Week 8 Recap
PSISTORM shock Vitality
Platinum Heroes stay afloat

Week 9 Preview
1st place in the balance?
BASILISK vs Vitality

Bracket and standings on Liquipedia

World Team League - 2024 Summer Season

by: Nakajin

Week 8 of the WTL turned out to be one of the most eventful in a while, highlighted by a whopping four ace matches. The matches were quite consequential as well, with Starlight Twinkle coming close to lifting themselves out of the relegation zone, Platinum Heroes staying afloat in the playoff race, while TL defeated Weibo Gaming in a tussle for playoff seeding.

The most high-profile ace match came in the clash between Vitality and PSISTORM Gaming, where the defending champions made the unusual decision to keep ace player Maru on the bench. MaxPax made short work of replacement ace Ryung, bringing Vitality's 14-match winning streak to an end.

While Vitality still have a three point buffer in first place, the regular season title is no longer a guarantee as a pivotal match against BASILISK is coming up in Week 9. Should Serral and BASILISK take three points of Vitality, then the race for first place would suddenly be blown wide open.

Week 8 Recap

Top 7 teams qualify for the playoffs.
Bottom 2 teams must requalify.
Points are awarded as follows:

• 3 points for a victory in a series that does not require an ace match
  
• 2 points for a victory in a series that requires an ace-match
  
• 1 point for a loss in a series that requires an ace-match
  
• 0 points for a loss in a series that does not require an ace match

Starlight Twinkle 4 - 3 Berserker eSports
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The battle between teams looking for their second wins of the season went to Starlight Twinkle, with Krystianer coming through with a huge ace match win.

Kicking things off was a PvP between Krystianer and DnS. Game one went to DnS, who patiently snowballed a lead from an early-game skirmish into a win. The French Protoss got cheesy in game two with a proxy-Robo, but Krystianer defended capably with his own Robo-first build while backdooring with a Warp Prism. Krystianer was left with both superior tech and economy after his successful defense, allowing him to crush DnS with a stronger army and tie the series.

Wayne and BattleB were up next on Alcyone, with the Russian Zerg preparing a trademark 1-1 Roach-Ravager all-in in the hope of getting the first point. However, BattleB took the wind out of Wayne's sales with some effective Marine-Medivac harass, after which he parried the Roach-Ravager attack to take the game. Wayne still had Roaches on his mind as he headed to Post-Youth for Game Two, gearing up for a slightly different Roach-Ravager timing. However, once again, BattleB slowed Wayne down with Marine-Medivac harass, which helped him hold off the critical attack. Wayne wasn't left in quite as dire a situation as in the previous game, but BattleB still had no problem closing things out.

Cham looked to start a comeback for his team on Post-Youth, attempting to bury GunGFuBanDa under a deluge of gold-fed Roaches and Banelings. GFBD came close to pulling off a series-winning hold, but Cham caused just enough chaos land big Baneling hits in the Probe lines. From there, Cham just piled on the pressure until GFBD had to GG out. Cham's clutchness was on display yet again on Oceanborn, where he hit a Roach-Ravager-Zergling all-in to force the ace match.

SLT decided to relieve Cham and put Krystianer back in as ace, while Berserker went with DnS as their final runner. DnS opened with Oracles on Oceanborn, but lost a pair without getting the Probe kills needed to justify the investment. Krystianer seized upon his tempo advantage to assemble a strong Zealot-Stalker-Immortal army, and hit the narrow window before DnS was sufficiently caught up. DnS couldn't hold against the attack even with the help of Battery Overcharge, and had to concede the GG to give SLT two points.


Team Liquid 4 - 3 Weibo Gaming
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Team Liquid took a close victory over Weibo, leaving the 2nd-6th place playoff seeding completely up in the air.

Despite the series starting on Terran-favored Crimson Court, it was herO who took advantage of the map's short rush distance by busting Cure with Phoenixes and an assortment of Gateway units in less than six minutes. Cure selected Post-Youth in for game two, but herO was actually the one who ended up taking a fast gold base. Cure's attempts to punish the base fell flat against herO's defensive Phoenixes, leaving herO with a great foundation from which to crank out Zealots and Colossus. The game came to an abrupt end after a clash between the two main armies, where Cure actually traded rather evenly. However, Cure seemed to think 'even' was not enough given the resource situation, and gave the GG while being even on supply.

SKillous gave Liquid a lifeline with a 2-0 against soO, with the inconsistent Zerg showing us the low-end of his range. Oracles ransacked soO's economy on Alcyone, after which his Queen-drop + Roach all-in fell woefully short of doing any damage. soO did marginally better with a peculiar mass Hydra-Roach style on Post Youth, but ultimately couldn't deal enough damage to the Protoss before the Disruptor count grew fatally high.

Weibo went up to match point first, as Oliveira bested Clem in a classic Marine-Tank war on Post-Youth. However, Clem dragged Liquid back from the brink of defeat on Ghost River, hitting with the one-two punch of early Cyclone-Marine followed by a lethal Raven-Tank push.

Clem and Oliveira got a chance to play a proper best of three, as both teams sent the Terrans right back out for the ace match (Cure and herO seemed unavailable as their match was played from replay). Oliveira decided to 'just play like Maru' by going for an overaggressive 1-Tank drop opener, which Clem shut down to seize a small early-game gas advantage. This manifested in Oliveira having three Ravens to Clem's two before a crucial early/mid-game fight, with Clem looking to break Oliveira's third base. Oliveira couldn't overcome this spellcaster disadvantage and had to concede defeat on behalf of his team.


Platinum Heroes+R8 4 - 3 Mystery Gaming+AG
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Platinum Heroes and Mystery Gaming clashed in a direct contest for the 7th and final playoff spot, which resulted in the Heroes slightly increasing their lead with an ace-match victory over their rivals.

Lancer (previously known as Cyan) and Kelazhur opened the series with an even macro contest on Crimson Court, where Lancer swung things in his favor at around the 16-minute mark with a great defensive hold. From there, Kelazhur couldn't deal with the growing number of high tech units in the Protoss army and had to GG. Game two saw Kelazhur get in the driver's seat early, successfully razing Lancer's third base on Ghost River. However, Lancer pulled back just enough with Blink-Stalkers to give himself a fighting chance, and similar to game one, he withstood a strong mid-game push to eventually win with a splash-heavy army.

Strange then made it 3-0 for Mystery Gaming, eschewing his familiar cheesiness for a Carrier deathball against YoungYakov. Strange then tried to close things out on Post-Youth with double-Stargate Phoenixes, but a timely scout forced him to pivot into mass Glaive Adepts. Unfortunately for him, YoungYakov had Banelings ready in time for the Adepts, and the game was lost once both his Phoenixes and Adepts failed to deal significant damage.

It was then Goblin's turn to become the hero among Heroes, as he saved his team from a 1-3 deficit with a clinical 2-0 against Coffee. Phoenixes were the key in both games, as he used them to keep his infamously aggressive opponent at bay and take the vital victories.

Platinum Heroes rolled with Goblin for a third time in the ace match, while Mystery Gaming went with an unexpected choice in Lemon over Lancer. While Lemon had a huge breakout performance in the last EPT Asia season—even 3-1'ing Lancer himself—it was still surprising to see him given ace match duties in such an important match. Lemon played a pretty respectable PvP, trailing just slightly behind Goblin as they both built toward mass Gateway unit armies. However, in the end, Goblin showed more killer instinct, as he pulled the trigger on a game-deciding fight the second he noticed Lemon's troops were out of position. Goblin's army carried the day, sealing an incredible 4-3 reverse sweep from the Platinum Heroes.

Vitality 3 - 4 PSISTORM+NAVI
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Vitality's 14-match winning streak came to an end at the hands of PSISTORM, with Vitality's decision not to play Maru in the ace match being the deciding factor.

The series opened with an unexpected windfall for PSISTORM, as Gerald held Solar to a 1-1 draw. The series started with a routine win for Solar, as he defended easily against Gerald's mass-Gateway style before finishing him off with Lurkers. Solar looked like he was well on his way to a 2-0 on Dynasty, as he once again reached Lurker tech without any trouble. However, the terrain on Dynasty made it much easier for Gerald to play a mobility-based game than in game one, with his constant troop movements forcing Solar to constantly redeploy his Lurkers. Solar was consistently just one step too slow on defense, which let Gerald gain slight advantages with every hit and run. After several minutes of aggravating tactics, Gerald finally goaded Solar into a fight in a narrow choke point. Fittingly, Gerald's PSISTORMS were absolutely money in the battle, allowing him to crush Solar's forces and take the tying map.

Unlike the previous series, Maru vs Spirit went exactly as expected. Maru delivered another TvT masterclass, beating Spirit twice with two 2-Starport pushes (Spirit tried a 'normal' defense in game one, and then tried a basetrade in game two).

Gerald's heroics gave PSISTORM a decent chance to send things to an ace match if MaxPax could cleanly defeat Ryung. The two players started with a macro battle on Post-Youth, with both sides quickly maxing out. Unfortunately for Ryung, he let his multitasking slip at the worst possible moment as he went for some multi-prong tactics, allowing MaxPax to connect with huge novas on his main army. MaxPax immediately went for a frontal charge, and he broke through the Terran lines before Ryung could gather his bearings. Ryung switched things up by committing to a 3-base, SCV-pull all-in on Crimson Court. This attack came extremely close to being the final nail in PSISTORM's coffin, but good defensive micro from MaxPax (and some missed focus-fire opportunities from Ryung) allowed MaxPax to pull off a butt-clenching hold.

As they did in last season’s grand final, Vitality passed the logical choice of Maru, instead giving Ryung a chance to be the savior. Of course, PSISTORM turned to MaxPax. Sadly, their third game was the least interesting, as Maxpax performed one of his trademark Blink Stalker dissections on Oceanborn. Ryung was just a little too late on one of his rotations between his natural and main, and MaxPax deftly seized the chance to win it for his team.


OFFSYDE Esports 2 - 4 Twisted Fairy
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While Twisted Fairy's playoff hopes are almost certainly dashed for good, they put some buffer room between themselves and the relegation zone by defeating OFFSYDE Esports. As for OFFSYDE, they may yet have a chance of avoiding relegation with HeroMarine now on board, despite this loss leaving them at the bottom of the table with just two points.

Rex's weirdness of the day was a throwback Nydus-Swarm Host strategy on Crimson Court against Nice. Unfortunately, the Swarm Hosts were only moderately successful, and couldn't stop a strong mid-game army from kicking down the front door. Nice went for a more late-game oriented approach on Post-Youth, going mass-Immortal-Disruptor straight into Skytoss. Rex's Hydra-Lurker couldn’t do anything to dent Nice's defenses, and eventually the Protoss forces glommed into an unstoppable deathball.

As it turned out, Nice's 2-0 would make all the difference. Firefly and Stats tied their PvP, with Firefly making a rather improbable defensive hold against Stats' proxy-robo on Alcyone, while Stats survived a chaotic early-game to win with a three-base Colossus push on Oceanborn.

HeroMarine had a chance to be the hero in his WTL debut, but it was a tough ask against a tough opponent in Classic. The Fairy's ace player took the winning point on Post-Youth, using Zealot run-bys to buy time before assembling a game-winning, Disruptor-heavy force. HeroMarine did at least get his first WTL map win on Crimson Court, beating Classic with some solid bio play.


Shopify Rebellion 2 - 4 BASILISK
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The week ended with BASILISK continuing their mid-season climb after some initial misteps, with the growing regularity of Serral's appearances looking very encouraging.

The series started with the latest episode of the tragi-comedy of "Harstem and Serral," with Serral winning his 33rd and 34th maps in a row against the people’s Captain. To Harstem's credit, he made things tough for Serral, as he brought specialized builds that pushed the Finnish Phenom to the brink of defeat (ok, not really, but come on let’s just pretend for his sake).

ByuN and ShoWTimE gave us one of the best games of the week on Alcyone, battering each other in a good ol' fashioned macro brawl. While ByuN trailed in supply for much of the game, the late arrival of Liberators allowed him to steal a come-from-behind victory. Game two on Goldenaura was almost decided by ByuN's initial three-rax push, but ShoWTimE just barely survived. Upon seeing the replay, ByuN probably wished he had been a bit quicker with a follow-up attack, as he had a good window to kill ShoWTimE before he could recover. But, as the game actually played out, ShoWTimE stabilized and got to drag things out into another long macro game. This time, the wide open nature of the map made it more difficult for ByuN to restrict ShoWTimE's movements with Liberators, and ShoWTimE was was able to mostly ignore them as he tore through ByuN's bases with his Disruptor-Zealot-Stalker army.

Reynor killed the 50/50 suspense early in his match against Scarlett, comfortably defending against both her +1 ling flood and Ravager-Ling-Bane all-in to nab all three points for BASILISK. Not one to mess up the Twitch point bets of his "fans," Reynor came through with the 1-1 in game two. Scarlett had a good game plan to deny his mining at Dynasty’s gold base with a few Roaches and Ravagers, forcing Reynor out into the open where she was waiting with a swarm of Zerglings.

Weekly MVP: PSISTORM.MaxPax

With four ace matches on the week, there were plenty of heroic performances worthy of commendation. Clem and Krystianer both went 2-1 with series-clinching ace match victories, while Goblin bested them by scoring 3 map wins in Platinum Heroes' reverse-sweep.

However, in the end, I gave this week's award to MaxPax for his 3-0 over Vitality. With the help of a big performance from Gerald, he did what no one had been able to do in an extremely long time: beat Vitality/ONSYDE. While none of his games were against Maru, going 3-0 against WTL-mode Ryung is no mean feat. MaxPax refused to let the savvy veteran work his magic, with the highlight being a paper-thin hold against an all-in on Crimson Court. MaxPax is a more than worthy MVP pick in a week full of great individual performances.

Weekly MVP's:

• Week 8: PSISTORM.MaxPax
  
• Week 7: WBG.herO
  
• Week 6: SR.ByuN
  
• Week 5: BASILISK.Reynor
  
• Week 4: MYG.Cyan
  
• Week 3: SR.Scarlett
  
• Week 2: OG.Firefly
  
• Week 1: SLT.Krystianer

TL.net Moral Victory™ Recipients: KeeN, Nicoract

Preview: Regular Season Week 9

Due to a scheduling change, the first day of matches was moved to July 18th, before a preview article could be published. These matches have already been played (check Liquipedia for results).




With matches against Shopify and PSISTORM left on the calendar, SLT will almost certainly be relegated if they can't beat OFFSYDE this week. OFFSYDE themselves are in danger of relegation, but their situation is arguably less dire due to their more clement schedule and the addition of HeroMarine.

It will be imperative for SLT that Wayne gets the 2-0 against uThermal. Last week's series against BattleB shook my belief in him slightly, but his overall track record in the WTL is good enough for me to trust him to take care of business. Against a non-full-time player like uThermal, perhaps a more macro-oriented approach would be preferable?

HeroMarine's arrival changes the entire feel for this OFFSYDE roster. Krystianer has had a solid breakout season, and would have been favored against most players on relegation-zone teams. However, he's woefully outmatched against Big Gabe, who had a 90% win-rate in head-to-heads against him. With the easily pushable Ghost River as the initial map, I'm picking a 2-0 for Big Gabe.

If things are tied two-all, the stage will be set for perhaps the most anticipated WTL match of the season (at least until we get the tantalizing Namshar vs FightingFrog showdown) between Firefly and YoungZest. WTL fanatics will remember YoungZest's two previous appearances in the league: a random ace match win to make sure Invictus Gaming finished a season winless, and an even more random 1-1 tie against Dark. Thus, it's quite amusing to see him go up against the original WTL 'random' Protoss in FireFly. At this point, FireFly has become established enough in the scene where he can be the player an unknown player takes down on their way to stardom. For the sake of entertainment, I’ll say this is a 1-1 to force an ace match.

While YoungZest beating HeroMarine in an ace match to save SLT’s season would be peak WTL drama, I have to operate within the realm of reality. Big Gabe (if he plays), should be an easy pick to win against whoever is picked for SLT.

Prediction: OFFSYDE Esports 4 - 3 Starlight Twinkle



Clem is taking this week off, which may just be for personal reasons rather than any disdain for Berserker (Clem skipped this week's ESL Open Cups).

Alas, Berserker's opportunity was ruined by all the match-ups going the way of TL. Cure has a big advantage over BattleB, SKillous has a moderate advantage against DnS (PvP being what it is), while MaNa vs GunGFuBanDa is close to a toss-up (I'll favor MaNa due to GFBD's form lately).

There's more variance than usual due to all three match-ups being mirrors, but I think TL should still come out with the three points barring an extremely unlikely confluence of upsets.

Prediction: Team Liquid 4 - 2 Berserker eSport





This is Twisted Fairy's last chance to really make a run at the playoffs, as an upset against Weibo would keep them narrowly in the postseason race.

Alas, the Fairies might have to concede a 0-2 to start, as the surging Oliveira is heavily favored against a Nice who was contemplating retirement earlier this year. If TF are to keep their playoff aspirations alive, they really need Nice to succeed with a proxy-Void Ray cheese for old time's sake.

On paper, herO vs Classic is a huge match between two of the best Protoss players in the WTL (herO, MaxPax, and Classic are the three leaders in the clubhouse for the 'best regular season Protoss' award). However, in terms of head-to-head record, herO has had Classic's number this year, going 8-1 against him. I'm going to predict a 2-0 for herO here, but TF can reasonably hang their hopes on an upset.

Curiously enough, Jieshi (8-6) is having a much better WTL season than Stats (4-12), defying what most fans probably think about their respective standing in the scene. Stats would be favored if he could break out of his WTL funk, but given his dreadful season so far, this match could really go in any direction.

Prediction: Weibo Gaming 5 - 1 Twisted Fairy




Last week has complicated the outlook for Vitality, as they've gone from being heavy favorites to win the regular season championship to having as many as three teams breathing down their neck. It's too early to get into detailed scenario breakdowns, so we'll leave it at this: if BASILISK can take three points, things will get very interesting in weeks 10 and 11.

Much hinges on Maru vs Reynor in the opening bout. At first glance, this match seems to favor Vitality, as Maru is on track to have another perfect season while Reynor is struggling with his usual WTL foibles. Still, Reynor rarely gives up clean 0-2's outside of the playoffs, and a 1-1 against Maru would probably be a satisfactory result.

Depending on your point of view, the middle-match of Serral vs Ryung might favor Vitality. Would you rather 'sacrifice' Ryung to Serral and save your two best players from the Finnish buzzsaw, or have Solar try to upset Serral in his most vulnerable match-up? There's probably no clear answer here. In any case, Ryung seems pretty doomed, but look for him to bet it all on a 2-base all-in on Ghost River (his go-to when going up against a stronger Zerg).

The series concludes with what projects to be a very close duel between Solar and ShoWTimE, with Aligulac saying these two are virtually tied at the moment. If we go into this match tied 2-2, then we might get to enjoy some very tense, high-stakes StarCraft.

Prediction: BASILISK 5 - 1 Vitality

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