FXOpen Invitational Series Day #2

On one hand we have the current GSL champion who seems to be tearing everyone apart with precise and well refined play. On the other we have a solid protoss that has been around for a while but hasn’t produced much in results recently. He’s shown us some good games but hasn’t come up with the prize at the end of the day. It’s not very hard to call this one at all. Jjakji is most likely going to put on a clinic while he systematically destroys Ace for everyone to see… Sorry Ace. Jjakji 2-0 Ace

Two Zergs who both sport pretty good ZvZ capability, we should get some good games out of these two no matter what happens. XiGua has a recent result that everyone keeps pointing back to but in the end I see him more likely to slip up if it goes into a longer ZvZ which can come down to even just one little positioning error. XiGua has also shown the propensity to choke in these types of online events in the past; so even though on paper this should be a good match having seen XiGua play quite a bit in the past I put him down as the one more likely to mess up, and in a really good ZvZ that’s all it takes. Zenio 2-0 XiGua

ToD has always been underrated, this came to a head when he singlehandedly knocked Alicia out of MLG Anaheim beating him on both sides of the open bracket. He’s a good Protoss who should benefit greatly from his time in Korea. That being said Revival should outclass him, ToD hasn’t had the time to properly soak things in yet and his record against Zergs is frankly quite bad. This match should be pretty clear cut, look for ToD to be a force if he stays in Korea and trains well but currently he really doesn’t stand a chance against Revival. Revival 2-0 ToD

This is a tough one to call. Lucky has had a less than stellar ZvZ record since IPL3 where he lost 4-0 to Stephano. At the same time Sen has been hopping all over the world to compete in events. Unfortunatly Sen has not been as successful as he useto. I think Lucky’s dedication to improve his ZvZ will shine through. Lucky 2-0 Sen

In which I solidify my role as the bad guy. Oz has been playing amazing recently, the problem is he always seems to fall short right at the end of tournaments. Amongst what has been marked as a trouble period for Protoss players he has been providing pretty close the most consistent results of any Protoss recently. He made it to the Semi finals of the last GSL only to lose to Jjakji who seemed to make everyone look silly in the process. Jinro really only stands a chance if he can break out of his predictable playstyle, if he plays his normal game I’d expect this series to be quite ugly. If Jinro mixes it up I still don’t see him winning but it will be more entertaining. Oz has just been too solid recently for me to say anything else. Oz 2-0 Jinro

Given that noone has ever seen HyuN play (to the best of my knowledge), this is a really... odd prediction to make. Clide is well rounded, consistent, and has sideburns. Kind of like Elvis, although I'm yet to see Clide's hips move as well as Elvis. Sure, HyuN made it to Code A in one shot, which is super impressure, but Clide is like, really good. HyuN was a pretty mediocre BW player, and I'm going to go against the elephant, and say that Clide takes this. Clide 2-0 HyuN

DongRaeGu is a clear favourite here, but it's hard to make a very informed decision since the sample size (DRG has played 6 ZvZs in Korea, going 5-1), Symbol is 8-8 against some less than top tier zergs. It's ZvZ, so anything can happen, but I think DongRaeGu is gonna take it. DongRaeGu 2-0 Symbol

Go back 6 months and it's easy to snap "Bomber wins", but it's January of 2012, and Bomber has really fallen, despite crushing his Up/Down group, he got knocked out of Code S pretty easily. asd barely missed out on making Code S again, and is severely underrated. It's tough to pick, but I think this is pretty much a coinflip. Being more exposed to asd's TvT, I'm going to give him the 51% to 49% advantage. If this ends in 2 maps I'll be surprised. asd 2-1 Bomber