EPT
The defending Champion Chojja at the Group Selection Ceremony
The Cyon MSL had some really memorable games, such as Rainbow displaying his artistic Shuttle play against a helpless Goodfriend, IPXZerg once more being iloveoov's nemesis, as well as a nice game between the old titans Boxer and Reach. Just to name a few.
Now it starts again. This time no less than PRINGLES is the sponsor of the MSL, here is all you need to know:
The Players
From left to right, top row: Chojja, Pusan, Mumyung, Reach, Kingdom, Boxer, iloveoov, Midas
bottom row: Nal_rA, Terato, Rainbow, Rumble, Stork, Yooi, IPXZerg, Gorush
Or in other words:
- 8 SKT Telecom players
- 3 KTF players
- 1 Samsung Khan player
- 1 P.O.S player
- 1 GO player
- 1 KOR player
- 1 SouL player
We have 7 Protoss players, 5 Zerg players and 4 Terran players in this MSL, which is slightly unusual. Anyway, My life for Aiur. Also all the players together have 8 MSL (/KPGA) titles and 15 Major Starleague titles, quite a lot, uh? Man, I love statistics.
The Groups
The groups were drawn and then some players were switched around (look here for more details on the drawing and switching).(Chojja, IPXZerg, iloveoov, Mumyung). These are the final groups:
- Group A: Chojja vs Gorush, Boxer vs Terato
- Group B: IPXZerg vs Rainbow, Reach vs Kingdom
- Group C: iloveoov vs Nal_rA, Stork vs Pusan
- Group D: Mumyung vs Yooi, Midas vs Rumble
The Changed League System
The last season was the last one to be played in double elimination format. MBCGame has completely revised the system and the new one could provide us with a very interesting league.
The full system (including the Minor League aka Survivor League) is explained here (thanks to HonestTea). For starters let's look at what the first few weeks will look like.
The players are divided into 4 groups with 4 players each. Each group plays a mini-double elimination tournament (just like in OGN's Dual Tournament for example), top 2 advance. To make it more tense for the players as well as the fans the games are spread out to several weeks.
Round of 16 in detail:
Week 1: Round of 16. Group A and B. First two games (best of 1)
Week 2: Round of 16. Group C and D. First two games (best of 1)
Week 3: Losers' match for all groups (best of 1)
Week 4: Winners' match for all groups (best of 1)
Week 5: Game 5 for all groups (Winners week 3 vs loser week 4) (best of 1)
So, this Thursday it will be from Group A Chojja vs. Gorush and Boxer vs. Terato, and from Group B IPXZerg vs. Rainbow and Reach vs. Kingdom. Next week will be from Group C iloveoov vs. Nal_rA and Stork vs. Pusan, and from Group D Mumyung vs. Yooi and Midas vs Rumble. Then the Losers of each group against each other in Week 3 and so on.
Unlike in the OSL, were you often knew pretty early who was going to advance, the advancing players of each group will only be revealed in the last two weeks of the Round of 16, which possibly makes it more interesting!
The Schedule
The dates may be subject to minor changes (for example the Finals will probably not be played on a Thursday, but rather on a Saturday or Sunday), but should be mostly pretty accurate. So we have 3 months of games, games and games awaiting us!
Round of 16
- Week 1, April 13th - first games in Groups A and B
- Week 2, April 20th - first games in Groups C and D
- Week 3, April 27th - Losers' matches
- Week 4, May 4th - Winners' matches -> Winners advance to Round of 8
- Week 5, May 13th - Winners week 3 vs. Losers Week 4 -> Winners advance to Round of 8
Round of 8
- Week 6, May 20th - A1 vs C2, D1 vs B2
- Week 7, May 27th - B1 vs D2, C1 vs A2
- Week 8, June 1st - Losers' matches (Bo3)
- Week 9, June 8th - Winners' matches (Bo3) -> Winners advance to Semis
- Week 10, June 15th - Winners week 8 vs. Losers Week 9 -> Winners advance to Semis
Semifinals
- Week 11, June 22nd - A1 vs B2 (Bo5)
- Week 12, June 29th - B1 vs A2 (Bo5)
Finals
- Week 13, July 6th (Bo5)
The Maps
MBCGame keeps only Rush Hour from last season, which was slightly altered at 11 o'clock. They take 815 from OGN, which is also altered, the expansion islands now have 2 Geysers with 2500 Gas each, instead of one with 5000. This should work in favor of Zerg.
Arcadia and The Eye are completely new, hopefully they will prove to be balanced and bring us nice games!
You can download them here (originally taken from pgr21.com).
Let the games begin!
![[image loading]](http://image.fighterforum.com/showImage.asp?realFile=FFPHOT20060407004016013.JPG)
