Power Rank
Assessing the 12 Code S teams

Week 1 Preview
Looking forward to opening week

Bracket and standings on Liquipedia

World Team League - 2024 Summer Season

by: Nakajin

Four months after Ryung halted Clem's playoff rampage and brought ONSYDE Gaming their second WTL Trophy, it's time for StarCraft II's biggest team competition to start a new season. The WTL landscape has changed greatly during pre-season, with alliances becoming permitted, rosters shuffling across the board, and three new teams joining the fray from Code A.

The three teams joining (or rejoining) the competition through Code A are OFFSYDE Esports, Berserker Esports, and Twisted Fairy (the alliance of Twisted Minds and Little Fairy). Qualification was hardly a walk in the park for these three teams, as they faced tough competition in Code A. Berserker's return to Code S feels especially well-earned, as they defeated Club NV in a qualification match. Mixu earned a crucial 1-1 tie against DRG to force an ace match, after which BattleB took a heroic ace match win over Creator to secure his team's WTL spot.

Summer Season Updates

Before we preview the season in earnest, there are a few broader league changes to go over.

Alas, the gacha sponsorship money seems to have dried up after two glorious seasons, and the prize money has scaled back to the previous level of 300,000 CNY (approximately $41,000 USD). Still, there's a chance that this isn't a permanent change, as SCBOY always seem to be hustling and have previously announced prize pool increases mid-season.

As mentioned above, one of the biggest changes to this season is coalitions/alliances being allowed for the first time in WTL history. The upcoming Esports World Cup has caused non-WTL teams to sign players that might otherwise have played on a WTL team, and this measure helps maintain the overall level of play in the league.

While I applaud this adaptive rule change, it does make for some annoyingly clunky full team names. So, to keep things simple, I'll generally stick with the name of the primary team in the alliance—not that I expect NAVI's PR guy to angrily Tweet at us to fix this egregious branding error. The exception here is "Twisted Fairy" (Twisted Minds + Little Fairy), because that name is hilarious.

Code S Power Rank

#12: Starlight Twinkle

Roster: Cham, Krystianer, Wayne, ReWhite, YoungZest, HHH, Majinbu, YZMX, 望夜的星星

Against all odds, Starlight Twinkle enters their third straight season of WTL Code S, with its unassuming roster of players earning WTL mainstay status through grit, determination, and moon crystal power.

Not one to learn from my mistakes, I nevertheless will put them at the bottom of this season's power rank. It's not entirely because I'm a hater—the team has lost one of its most important players in Nice, with the Taiwanese Protoss departing for the Twisted Fairy. Now, one might say SLT's new signing Krystianer is an upgrade on Nice, with the Polish Protoss having quietly improved over the last year or so. However, I don’t see him having the same upset potential as Nice in the WTL BO2 format, even if he plays better in the EPT or Open Cups.

Wayne should continue to be the workhorse of the team, looking to build on a strong debut season. Cham, ReWhite, and YoungZest are all players who have come up with shocking upsets in previous WTL seasons, and their unpredictable nature might be the key to keeping SLT afloat.

If they want to avoid relegation, SLT will once again need to take care of business against the weaker teams, and hope they can steal points off the stronger teams through their inexplicable celestial magic. But with Nice leaving and Cham having some trouble finding his best form outside of the EPT regionals, I have a bad feeling that this star is beginning to fade.

#11: Mystery Gaming

Roster: Cyan, Coffee, Nanami, Strange, Augety, Blueming, KingSlayeR, Naxin, SCV

Last season, Mystery Gaming came in as a potentially disruptive new force with Bunny and SHIN on the roster, but had to settle for a disappointing 7th place finish. Unfortunately for WTL fans, the team did NOT reload and come back even stronger. MYG lost both SHIN and Bunny during the off-season, and have made no new signings to fill the void (to add insult to injury, they even lost recent EPT Asia breakout player Lemon).

Thus, last season's third option players Cyan (39% win-rate in the previous season) and Strange (35% win-rate) have been given field promotions to front line duty, with Coffee and Nanami stepping up behind them. It's not all doom and gloom for MYG since Coffee and Nanami have both been playing well lately in the EPT Asia (with Nanami being one the players to upset Oliveira), but it's hard to see them making a huge difference for MYG in the final standings.

Of all the teams, I see MYG as having the least variable results. The team is stronger than some of the rank 11-12 teams in the past, but they don't have the upside to climb higher than 10th. It was a toss-up between them and SLT for the last place, and in the end, I nudged MYG just above SLT because of their better overall showings in EPT Spring so far, and because Coffee was the sole saving grace for iG in their final WTL season.

#10: Platinum Heroes + R8

Roster: Kelazhur, ShaDoWn, goblin, YoungYakov, ArT, ForJumy, Iba, Nicoract, ART (not to be confused with ArT), Nikich

Platinum Heroes were the most active team in the off-season, but ultimately they've ended up in pretty much the same place.

First, the bad news. Last season's core players DnS and Firefly both left for other WTL teams, leaving gaping holes to fill in the line-up. The good news? The Heroes have found at least one trustworthy replacement, allying with R8 Esports (a Saudi-based organization that signed Kelazhur following his departure from Team Liquid) to bring in Kelazhur. While Kelazhur was a very inconsistent WTL player during his time with TL, he was quite impressive in the previous EPT Americas season and looked to be in the midst of a career resurgence.

The Heroes also enlisted the services of ForJumy (who previously played for Freiburg esport e.V. x Team HyperOne in Code A), and called up ART (not ArT) and Iba from their sister team/B-squad (but surprisingly enough, not Vindicta).

All those moves leave the Platinum Heroes with a lineup that is pretty much on par with last season, so I predict them to repeat their 10th place finish. But regardless of their final position, I'm very interested to see their process and roster choices throughout the season. Kelazhur, ShaDoWn, and goblin are the players with the most name value, but surely they didn't acquire ForJumy and call up their B-teamers just to sit them on the bench? Even if a playoff spot is likely to be out of reach for the Heroes, they may see some of their players unlock their potential before the season is over.

#9: OFFSYDE Esports

Roster: Firefly, Rex, uThermal, Control

The #1 greatest WTL Summer 2024 qualifier team of all time has lived up to their ranking, making it all the way up to Code S. Jokes aside, ONSYDE's sister team gave some impressive performances in the qualifiers and Code A, proving they're not just in the league to help uThermal make more YouTube videos. But really, jokes aside, everyone pulled their weight in the qualifier—even Rex, who I worried about as a potential weak point.

Now that they go up against even stronger players in Code S, they probably don't have the firepower to upset any of the real title contenders. But between Firefly's WTL buff and uThermal's random, they have just enough skill and weirdness to hang with the mid-tier teams and perhaps force some ace matches. Also, the team added Korean content creator Control in between Code A and the regular season (he won't be eligible until week 3), but I see him more as a fill-in for scheduling conflicts than someone who will really challenge Rex for the #3 spot in the rotation.

Overall, OFFSYDE do appear to be more than a meme team. Their lack of depth places them at #9, but they're the first team in the ranking that I think has an outside chance of making the playoffs if everything breaks in their favor.

#8: Berserker Esports

Roster: GunGFuBanDa, DnS, Mixu, BattleB, DIMAGA, Spatz, PAPI, TeebuL, Fixer

The Code A runner-up squad takes the #8 spot in the Power Rank, and will likely play the role of a playoff gatekeeper. The Euro-centric team proved to be very effective in Code A, especially in their upset victory over a full-strength Club NV. Their litany of solid, reliable players makes them a tough match-up for any of the teams lower down in the ranking as they can plan around race match-ups and maps without losing much strength.

While Berserker created almost zero upsets in their previous stint in WTL Code S, their showing against Club NV in Code A suggests they might have improved in this regard. Indeed, for Berserker to move up from being merely the best of the rest, they'll need their players to keep stealing games against stronger opponents. The lack of a 'true' ace player will hurt Berserker if they do make the playoffs, but just reaching the postseason would already be an accomplishment to be proud of.

#7: PSISTORM Gaming + NAVI

Roster: MaxPax, Gerald, Spirit, Namshar, Epic, MindelVK

My delusional hope that the alliance system would lead to GuMiho once again representing the iconic PSISTORM tornado has been dashed, as I guess Cloud 9 were too intimidated by PSISTORM's much cooler logo. However, PSISTORM have been reunited with another former Terran member of their roster, bringing on NAVI's Spirit for the upcoming campaign. Basically, that means PSISTORM have the exact same roster from the previous season—the same roster that finished in 6th place in the playoffs (Spirit left PSISTORM before their playoff match against TL, but it's hard to say he would have made a big difference against god-mode Clem).

As MaxPax goes, so does PSISTORM. The mysterious Dane has kept up his slow and steady growth for years now, and he hit a new high in the WTL last season by recording a 20-5 map score and winning the Best Protoss award. In fact, he would have been worthy of MVP consideration in some other seasons, but Serral and Maru happened absolutely ridiculous. MaxPax continues to be a one of one in PvP, being perhaps the best Protoss mirror player the game has ever seen (he’s on another casual 33 match win-streak at the moment). But he's also shown he can beat anyone not-named Serral in PvZ, and arguably he's right up there at the top in PvT as well.

Despite all this, I've ranked PSISTORM slightly lower than in the previous season. This is one of the zanier map pools we've had in recent memory, and WTL's map format means that the weirdest maps are guaranteed to see some play. I think this is ill-suited to PSISTORM's strengths, as key support players Gerald and Spirit are at their best in straight-up games.

#6: Dragon KaiZi Gaming

Roster: herO, Oliveira, soO, Jieshi, F91, XiaoSe

This is my wildest prediction in what has otherwise been a very safe power ranking, placing perennial title contenders DKZ all the way down at #6. Then again, is it really that crazy if you consider their roster turnover?

DPG/KaiZi have seen their star power slowly wane over the last few years, but the departure of Dark was the move that officially revoked their "superteam" status. It's unfortunate for soO that he has to fill such enormous shoes. As an occasional third option player, I would have considered him to be a low-risk, high-upside player who could hold his ground against the WTL rank and file while stealing you a few random 1-1 ties against ace players. However, it's asking far too much of him to make up for Dark's 15+ map wins per season.

To make things worse, Oliveira is in the middle of a concerningly long slump. One would have thought the announcement of an enormous Esports World Cup prize pool would have lit a fire underneath the 2023 World Champion, but it seems nothing can stir him from his extended championship hangover. He's put up middling numbers in the WTL, and exited early in all the major internationals he's played in since IEM Katowice 2023. He almost hit a new low in the recent EPT Asia regional, just barely surviving the group stage with a 3-2 record. While he’s too mechanically gifted to have a truly terrible season in the WTL, he needs to play like the clutch monster of old for DKZ to have any shot of a high finish. If not, then the herO-led DKZ is pretty much just East Asian PSISTORM.

herO can certainly MaxPax it up and carry his team to mid/high finish in the regular season, but he hasn't had a big multi-kill performance in the playoffs in quite some time (albeit, largely due to DKZ never finishing low enough that they can flex on weaker rosters in the gauntlet). In the end, I'm removing DKZ from title contender status, and I'm even starting to worry about what their worst case scenario might be…

#5: Twisted Fairy

Roster: Classic, Stats, KeeN, BreakingGG, Nice, FightingFrog, DyyS, Mokou, Psycho, Shameless

Our Code A champion is the strongest addition to Code S since BASILISK entered the league two seasons ago. Headlined by a duo of Classic and Stats, they breezed past the opposition in Code A when they played a full-strength line-up. Stats has improved drastically in the last few months, with a surprising Code S top four finish being his unofficial "I'm back" moment. Classic, as inconsistent as he may be (failing to qualify for the latest Code S), is still a strong player on average, and the WTL format tends to reward players who can occasionally punch way above their weight class.

Nice would help round out the roster as the provisional third option, but his playing status seems to be a bit murky following a Facebook post pointing at impending retirement. However, KeeN is a more than capable back-up option—some would even say he should play ahead of Nice. Even though he resides in the semi-inactive zone between full-time pro play and retirement, he's seemed to be in decent shape in his limited appearances—especially in TvT.

While Twisted Fairy's third option situation is significantly worse than DKZ's, I like the one-two punch of Stats and Classic enough to put them just slightly higher in the rankings. With both Protosses able to go toe-to-toe with most aces, I expect them to grind out a lot of points on their way to a mid/high table finish. The third option problem has the potential to be their downfall, and I could see them ending up in the seventh place race if no one can step up as a reliable third man.

#4: Shopify Rebellion

Roster: ByuN, Lambo, Scarlett, Harstem, TLO

The last time I made a Code S power ranking, I predicted the Shopify Rebellion to miss out on the playoffs for the second season in a row. The Rebels promptly chastised me for my recency bias, bouncing back with a fourth place finish in the regular season. Having learned absolutely nothing from this experience, I will once again index on Shopify's last result and say they will repeat with another fourth place regular season finish!

Honestly, fourth was probably always the fair baseline prediction for the Rebellion. The one poor season where they missed the playoffs was the outlier—otherwise they've been a very consistent team that regularly finishes toward the top of the table. With three of the best preparation players in the foreign scene, they can take maps off of almost everyone, and even if one of them can sometimes falter, they usually have each other's backs.

Of course, ByuN has performed wonderfully as the ace—at least during the regular season. Like the rest of his team, ByuN seems to get a small WTL boost, and despite being well removed from his peak in individual tournaments, he never ceases to impress in WTL. His ability to reliably smother weaker opponents is particularly useful in a league where imbalanced matchups are common. With everyone seeming to be in good form in their respective regional leagues, signs point to another good season from Shopify.

#3: Team Liquid

Roster: Clem, Cure, SKillous, Elazer, MaNa

Last season, the boys in blue came, so, so close to capping off the most extraordinary playoff run by dethroning ONSYDE Gaming, only to be stopped by Ryung's heroic stands against Clem. However, the spectacular playoff run came after a disappointing regular season for TL, where the perennial WTL underperformers finished in sixth place.

I think #2 is closer to TL's true strength than #6 when you consider their roster talent, but history says TL almost never plays up to their level in the WTL. With this high placement, I'm saying—or perhaps hoping—that they've wiped the slate clean with their runner-up finish, and will play the kind of StarCraft that's worthy of their reputation.

Clem is the key to TL's success, and it will be interesting to see if he can take his game to another level in the eleven rounds of regular season play. In contrast to his incendiary playoff showing last season, he's been oddly disappointing in past regular seasons. His talent and skill suggest he should be in the MVP conversation, but he often ends up being merely one of the top 5-10 players in the league.

Even with Clem underperforming compared to individual leagues, Liquid should have been a playoff lock in previous seasons. However, disappointing performances from the supporting cast saw Liquid historically finish right around the cutoff line. Last season's acquisition of Cure was supposed to solve this problem, only for Cure to catch the Liquid-WTL curse and end up with a sorely disappointing 6-5 record. Despite a bad debut season for Liquid, all of Cure's results in individual tournaments suggest he's still in great form. Since last season went just about as poorly as possible for Cure, one has to think he'll play better this time around and help carry Liquid up to the standings.

Elazer has always been a great team-league player, even if his individual results leave something to desire in the recent past. Strong in all three match-ups, he’s arguably the best third-man option of anyone not named Ryung. This is nice since TL also has a strong fourth man in the form of SKillous, and even a tricky-to-play fifth option in MaNa.

On paper, this is a legitimate championship contender squad. Will Liquid finally live up to that billing in the regular season?

#2: Team Vitality

Roster: Maru, Solar, Ryung, Crank

The back-to-back champions ONSYDE Gaming are back with new branding, having formed a strategic partnership with Team Vitality in the offseason. But while the laundry has changed, the 2x championship roster has remained intact.

To say ONSYDE/Vitality have been amazing is an understatement. Not only did they win the last two WTL championships, but they also won both regular seasons, set a new record for most points earned, and lost only a single match in the entirety of 2023. With super-ace Maru at the helm, regular ace Solar besides him, and the ultimate WTL joker in the form of Ryung, the first three-peat in WTL history is looking very realistic.

Since we're all familiar with how dominant Maru and Solar have been throughout WTL/CTC history, I want to single out Ryung for extra praise. I've said it ad nauseam: Ryung is the true secret sauce behind all of ONSYDE's success. No player has wildly overperformed in WTL like Ryung, who has been creating miracles and pulling bulls*** wins out of his ass since his days with Team GP. Despite not making the RO8 of a major individual tournament since 2017, Ryung has proven himself to be the most cunning and clutch players in the world when it comes to WTL play. No matter the opponent, you better believe that Ryung has a fighting chance to take that 1-1.

With Ryung, Vitality are the picture of an ideal WTL team. They have an extremely strong ace able to guarantee a 2-0 against almost anyone, an excellent second man who could easily play ace for any other squad (and has done so in the past), and an explosive third man who seldom goes 0-2 and can occasionally take down even the best players in the league. This combination allows Vitality to not only win matches, but win them quickly and by a large margin. No team plays in less ace matches, allowing them to rack up points and a huge map differential.

Besides some legit all-position ace super teams, there's little more you could ask for in a WTL team. But on that note…

#1: BASILISK

Roster: Serral, Reynor, ShoWTimE, trigger, RotterdaM

Once again, BASILISK is the favorite to win the league in the TL.net WTL power rank. Even though they've finished second place in the regular season twice in a row now, and settled for second and third place in the playoffs, I still think that the third time will be the charm.

BASILISK's roster was already extremely successful, but they've become even stronger by allying with BIG and adding ShoWTimE to the mix. It's been a while since we've had a high-end newcomer of ShoWTiME's caliber, and if we index on what he's shown in individual competition, he might be the most overqualified third option in the entire league (besides the saintly Ryung, of course). Also, his style seems tailor-made for the WTL format, as a strong all-around player who's unlikely to suffer an upset against a weaker opponent.

In a perfect world, the addition of ShoWTimE would have transformed BASILISK into the kind of superteam we haven't seen since the glory days of DPG. trigger, despite showing potential, was always a clear weak point in the line-up, and shoring up that position would have made BASILISK even stronger favorites to win the championship. Sadly (or maybe fortunately, for the sake of interesting competition), Serral's mandatory military service will overlap almost entirely with the WTL season. It’s hard at this point to gauge how much the military will impede his ability to compete. A recent story from the Finnish press suggests he'll be allowed some personal time for practice and gameplay, but the WTL (and other teams) probably won't bend over backward to allow him to play his games via replay. Indeed, he's out of the line-up for BASILISK's opening match on Friday—the bigger question is if we'll see him play during weekend matches when he may be home on leave.

For the sake of this ranking, I assumed Serral will be playing in half the weeks or so—if he ends up skipping the season entirely, then I think BASILISK would fit more around the 3rd-4th place rage. That does mean that even without Serral, BASILISK are still a very dangerous team. Reynor is obviously the main reason for that—despite all the 50/50 man jokes, Reynor's baseline skill level is still undeniable. No matter how many inexplicable 1-1's he gives up, one still has to believe he has the potential to have an MVP-caliber, 20+ win season. Also, it's worth pointing out that he's only ever lost a single regular season series as he heads into his fourth WTL season, and that he's been perhaps the best ace match player in that time span as well.

Trigger is a player I'd praise if he wasn't on BASILISK, but he's unfortunately miscast as the supporting player for two world champions. Still, his 9-13 record last season was an improvement on the 8-12 record from the season prior, and if he can become a true 50/50 man this season, I imagine BASILISK would be very happy with that.

We will all learn a lot about the intricacies of the Finnish military esport special authorization system in the coming months, but If Serral can appear in the league, then it will take a small miracle to stop Basilisk from finally reaching the top of the pyramid.

Week 1 Preview

Vitality will get the chance to start their title defense run by avenging their sole loss of the last two seasons against DKZ. It won’t be a walk in the park, with DKZ successfully sacrificing Jieshi to Maru (perhaps seeing Crimson Court as Terran favored) while drawing more favorable match-ups in the other two clashes.

That puts some extra pressure on Solar to get the 2-0 versus Oliveira. While he has dominated Oliveira in historic head-to-heads, their last two WTL meetings ended in 1-1 draws. If Solar can’t get the 2-0, Ryung will need to do Ryung stuff against a very difficult opponent in herO. Difficult, but not impossible with the loser's map pick and the Ryung WTL buff.

While DKZ have a great chance to upset the champions, I think Vitality just have more paths to victory here.

Prediction: Vitality 4- 2 DKZ


Like Vitality, Berserker has opted to send their best Terran out first on Crimson Court. It will be a good test for BattleB, he has made some waves in Code A and could set the tone for the season if he can take out El Capitan. However, with 0-2 losses to MaNa and Strange in the EPT Europe regional, it will surely be an uphill battle for BattleB where a 1-1 would be a success.

The same can be said for DnS as he goes up against Scarlett. While PvZ was his best match-up in some previous periods, he seems to be struggling at the moment. Recent losses against Wayne, Elazer, and Scarlett herself are understandable, but additional losses to Reaper, GogoJoey, and Silky are more concerning. Again, it's a tough match where 1-1 is probably the best he can hope for.

If Shopify can't get things done in the first two matches, then they have insurance in the form of ByuN vs GunGFuBanDa. GFBD might be one of the more underrated EU players, but he's not so underrated that I'd give him much of a chance against a WTL beast like ByuN.

Prediction: Shopify Rebellion 5 - 1 Berserker Esports


It's just the first match of the year, but TL and PSISTORM are already facing off in a match that could have serious repercussions down the line. The two have historically jostled with each other around the same region of the rankings, sometimes with major playoff implications. Fortunately for PSISTORM, Clem is out for this match (possibly due to EPT Europe), leaving Liquid unusually vulnerable.

Both teams should be fairly happy with their draws. Cure's TvP is starting to show signs of its old deadliness, and he should be a big favorite against Gerald. However, PSISTORM should be able to even things up in the second match, as MaxPax is currently on a 10-0 map winning streak against Elazer. SKillous versus Spirit looks pretty even to me—the Polish Terran won 1-1 in the EPT regional, but with loser map pick in the WTL, I think a draw is the most likely outcome here.

Unless Clem somehow becomes available in time, we should see Cure vs MaxPax in the ace match. While MaxPax is one of the best players in the WTL, PvT is still his relatively weak match-up. My layman's eyes tell me that Amphion should work to Cure's strength as a savvy build order creator (cheeser). I predict TL to escape an early scare and split the points with PSISTORM.

Prediction: Team Liquid 4 - 3 Psistorm Gaming


One match in, and I'm already doubting my power ranking. My #12 ranked team against #1 should be a colossal mismatch, but with Serral on the sideline, things are looking surprisingly dicey for BASILISK.

Wayne is exactly the kind of player and match-up that brings out Reynor's 50/50 man instincts, while PvP is not the best match-up for ShoWTimE to show his solidity (even with the patch changes). Also, trigger might be outperforming Cham in EPT Americas, but Cham has shown plenty of upset ability in the WTL.

Since I can't disavow my power rank so early in the season, I'll have to predict a comfortable win for BASILISK. Still, I will hedge by saying BASILISK's tendency of playing unnecessary ace matches could rear its ugly head again.

Prediction: Starlight Twinkle 1 - 5 Basilisk


Both teams will see this match as an opportunity to start this season off on the right foot, as the match-ups look fairly decent for both sides. I would give a small edge to Cyan versus Rex and uThermal against Coffee, which would make Firefly vs Strange the deciding match-up. PvP might be unpredictable, but I'll favor Firefly and his uncanny ability to deliver important wins in the WTL.

Prediction: OFFSYDE 4 - 2 Mystery Gaming


With Nice skipping the first match and KeeN being unavailable until week three, Twisted Fairy have sent out the unheralded Mokou as their third player (formerly known as Soy/Takanashi; kudos to you if you actually knew this). Luckily for TF, they've managed to deploy Mokou in the sacrifice position, sparing Stats and Classic from facing Kelazhur's dangerous TvP. While the beauty of the WTL format is that a single misstep from Classic and Stats could send it to an ace match, I think the Protoss duo will be able to take home the three points for Twisted Fairy.

Prediction: Twisted Fairy 4 - 2 Platinum Heroes

---