Pool A

EG.IdrA remains the center of attention entering Dallas, as this would mark his first major tournament after departing Korea in order to enrich the North American ESPORTS’ scene with his presence. However, his return has been a little bit bumpy of a ride. IdrA has not had the chance to post results due to the lack of major tournaments around this time of the year, and an early bounce in the TSL adds further speculations about his current form. IdrA will be looking to make a statement in Dallas, answering all his critics and finally have a chance to tell GOM that he’s still alive and well. ROOT.KiWiKaKi and aTn.Socke will battle it out to slowly the climb the ladder of the best Protoss in the West. Recently moved in to form one of the very first team houses in NA, Kiwikaki is never short of tricks that will definitely please the crowd. Hopefully, he won’t have to dual-box both his account and Athenewins. Socke’s confidence will draw from his recent golds in the Justin.TV Invitational #2 and SK-Gaming EU champions victory. Last but not least, is Gretorp. While we’ve all seen Gretorp working tirelessly to bring the NASL alive, not much of Gretorp’s actual gameplay has been seen recently. He’ll enter the tournament as a mystery, which definitely can work to his advantage.



Pool B

Liquid`Ret luckily only has one match-up to prepare for his pool, but his opponents are definitely not pushovers. The Assembly champion is comfortable at home, and the only thing scarier than a Ret is a well-rested Ret. And then we have the Terrans. If his computer is running fine and dandy, dignitas.SeleCT is one of NA’s best Terrans. Seeing that he was inches away from a TSL spot, SeleCT will be hungry for any sort of consolation, and perhaps the best prize is to crush some more players. Unfortunately for Dignitas, a team-kill might happen, as dignitas.SjoW happens to be in the same group. Sjow’s tournament results have been all over the place, and his lack of consistent results has plagued him ever since release. On the other hand, it could just mean that MLG Dallas is the crest of his tournament cycle. FXOQxc rounds up the seeded players in the group. Fresh off his victory over Genius in the TSL, Qxc will participate in his first live tournament under FXO, and he is out to reassure his new team that he is capable of becoming the team’s ace. On a side note, hopefully his winning interview will be less than an hour.



Pool C

The group originally started with all 4 seeds having a different starting race choice, but it seems that TLO will be returning to Dallas playing Terran instead. LG.PainUser sits at the highest seeded player in the group, thanks to miraculous run and third place finish last year. His run through the loser’s bracket ultimately ended in a loss against the runner-up TT1, but through the course of that run, PainUser managed to demonstrate his creativity and knock out some of the biggest names in the business. Up until two weeks ago, PainUser’s attendance was up in the air as his possible inclusion in GOM’s world tournament would mean that he would have to skip out on Dallas. A disappointing loss to TT1 removed him from contention, and MLG Dallas is where he’ll look to redeem himself. Last year, ROOT.SLusH has consistently placed among the top 12 finishes at every single event, earning him the 6th seed entering the 2011 circuit. Recovering from carpal tunnel syndrome, Liquid`TLO has wow’ed us time and time again, most recently in a legendary showdown against NaDa in TSL3. TLO will look to make his team and also his new sponsor, Sony Ericsson, proud. Whether he advances or not remains to be seen, but we all know that TLO's games are guaranteed to entertain. Pool C’s lowest seed is EG.iNcontroL, a household name in the StarCraft community. Do not let the seeding fool you. Recently, iNcontroL has been showered with new responsibilities, with the toughest being his involvement with NASL. While his workload would seem unfathomable for any normal player, iNcontroL still finds the time to practice, and at his best, iNcontroL is one scary bear.



Pool D

The last group of our seeded players is perhaps the most unpredictable group. The highest seeded player in the groups is ROOT.Drewbie, co-founder of ROOT and one of the oldest Terrans since the beta. Drewbie has been quiet ever since the new year turned around, and now would be a good time for him to demonstrate why he was one of the dominating pillars in the early days of SC2. A difference of 25 MLG points separate Drewbie from the next seed, the defending TSL champion Liquid`Tyler. Tyler has steadily moved up in the rankings each of the previous MLGs, rounding up the year with a top 4 finish last November. Having to juggle MLG and his TSL title defense, Tyler will be on point as his preparations are second to none. Anything below 1st place would be a disappointment for our chill Toss. A relatively lesser-known player is LG.Agh, grabbing the 12th seed of our competition. A Protoss of unknown potential, Agh could provide the upset that fans are waiting to see. The last seed in the group is
EG.Machine, who thankfully did not land in the same group as iNcontroL this time. Machine finished 6th in Dallas last year, after making a quick exit both MLGs earlier. If he wishes to come out of this group in a respectable standing, Machine will have replicate his monstrous run again.



Open Bracket

Those who were not able to place in the top 16 in terms of ranking points have to go through the hellish process of an open bracket. Containing a maximum of 256 players, the talent pool in this portion of circuit is insane. Players from EG, Fnatic, complexity, ROOT, and sixjax.NRG are all present, hoping to make top 16 in order to proceed to the next stage of the event. Several players have flown across the ocean and making their debut MLG appearance, such as Naniwa and Grubby. In addition, our favorite Biebertoss HuK and handsome HayprO will also travel from Korea and make an appearance to help Liquid defend Jinro's title. It is a shame that most of these matches will not be broadcast, because among them, there could be a match to remember.

6. Rebound and Redemptions

It's been a tough few weeks for Liquid`Haypro and Fnatic.Fenix. Both have been regarded as elite players but both have shown disappointing results lately. Fenix bombed out of IEM world championships (0-10 in groups) and was eliminated from the TSL3 by his teammate Sen. While you can hardly blame him for losing to his Code S level teammate, Fenix is looking to show some better results, like when he beat oGsTOP at DreamHack or when he won IEM New York. Those results seem far away, but Fenix has the ability to play on that level.

Haypro has dropped out of TSL3 as well, and recently failed at Code A Qualifiers, losing to fOu Protoss TopClass, who also beat IEM runner-up Moon on his way to qualifying for Code A. While his results in team leagues for Liquid are encouraging, and his win over Tyler at Pax was also impressive, Haypro has yet to show us a big individual tournament win. Coming out of a very strong Open Bracket at MLG will do a lot to silence the critics.

5. Personality Zergs

You probably know of CatZ and Destiny. Both are fun and outspoken, generating endless entertainment for their fans through their words and creative play. But can you name any tournaments they've won? Both players are aiming to take the next step in their careers to prove they aren't just entertainers that play well, but serious contenders for any tournament they enter. CatZ will have his chance this weekend and in the NASL, where his ridiculously stacked group includes IEM winner ST_Ace, Assembly winner Liquid`Ret, and two time GSL Champion oGs.MC. Destiny, freshly recruited by CatZ to ROOT, will have thousands of eager Steve Bonnell stream fans watching his every result. The open bracket will be Destiny's first true test as a ROOT member, and a big moment for his career.

4. Pure Potential

That nice guy with the smile and Miss Universe girlfriend, he can play WarCraft 3 quite well. He's kind of a big deal. But in the cutthroat world of ESPORTS, it's all about "what have you done for me lately?" Nobody doubts EG.Grubby has the potential to be one of the best, and his legions of fans sit and wait for his RTS skills to translate to StarCraft 2. We can all see it: he's getting better. But before Grubby can even think of Korea and the GSL, he's got to make a breakthrough at an event like Assembly or IEM or MLG. Is it only a matter of time? This weekend we'll know if it's "now" or "not yet."

3. Smiles and Rivals

Complexity's CrunCher burst onto the scene by winning TSL3 Qualifier #3, defeating Fenix 3-0 and using a mothership to boot. He went on to defeat PainUser and Sjow in showmatches, and then hit a hot streak in the FX Open Invitational, taking out Koreans oGsInCa, MarineKing, and Check. Oh, and in case you haven't heard, he beat EG.IdrA 2-1 and punctuated it with a now infamous smiley face and biting post-game interview. Everyone's secret wish is that CrunCher makes it through the bracket and is sent into IdrA's group. The rivalry between these two individuals and their teams as well make for some nice drama behind a simple StarCraft 2 best-of-three. Here's to hoping it happens.

2. Europe to North America

Two top Europeans travel for the first time to MLG -- Dignitas.NaNiwa and Virus.Naama. Naniwa has grown to be one of the top Protoss players in Europe, and looks to build on his TSL3 Ro32 win over Liquid`Ret by potentially joining his teammates SeleCT and SjoW in the MLG Championship Bracket. Naama, who recently left Mousesports to join the French team Virus, has one major tournament win under his belt: DreamHack Winter 2010, where he defeated oGsTOP and mouz.MaNa to take first place. Nobody would be surprised to see these two play in the finals of any major European tournament, and here they are fighting for a spot in MLG's Open Bracket. Good luck, North America!

1. New Code, Same Champ?

MLG's #1 ranked player, Liquid`HuK, was at first not attending MLG Dallas 2011. However, a quick exit from the GSL World Championships at the hands of IM.Mvp allowed him to rush back to the United States in time to compete. Unfortunately, he won't get an automatic spot in groups, but he will be the #1 seed in the Open Bracket, which just became that much harder. A month ago HuK became the only third foreigner ever to advance into Code S in GSL, and his fans hope that HuK can be the first player to win two MLGs (Raleigh 2010, Dallas 2011?). HuK returns to North America with his trademark fan-favorite persona, but make no mistake, he's quite a different player than he was back in November. Can HuK's newly acquired, Korean-refined skills blaze through the long road in front of him, from Open Bracket back to MLG champion? We'll see.