EPT![[image loading]](http://i45.tinypic.com/10h3sso.png)
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Forget Avalon.
Forget Lost Saga.
Hell, you should forget Club Day and Arena too.
With one of the biggest sponsors in a long time, a set of maps that drive a stake right in the heart of the "Swarm Season", and a stellar lineup where basically every S-Class player made it through the prelims, the Starcraft fan in all of us has to start feeling that unmistakable tingling in the deepest corner of the nerdiest part of the brain that says, in the barely audible whisper of something too good to be true, "This wont be just another MSL".
That this wont be another one-race circus, delivering boring beatdowns into lackluster finals.
This wont be playing second fiddle to the (often deservedly) heavier hype of the OSL matchups.
This season, you should think to yourself, is going to be something special - with a winner who doesn't follow in the tradition of fOrGG, Mind, or Luxury, but in the hallowed footsteps of the true MSL greats like NaDa, Oov, and sAviOr.
In short, when it comes to the Nate MSL:
You wont forget.
Now that's a bold claim, and laying the whole thing on gut instinct isn't a very solid foundation, so let's examine the latest MSL news to get a clearer picture of just why our coverage team is so excited for these games to begin.
Maps
![[image loading]](http://i47.tinypic.com/2rxcf0m.png)
From left to right: Match Point, Odd-Eye, Ultimatum, Fighting Spirit
This is one of the most exciting map pools for a tournament in a long time. Bringing in arguably the best two proleague maps at the moment, Match Point and Fighting Spirit, and replacing the crimes against humanity that were Carthage and Byzantium with the all-new MSL-exclusives, Odd-Eye and Ultimatum, the organizers behind the MSL have finally decided to take a serious stance against the balance issues that have been plaguing individual leagues as of late.
Are there problems? Yes, of course. In their mad rush to never have to say the words "Kwanro" and "Finals" in the same sentence ever again, the MSL organizers have done perhaps a little bit too much to weaken the Swarm. To put it simply: these maps, as far as can be seen, are not Zerg friendly. Most alarming are Match Point and Fighting Spirit, which have a combined 8-0 record in TvZ - bringing the ghost of Tiamat to mind, better known as one third of the deadly Arena trio that basically handed fOrGG an MSL gold.
Combine that with what seem to be Terran-friendly features on the new maps (though, as always, what a map seems to favor and what it actually does favor are often different) and we could have the opportunity for Humans to win their first starleague title in over a year (Not counting GOM S3, where Flash did snag the trophy) - or at the very least, start knocking out the weak Zergs en masse, creating some breathing room for Protoss players and increasingly the likelihood that we will see a varied mixture of races going forward.
![[image loading]](http://i50.tinypic.com/1olhef.png)
Will the new maps help Flash take his first MSL?
Players
![[image loading]](http://i49.tinypic.com/30mlc9i.png)
Diverse groups in the Ro32 means a better Ro16
Here are the current groups for the Ro32:
Group A -
Calm, 
BeSt, 
Light, fOrGGGroup B -
Kwanro, HoGiL, Shine, HwasinGroup C -
Iris, Saint, hyvaa, FlashGroup D -
Jaedong, Crazy-Hydra, Stats, JulyGroup E -
Canata, hero, Movie, StorkGroup F -
Bisu, GuemChi, Bogus, sAviOrGroup G -
ZerO, Hyuk, type-b, KalGroup H -
EffOrt, RuBy, FireFist, JangBiThanks l10f for the translation!
As exciting as a major upset may be for the spectators and fans, it has to noted that there are two kinds of upsets that appear similiar, but are actually extremely different in the quality of entertainment they produce. The first kind, as when a written-off July came back to win an OSL against the extrmely on fire new player BeSt, or when a kid named IPXZerg came out of nowhere with an exciting new style of play and starting tearing up leagues, are the good upsets becuase they have significance. The better player didnt just win, they won and continued to prove that they deserved that win (ala Bisu beating sAviOr in the MSL finals or Flash cheesing Bisu out of leagues).
The second kind of upsets are where an overall stronger player is knocked out because of a weak matchup, stupid mistake, poor build, or imbalanced map. Bisu losing to Shine in the OSL is a perfect example: yes, Shine played better in that series, but by barely scraping by 2-1 and eliminating the best Protoss in the world, he created a void of entertainment that he simply is not capable of filling and almost certainly created an easier road to the finals for someone else.
After FantaSy dropped out in the prelims to Stats, I was afraid we would be in for a tournament full of the latter type of upset, yet suprisingly he was the only top-tier player not to qualify for the Ro32. Bisu, Jaedong, Flash, Calm, Kal, Iris, Stork, Effort... they all made the cut, and this is honestly one of the biggest steps towards having a historic tournament, having players who play historic-quality games. Imagine the intensity of a Ro8 consisting entirely of people on the Power Rank. A Ro4? While there are surely more upsets to come (I for one dont foresee Kal making it past the Ro32), the sheer number of quality players who have made it this far means we have good odds of seeing some really epic series down the road. Perhaps an honest to god Grand Finals quality Jaedong/Bisu Bo5? Let's wait and see.
Preview Groups 1-3
The first two MSL groups begin in a few moments, with the third starting two days from now. Here are some last minute predictions of how they will go down:
![[image loading]](http://i47.tinypic.com/orl3mb.png)
Calm < Match Point > BeSt
Light < Fighting Spirit > fOrGG
< Ultimatum >
< Ultimatum >
< Odd-Eye >
This is an interesting group - there are two MSL champions here, one (Calm) is the clear favorite to win as he is the only concretely S-Class player among the four, though he has definitely stumbled lately - check out his OSL game against Fantasy where he looked seriously off of his A-game - and the other (fOrGG) is without a doubt the clear favorite to lose 0-2, as he simply is not in form to make a serious run at an individual leage or even, in my opinion, take off an upset game. That leaves a guess as to who will advance second. I'd love to say it will be BeSt, and if he plays as sharp as he did vs Flash in proleague, than I do in fact believe he will be moving on behind Calm, but I have a very strong feeling that Light with his never failing ability to play solid (not great, not bad) will simply cruise past the roller coaster Best, who rockets beween good and bad on a daily basis.
![[image loading]](http://i46.tinypic.com/nybcxe.png)
Kwanro < Fighting Spirit > HoGiL
Shine < Ultimatum > Hwasin
< Odd-Eye >
< Odd-Eye >
< Match Point >
Ugh, I hope Hwasin makes it through here because none of the other three are even close to in form enough to make a run in this MSL. Yes, even you Kwanro - no matter how far you got in the last one. Shine at least is a promising rookie who has already accumulated a high profile win over Bisu and a solid win rate in all matchups, so I predict him to either advance 2-0 or 2-1 depending on how he does vs. Hwasin (who - despite a loss to Zero yesterday in the OSL, looked extremely solid).
![[image loading]](http://i45.tinypic.com/a2ae4o.png)
Iris < Ultimatum > Saint
hyvaa < Odd-Eye > Flash
Winners < Match Point >
Losers < Match Point >
Final < Fighting Spirit >
I dont know enough about how Iris is playing lately to give a 100% concrete judgement that he will cruise past Saint and Hyvaa, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt in these predictions because he has proven time and time again for years that he can play world class TvZ when he wants to. If I had to pick a possible zerg to take his place, it would be Hyvaa, because Saint is awful. You might notice i'm not even mentioning the fourth person in the group; there simply is no reason to. Flash is playing at another level lately and nobody in this group is a true threat to him or his amazing streaks in both TvZ and TvT at this point.
That's it for this MSL update; we hope you are as excited as we are for the real NATE MSL to get underway and share our hope that it will be one of the best in a long time.
Stay tuned next week for recaps of groups A,B, and C and previews of D,E, and F!
