The World Team League is back!
With the return of Starcraft most high profile team league we are all anxious to see the return of the quality coverage of TL.net finest, guiding us along with inspiring preview and recap. Alas this will have to wait, but here’s my two cent power rank of the team gearing up for the qualifiers!
With the disbanding of team LP, the 12th spot of the league is empty, and teams from around the world are looking to fill the void. Not all are equal though, while some can hope to improve om the 0-11 record of the departed LP, others would most likely continue the tradition of trying to ruin other teams season by stealing a map once in a while. To separate the 8 teams wanting the spot, the WTL organized a qualifiers. The format is a single elimination bracket working on “WTL all-kill rules” meaning a series of best of two with the option to revive a player. If a players win 2-0, he stays on, if it’s 1-1 both players lose their lives, The series end when a team loses 4 players (or 3 players and their revive) whatever the overall score is, if every single match is a 1-1 split, then a final ace match take place.
So with that out of the way, let’s check out our teams.
The Unknowns
Juggernauts
MeomaikA
Team Juggernauts aka “Nauts” comes into the tournament as the ultimate wild card. Two days before the start of the competition, their liquipedia page and their website list only a single player, Vietnamese zerg Meomeika. By all measure, Meomeika is an adequate start for a lineup aspiring to slip through the qualifiers, but he’s hardly an ace that can carry a bunch of amateur to victory. With only a couple of hours left, it’s anyone guess what the teams will actually look like. The US based squad could arrive on the day with a couple of strong players, if they kept their focus on SEA there’s some interesting prospect out there the likes of Enderr and Seither that could be swayed by the possibility to play in the WTL, but at this point the possibility of having a bunch of NA amateurs signing up under the clan tag “Eat My” is perhaps more likely.
Chinese Team no2
?
In its announcement, digmouse said the top 2 finishers of a Chinese Starcraft 2 Amateur League would take part in the tournament. Sadly, the liquipedia link he provided doesn’t work and he only gave us the names of one of those two teams. You could maybe expect that I probe the Chinese scene for answers, but like I said, this isn’t real TL preview, so none of that. However, as the top Chinese players are already on other teams (and let's be frank, even the not so top) so I can’t say I expect much of Chinese team number 2.
The longshots
License to Kill
Rhizer
Prototype
MapleZ
Binski
RockEr
About a thousand other NA players
Team License to Kill comes in as the North American hopes, having an extensive line up of NA amateurs and semi-pro. As is usually the case for NA hopes, it will probably end badly. If they want to avoid a quick exit, they will need a miraculous performance from their leading protoss duo of MapleZ and Rhizer, but neither have put on results in the past leading us to believe they can take on the titans of the competition that could come in the latter rounds.
Starlight Twinkle
Hyperion
MyMy
JoliwaLoves
HHH
ReWhite
Dyys
starLight
Majinbu
Team Starlight Twinkle (or SLT) is the other Chinese Amateur league, but they comes in with names the most avid Starcraft fans will already know, even if it’s somewhat more because of their rather strange nature. While the WTL has not proven kind to local team in the past, its format can still create a lot of upsets and SLT have the man to do so. Hyperion has pulled off maybe the biggest underdog win in the history of Starcraft 2 when he beat the reigning world champion Reynor and beside him HHH could also pull a rabbit out of his hat, being a 15 years old protoss that has stolen maps out of the likes of Patience and Zest. MyMy and JoliwaLoves bring some WTL experience to the squad, having played the last season on team LP, but their combined 0-16 record may not have them too excited to come back to the big league.
The contenders
Dominaticus Esports
Marsman
RazerBlader
Reaper
universe
Unobomber
Hailing from Singapore, Dominaticus Esports open the upper half of this power ranking. While their lineup may look like nothing at first, Marsman and Razerblader could prove more dangerous than at first glance. Marsman can play some very good Starcraft from time to time, and while he seems to have cool down since last year, he should still be a slight favorite against most amateurs. Razerblader is their other core player, while you probably know him best for having both the British and Pakistanese citizenship and the problem it sometime has causes, the man seems to be on a mission lately, having won multiple small online cup this year. While the competition was hardly always impressive, it’s considerably more success than anyone on the teams bellow Dominaticus has had.
Genesis Gaming
ArT
Botvinnik
PiLiPiLi
BattleB
SoulSpirit
Spazymazy
TeebuL
FightingFrog
FeaR
Genesis Gaming has already proven they can tango with the lower WTL teams, coming 3rd in the AlphaX Summer Team League, beating Psistorm and almost beating GP too. Historically Art, Botvinik and PiliPili would be their best players, but in the last few years BattleB, Soulspirit, Spazymazy and Teebul are nothing to scoff at. With their vast array of weapons, multiple young prospects and players with experience in high pressure scenario, Genesis could seems like the perfect team to fill LP spot as a team capable of stealing a couple of maps along the season.
The ones that got shafted by Kaizi
Berserker esport
Spatz
Highdra
Forjumy
MilkiCow
Phoenix
Chinese powerhouse Kaizi Gaming has enjoy plenty of success on the back of the misery of smaller teams and they seems determine to keep it up.
Just this morning, Berserker was looking like one of the favorites to make it. Spirit (aka Soul) has currently probably the best form out of anyone in the qualifiers and with Milkicow and Spatz, two of the best European up and comer, at his side, they formed a solid group, well adapted in the WTL all-kill format. Of course, this was not to be, a couple of hours ago, KZ announced that they had signed a contract with Spirit, crumbling Berserker chances in the WTL before they even played their first match. All is maybe not entirely lost for the British team, they could still pick up a win or two if their match up fall just right, but without a serious 3rd player to replace Spirit advancing one round is probably the best they can hope for.
The favorites
PREP Esports
Bly
ByuL
Has
JawTitan
Puzzle
YB (Hush)
Founded just a week ago with the clear goal to participate in the WTL, PREP has certainly come up with an interesting line up. Taken at the best point of their career, PREP players would form a team capable of challenging for the WTL crown. They have plenty of team league behind them too, Bly is a two time ATSC champion, ByuL made for one half of the deadliest duo in Proleague on CJ Entus, Puzzle was one of SlayerS most effective GSTL players and even YP (Hush/vivid) had plenty of Proleague experience. Add a little bit of Has magic to the whole and you have a team that seems miles ahead of anyone else in this qualifiers. Of course, for everyone involved, saved maybe for Bly on a good day, their best is long since gone. They are not safe from a slip up, but their raw talent and experience should still be enough to clinch their ticket to the regular season, especially if the recently returned ByuL can play anywhere close to his mid-2010 form. Of all the teams here PREP is probably the only one that has a realistic shot to avoid finishing in the gutter when the regular season comes around, but first they need to skip that hurdle.