ASUS ROG Winter 2012 Preview: The Next Ten.

What tournament would be complete without a home-town hero? A bastion of hope for locals to pit their dreams on for a chance of national glory. Since splashing on to the international scene via IEM - Guangzhou and taking 2nd, the road for our Finnish phenom has been a bumpy one taking third at the ASUS ROG invite, part in thanks to his stellar PvP form. Beyond that though Elfi then hit back hard in the SETT.fi Invitational #1, crushing eShara.Satiini in the final with a convincing 3-0. This glory however was short lived, as recently Satiini himself was able to take revenge at Lantrek 2012 with a very strong 3-1 performance over his Finnish rival.

For Elfi going in to Assembly Winter 2012, the trials he will face shall be tough. Depending on his group draw - this could literally make or break Elfi’s chances at advancing in a bigger way than almost any player invited, or yet to be. Elfi will need the lady luck on his side, with his bets placed soley on having a Protoss heavy group to advance. While his vT and vZ are of extremely high caliber, will his weaker match-ups be able to stand toe-to-toe with the big guns of the international scene?


Ah Grubby, a player that needs no introduction, a player that will always place extremely highly but be unable to win unless the tournament itself has his name in the title! This legend’s SC2 run has once again been a rocky one, with 4th, 3rd and 2nd place finishes at extremely prestigious tournaments but never really clinching that coveted 1st prize. After doing well at IeSF and ESWC, unfortunately for our Orc hero very few remember your stellar performances if you’re not in a final. Moving on to the “ShoutCraft Invitational #4” Grubby was in practice one of the only players to give the victor, the foreign Goliath - Mill.Stephano a true run for his money in a fantastic PvZ series, eventually claiming 4th over an extremely stacked lineup.

Looking forward to Finland’s most anticipated tournament of the year, Grubby is always a player people seem to underestimate when it comes to advancing. Assuming he’s able to avoid a “Group of Death” Grubby will almost certainly advance, as his command of all match-ups is almost always under-rated, especially his blisteringly impressive PvZ. Despite recently losing out on his Steel Series sponsor you can guarantee this has only made Grubby more determined than ever to perform on a global stage as he sets his sights directly on Helsinki and the battles to follow.


Some would consider him America’s strongest Terran, some would say he’s a Korean. Regardless of which camp you reside in, no-one can deny the talent and the resilience of such a formidable combatant playing for the black and yellow whirlwind. A player almost guarenteed to place well in anything he participates in, SeleCT is able to crush through his opponents to take fantastic finishes at not only the Battle.net NA Invitational but also MLG, IPL and the i42 in the UK. Not only this, but SeleCT has been able to perform extremely well upon the battleground in question, taking 2nd to IdrA at the ASUS ROG Invitational recently.

When you look at SeleCT closer, it’s hard to determine a match-up he’s “lack-lustre” in. In any given situation and at almost any time, SeleCT with enough preparation can take a game from anyone, making him one of the most fierce players yet to be announced for the upcoming extravaganza. Betting against SeleCT to advance from his group unless it consists of players such as MVP.DRG, IM.Mvp and MVP.Genius would be a ridiculous notion and let’s face it, how can you wager against one of Day9’s favourite Terrans? SeleCT’s relentless aggression can only be out-matched by his relentless desire to win.


The fun loving, smile bear that is Liquid.Sheth will be making his Finland Assembly debut hoping for glory in his second appearance in Scandinavia. Sheth in general, being one of the strongest American Zergs to date has been able to break down some of the most formidable players via either fantastic aggression early on, or via his ability to macro like only a Zerg can do. It’s his decision making that defines Sheth, the ability on the fly to decide whether or not there is a kink in the armor of his opponent. A timid shark lurking in the dark but once the scent of blood in the water is smelt, Sheth is able to take that and work it massively to his advantage.

For Sheth it’s going to be interesting to see how his group shapes up. While his ZvP is very strong, and his ZvZ is almost as majestic as some higher rated Zergs (i.e. Korean), his ZvT to a certain extent is what will let him down the most, not even because he’s “bad” at it per say. It’s mostly down to Terrans becoming extremely good in the match-up and in conjunction it just so happens to be Sheth’s weakest ZvX - All this despite Sheth having still an above average win ratio in ZvT.


Silently waiting in the wings for what seems like forever since he won the HD World Tournament vs DIMAGA, Strelok is back in business only barely missing out on advancing in the IEM Kiev groups. After only taking a RO32 placement in the initial Assembly Winter back in 2011 you can safely bet that Strelok is not going to be happy with a short finish here next time around. Unfortunately though for our Ukrainian Terran - on par, mediocre results have hindered almost his entire SC2 career thus far (and at the recent WCG in Korea) despite taking out players recently like Kas, Naniwa and TITAN.

While Strelok at IEM Kiev was only taxed with TvP and won 2 or the 3 series (lag issues aside), and despite having amazing results in both NASL seasons, i’m a little worried for Strelok in the upcoming group stages. His best matchup is undoubtedly his relatively standard TvZ however is currently falling short on the other two which could be his downfall if he has to play too much TvT as opposed to vZ and vP.


A man I know far too much about, both in terms of play-style and because of things like me still owing him some English tea-bags which I promised him over the Christmas Holiday. MaNa as an entity can be considered as a foreigner most in contention right now for a Kong title, having placed 2nd at a multitude of high profile events such as Assembly Summer, ESWC, the SCAN Invitational and TwitchTV EU Invitational. At the time of writing this he is currently sitting aloft the TLPD Foreigner chart at #1, showing his ability to strive for results not only offline, but online as well. Considering MaNa is still studying and yet able to punch out fantastic results, some would consider him the Protoss equivalent to a pre-focused Stephano, able to play amazingly well despite being unable to commit 100% of his time to the pursuit of glory. I’m actually quite scared to think what this young Psi-Storm of a player could accomplish if he fully applies himself after finishing up his studies.

For MaNa Assembly Winter 2012 will be a tough one. While most of his match-ups feel extremely solid, there can sometimes be either a mental block or the inability to punish extremely strong EU Zergs such as Stephano or his Polish arch-nemesis, Acer.Nerchio. That being said, his vP decision making and all round vT match-up are what will carry MaNa to success in Helsinki, with PvT being considered his strongest suit. Will he be able to break this curse, in a similar vain to Grubby, or will his tournament woes continue before finally hitting it big.


I don’t know if this applies to anyone else, but NightEnD to me is like the DarkForce of Protoss. Always overlooked, under-rated and ends up being a likely dark horse of any tournament. The currently longest standing member on the Fnatic roster is no stranger to the offline scene where he recently stunned everyone taking 4th at the recent Dreamhack. Thanks to his prowess in vP and vT he was able to stifle every opponent with his mix of strong timings or immense ability to throw out some of the most impressive EU Protoss macro to date at a moments notice.

Despite past strong performances and the ability to really pull it out when it matters, I feel that if the level of invites keep up to the standard we currently have, NightEnD is going to have a tough time advancing past the group stage. However, with his strong ability to mix his play up between the timings and macro we mentioned earlier anything is possible for our Romanian “Dracula Toss”. NightEnD’s resilient style though in the early and mid-game could pay dividends if his group is top heavy with aggressive players who sacrifice economy for game-breaking pushes, unless the opponent in question has the name of a certain black cat. Also if Liquipedia is anything to go by, having “the voice of an angel” could swing the tide of battle in his favour!


He’s coming... Akin to Majora’s Mask, the Moon is set to crash land into the northern hemisphere sending shock-waves across the land, causing devastation where he lay and bringing fan-girls from the four corners of the world to bask in his glory. Maybe that was a bit over-dramatic? In any case it’s been a while since we’ve had Moon make an appearance other than taking 2nd to the Kong master himself MarineKingPrime in the IPL 4 Pacific Qualifiers which we all remember so fondly. Almost a mythical entity in himself, Moon goes into Assembly Winter fuelled by a brand new team and no doubt an absolute determination to crush skulls in his wake. While not having performed amazingly in Korea, Moon always seems to pull out fantastic results on foreign soil which makes this appearance all the more potent for an explosive situation.

I think it’s safe to say, although we haven’t seen him as of late, that the Moon of failed-baneling-explosions past is long gone, but despite this he will still have to prove himself a strong player in the upcoming group stages of Assembly Winter. That being said, during the alliance of F.United and the GSTL, our foreign representatives are quoted to have said that Moon in practice was a force to be reckoned with, literally untouchable. Can he bring the same furious vigor to the stage in Helsinki after a brief silent period? It remains to be seen. Personally i’m expecting to see Moon in the top 5 if he can perform to the potential we know he has.





Authors Note: *If the stars align or I can somehow bribe the Admins* - If Grubby and Moon go up against each other (hasn’t happened since NASL S1 I believe?) I actually might die of a seizure.

As always you can check out more from me at www.twitch.tv/mousesports and @mouzKaelaris on twitter!

Article can also be found at www.cyber-sports.net and www.SETT.fi


EDIT: Also as a small announcement I'm pretty sure i'll be casting some Assembly Winter <3 Unsure as to the logistics yet but we'll be sorting stuff soon I imagine. Probably a side stream as big names get the main streams :D