win in the round-robin group stage. And for the third week in a row, BSG's only hope of picking up even a single map win lay in Hurricane, whose skill fluctuations in-between individual games of a given series still surprise me to this day.
Watch VOD
Newbee found themselves on the ropes as XiGua took down Scarlett in a 2-0 upset to begin the series, toppling the Canadian superstar in two surprisingly standard mid-game Roach on Roach bouts. While Coffee failed to close things out in the second match (series? set? I'm still struggling with the right nomenclature for this format, send help), he did manage to get a good result by tying his Bo2 against his far more illustrious countryman TIME. Luckily for Newbee, Dear stood firm as their ace in the hole. The former GSL Champion handily dispatched iAsonu, forcing an ace match on Acropolis. Facing off against XiGua, Dear brought out the rare PvZ Colossi (yes, plural) strategy to complete the comeback win for his team.
Group B, Week 3: Pixel 1 take the lead on points
by Ziggy![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/CTC/groupb_3.png)
Watch VOD
TSG and Chivo SC traded blows furious in another series that went all the way to an ace match. The initial three bouts went exactly as many would have predicted, with Koreans taking 2-0 victories over their Taiwanese opponents while the evenly matched soO and herO split their games.
herO and soO found themselves facing off for the third time in a 30 minute-long ace match on Acropolis, a scrappy-yet-amusing game with questionable decision-making from both sides. Perhaps it took herO longer than it should have, but in the end he hammered out a win. All in all, not the cherry on top I'd have hoped for.
Watch VODs - (Match 1 - Match 2 - Match 3 - Ace Match)
It's really hard to tell how good TRUE is at any given time as he keeps bouncing from one end of the skill spectrum to the other. It felt like we got the 'this is why you missed Code S' version of TRUE playing against TooDming. And while I wouldn't necessarily blame him for dropping a map in ZvZ, he really needs to do better in PSISTORM's remaining two games given their position in the rankings (a sneaky, 3rd place entry into the playoffs is still on the table).
Rising to the task of carrying PSISTORM on his shoulders, though, was GuMiho. The Towel Terran rather handily took care not only of SpeCial in the regular series, but Zest as well in the ACE match on Acropolis. As far as the Sakura-Zest match goes, I hope more people watch it so I won't feel so alone in having suffered that clown fiesta.
Watch VODs - (Match 1 - Match 2 - Match 3)
Pixel 1 float to the top of the rankings as Black Night sink to the bottom. The old codgers club featuring FanTaSy and PartinG completely outclassed the motley crew that are Black Night, ruining their chances of making the playoffs. While the closing Bo2 of the series was rather close, it was somewhat mediocre at best as well. There are still two matches to go this round-robin and I don't feel particularly good about Black Night's chances to even pick up a single win.
Weekly Spotlight
by TheOneAboveUWeekly MVP: PSISTORM.GuMiho
In a week with three ace matches alongside the usual upsets, choosing an MVP was difficult indeed. In the end, the honor goes to PSISTORM Gaming’s
GuMiho for winning three games against tough competition and keeping his team in the playoff race with their first victory of the season.The team league veteran was under heavy pressure to not lose a single map against OG.SpeCial after OG.TooDming stole against PSISTORM.TRUE, with PSISTORM.Sakura unlikely to do the same against PvP savant OG.Zest. GuMiho put in a marvelous ace performance: he kept his cool, beat SpeCial 2-0, and then took down opposing ace Zest the ace match to secure a win for PSISTORM. All hope is not yet lost for PSISTORM, though GuMiho will certainly need more help from his teammates to mount a playoff campaign.
Chinese Player Spotlight: LP.Jieshi
Team LP’s
Jieshi has been around since Heart of the Swarm, and briefly, he was one of China's more visible players on the international scene. He was able to qualify for WCS Premier in 2015, took second place to a young Serral at an IeSF event in Seoul, and was the best performing Chinese representative at World Cyber Arena 2016 (losing to ByuN in the semis). Unfortunately, Jieshi hasn't been able to make much progress since then, only once attending a WCS Circuit event as a replacement player.The CTC has given him a chance to test his skills against international competition and stand in the spotlight again. This week we finally got to see the return of Jieshi, the world warrior: his 1-1 map split against KZ.Bunny was a crucial point in Team LP’s efforts to upset KaiZi, and also marked Jieshi’s first map win against a Korean opponent this season. It’s also another game that fits into this season’s trend of Chinese Protoss players really surprising their international opponents with their prowess in straight-up macro games. Jieshi did not rely on some trickery, but rather on solid economic and defensive play to gain an edge over Bunny, whose great strength—his tempo-based drop play—was rendered virtually useless by Jieshi’s Phoenix-based defense. The Chinese Protoss exhibited great patience and a good grasp for the opportunities presented to him in the game to engage Bunny’s strongly fortified positions.
Chinese players had barely any impact in the playoffs of CTC Season 1—Jieshi himself only recorded a 0-2 loss to herO in the finals. Things may be different this time around, with the contributions of Chinese players actually able to swing the momentum of a series.
Week 4 Preview: The Playoff Pushby TheOneAboveU
Group A
Group A’s matches will be played at 11:30 GMT (+00:00) on Monday (23. Sept.), Tuesday (24. Sept.), and Wednesday (25. Sept.). Wardi will broadcast in English.
Team LP vs. Brave Star Gaming (23. Sept.)
Patience < Disco Bloodbath > Cyan
Impact < Ephemeron > Hurricane
Jieshi < Triton > 
Dream
Ace: < Winter’s Gate >
Even though Brave Star Gaming are without a win and very likely out of the playoffs, there's reason to believe they could still salvage some pride in the remaining two weeks. First, they will play LP and iG, the other two teams stuck with them on the bottom half of their group. Second, BSG.Dream has been shredding his opposition in several online tournaments last week, taking wins over people such as Stats and Trap. Third, they just got a massive confidence booster with their wins over LP and TSG at NeXT Autumn, the GSTL to CTC’s Proleague. With all these elements in place, BSG could be able to mount something of a comeback with the goal of not finishing dead last.
LP.Patience and BSG.Cyan split maps in NeXT just last week, so this re-match might be a lot closer than it looks on paper. Cyan has been in solid form recently—he also split maps with TSG.Solar—with PvP standing out as his best match-up, so this isn’t going to be a walk in the park for Patience at all.
LP.Impact should be slightly favored over BSG.Hurricane, whose PvZ looks a bit shaky at the moment, though the pendulum does swing wide on both sides: there’s a world of difference in splitting maps with LP.Misaki and Code S finalist JAGW.Rogue, so it really depends on which Hurricane is going to show up—category 1 or 5?
LP.Jieshi has just proved his capabilities in a straight-up macro game against another Korean Terran with a drop-heavy style, so in a world in which Dream did not just 2-0 several Korean Protoss monsters, Jieshi might have actually be able to step up and become the hero of his team, closing the series out. As it is, the future may not be as rosy. That is, if Dream shows up with the same kind of determination and performance that made those other surprising wins possible.
Prediction: Team LP 3-4 Brave Star Gaming
KaiZi Gaming vs. Newbee (24. Sept.)
Super < Disco Bloodbath > Scarlett
INnoVation < Ephemeron > TIME
Misaki < Triton > Dear
Ace: < Winter’s Gate >
KaiZi go into this match against Newbee with some good match-ups, though we know match-ups don't mean everything after INnoVation dropped the ball last week. On paper, they have a solid chance at closing it out with a quick 4-0. Should the series go longer, though, there's every possibility that Dear powers Newbee to another victory.
So, a lot hinges on how KZ.Super and Newbee.Scarlett decide to divide points in the opening match. They haven’t played since 2016, and to make our predictions even harder they also recently haven’t played against a foreign Zerg or Korean Protoss respectively either. We have to trust that KaiZi probably had a good reason in shaking the roster up for this match, replacing Bunny with Super, so the Protoss may have something cooked up for Scarlett, PvZ being his best match-up at this point in time. If Scarlett takes at least a map here, Newbee’s chances are greatly improved, but if Super sweeps her, KaiZi may take a quick win.
TvT has historically been a very solid match-up for INnoVation, and became somewhat of a life line for him in recent months. He has never lost a series to Newbee.TIME—though they haven’t met this year until now—while the Chinese Terran only wins around 20% of his TvTs against Koreans; in fact, his last win dates back to December 2018 against a ByuN of questionable form. TIME has improves massively, but Korean TvT seems to be a bit of an Achilles heel for him, and no matter how shaky INnoVation may look at the moment, this is the match-up he’s supposed to be supreme at still.
KZ.Misaki has established himself as one of those chaos loving Zerg players exploring the cheesy side of their race in CTC, and has found some success with this approach even against Korean opposition, such as OG.Zest in NeXT just last week. He stealing a map from Newbee.Dear and perhaps securing a win for KaiZi wouldn’t be out of this world—but it is very unlikely. Dear, so far this season, is the best player in the entire league with a 7-0 record, and has single-handedly prevented Newbee from falling to iG last week. If it comes down to it, Newbee can rely on him to secure the win. This is going to be a very hard fought series with a lot on the line, and we can expect to it to be reasonably close.
Prediction: KaiZi Gaming 3-4 Newbee
Jin Air Green Wings vs. Invictus Gaming (25. Sept.)
sOs < Disco Bloodbath > XiGua
Rex < Ephemeron > Coffee
Maru < Triton > iAsonu
Ace: < Winter’s Gate >
We’ve waited all season long for it, and now he’s here: Jin Air finally field JAGW.Maru, in what could be described as massive overkill, or a huge show of respect towards Invictus Gaming. After all, Jin Air did not feel the need to send Maru out against Newbee or LP. Maybe it was finally his turn to pick up the slack, as Rogue and Trap had previously interrupted their Code S schedules to compete in CTC.
Whatever the reasons may be, iG are probably not happy, as Jin Air looked very vulnerable in the first half of the season, while iG were looking surprising tenacious. Had they met earlier, we might have seen another group stage upset. Unfortunately for iG, Jin Air seem to have found their groove now with even Rex making contributions.
So, the only chance for the Chinese team is probably an early victory, which means iG.XiGua has to 2-0 JAGW.sOs, a hard but not impossible task. The Chinese veteran has a 2-1 record against Koreans so far, the best in the league, and sOs hasn’t won a PvZ since April this year. If there is a time when sOs could be beaten two times in a row, it’s probably now—and what a win that would be for China!
JAGW.Rex finally took a win last week in what must have been a huge relief to him, but iG.Coffee ranks amongst the Top 3 Terrans of China with Newbee.TIME and iG.XY, and split maps with LP.Impact this season, so it’s very questionable if Rex can make a trend out of last week’s result. Historically, he has never even taken a map off of Coffee—if XiGua can make a miracle happen against sOs, pressure will be heavy on Rex, as Jin Air’s fate may rest on his shoulders alone. Coffee is the Chinese player with the most wins so far this season, and it seems likely he can add some more at the end of this day.
If Jin Air can get to Maru versus iG.iAsonu more or less intact, they can probably sigh in relief: it's a candidate for worst mismatch in CTC history. Maybe iAsonu can be smart and blind counter the proxy 2-Rax two times to enhance his chances, but even then it’ll be tough.
Prediction: Jin Air Green Wings 4-2 Invictus Gaming
Group B
Group B’s matches will be played at 13:00 GMT (+00:00) on Monday (23. Sept.), Tuesday (24. Sept.), and Wednesday (25. Sept.). Wardi will broadcast in English.
Triumphant Song Gaming vs. Ocean Gaming (23. Sept.)
herO < Disco Bloodbath > TooDming
Nice < Ephemeron > Zest
Solar < Triton > SpeCial
Ace: < Winter’s Gate >
TSG ceded first place in Group B to Pixel 1 last week due to being forced into an ace match by Chivo, and on top of that they looked quite vulnerable in the NeXT qualifier as well, even losing a match to Brave Star. In the same vein, Ocean Gaming lost to PSISTORM last week, but looked incredibly solid in NeXT, so this could be quite a close one, especially as OG need a win to preserve their chances to make it to the playoffs.
TSG.herO is certainly the massive favorite over OG.TooDming. The Zerg split maps with PSISTORM.TRUE last week, but ZvP is a different beast entirely, especially against an aggressive Protoss such as herO. TooDming’s last match against a similar opponent in P1.PartinG did not go well at all, so TSG should be off to a good start here.
Of course, OG.Zest is poised to change that against TSG.Nice. Though Nice is not a shabby PvP player himself, the advantage for Zest here is a large one, as he’s ranked as one of the best PvP players of all time, the match-up being his best historically. Nice could channel his (in-)famous countryman Has and try to steal a map away from the Korean, but Zest is so solid that even Has-level cheese can hardly break him.
So, assuming nothing crazy happened and we stand at 2-2 at this point, TSG.Solar and OG.SpeCial will decide the outcome of this series in what is hopefully going to be a very exciting ZvT duel. Solar has historically dominated SpeCial, but the Mexican Terran was able to take his first ever win over the Korean just about two months back—this win being part of why SpeCial has a winrate over 80% in TvZ recently. So while the Terran may the advantage over most Zerg players, this merely evens out the match against Solar, who is considered amongst the Top 3 Zerg players of Korea by his peers, and himself sports a fantastic recent form in ZvT. Adding this to the fact that Solar has been rock-solid in CTC, while SpeCial could be hit or miss at times, we arrive at the conclusion that Solar should take the series for TSG here.
Prediction: Triumphant Song Gaming 4-2 Ocean Gaming
Chivo SC vs. Pixel 1 (24. Sept.)
soO < Disco Bloodbath > Firefly
ExpecT < Ephemeron > FanTaSy
RagnaroK < Triton > PartinG
Ace: < Winter’s Gate >
We may look at another instance of 'Chivo forcing a top team into an ace match just to unfortunately lose there' against Pixel 1, which they can’t really be okay with, as PSISTORM—their direct competition for third place—will probably take a solid win this week, so the single point from forcing an ace match just won’t cut it.
Chivo.soO should take his team up 2-0 against P1.Firefly despite his latent late game weakness against Protoss, as his Chinese Protoss opponent also hasn’t shown himself to be an expert at this stage of the game. It’s likely we’ll see a quick and aggressive duel from both sides here, and soO is still one of the most deadly Zerg players in that kind of match.
This setback likely won’t hold on for very long, as P1.FanTaSy should be able to beat Chivo.ExpecT, who so far is 0-6 against Koreans in the league. It’s unlucky he hasn’t faced a single non-Korean to perhaps take a win and boost his confidence, but his role up to now has always been to hopefully bind a key player of the opposing team in an unimportant match, while his team mates do the rest. It’s unlikely this will be any different against FanTaSy.
The hopes for Chivo certainly lie on Chivo.RagnaroK to beat P1.PartinG, and that is certainly something in the realm of possibility. RagnaroK has developed into a very solid player over the last couple of years, culminating in the advancement to the Ro8 in GSL Code S this season. With his ZvP being his best match-up historically and at the moment, RagnaroK looks to be in a good position, but PartinG’s PvZ looks even better, with the little caveat that it did fail him in the NeXT Autumn qualifier, where he split maps with Solar and Impact, leading to Pixel 1’s early elimination. A map split here seems likely as well, and the ace match will be closely contended without a doubt. I’d give a slight advantage to Pixel 1, as they’ve been pretty clutch in CTC so far, but this could well be a Chivo win.
Prediction: Chivo SC 3-4 Pixel 1
PSISTORM Gaming vs. Black Night (25. Sept.)
GuMiho < Disco Bloodbath > DynaMite
Sakura < Ephemeron > Armani
TRUE < Triton > Daydreamer
Ace: < Winter’s Gate >
PSISTORM preserved their playoff chances last week with a great performance from PSISTORM.GuMiho, and could even overtake Chivo this week to occupy that important third place in the group. Black Night lags behind all the other teams, and unfortunately it seems unlikely they’ll be able to do anything about that for the time being.
GuMiho is an obvious favorite over BN.DynaMite, who did reasonably well so far—he has always taken at least one map for his team, being their only player to do so—but can’t hope to stand against the juggernaut that is GuMiho’s TvT. That's really unfortunate for DynaMite, because taking a map here in his usual manner could actually force an ace match, provided BN.Armani does not drop the ball in his match.
The former SAMSUNG Zerg has been somewhat of a disappointment so far, doing much worse than his rookie counterpart DynaMite despite having much better past credit as a Proleague player. Now, though, a victory finally seems in reach for Armani. PSISTORM.Sakura hasn’t been a great PvZ player historically, with his last win happening back in April. So, if DynaMite could make some magic happen, and Armani plays his ZvP carefully, we could be in the unexpected position of Black Night leading as we go into the last match.
There, PSISTORM.TRUE faces BN.Daydreamer. The Korean Zerg has been unreliable so far, swinging back and forth between helpful results and being a burden for his team, so if theoretically Black Night lead the series at this point… well, it’s not impossible Daydreamer could close this all out in what would be the upset of the season. More likely, though, is that TRUE can take the series home for PSISTORM here. He may be one of the worse Koreans in CTC by win rate at the moment, but Daydreamer hasn’t posted any result that would make him anything else than the massive underdog.
Prediction: PSISTORM Gaming 4-2 Black Night
Credits and acknowledgements
Written by: TheOneAboveU, Ziggy
Editor: Wax
Stats: Aligulac.com
Images: SCBoy
Written by: TheOneAboveU, Ziggy
Editor: Wax
Stats: Aligulac.com
Images: SCBoy
