Big Fish to Fry

Last round marked the beginning of the stage in which every team won at least one game. But last week featured teams that had also lost one. This week, it's the quarterfinals of the winners bracket, with eight undefeated teams remaining. At the end of the week, we'll have four left to hold that distinction. Only one foreign owned team, Liquid is in this stage, and they have the hardest draw against defending champs of both the IPL TAC and the GSTL; Prime. But all teams at this point are GSTL teams. This is clearly serious business.

The last round was exciting, with more all-kills than IPL TAC2 could even dream of. But that trend is unlikely to continue when the teams are this evenly matched. So look forward to a great week of action, as some of the top teams in the world compete (almost all on the KR server!) in just the quarterfinals. This is getting big, fast.

Week Six (Losers Round 1.5) Review

By tree.hugger

On paper, Mousesports was still the favorite here, especially after MaNa's great Dreamhack performance. But in practice, having seen the last few clanleagues fought both by mouz and Acer, you had to at least suspect that this result would come. Acer have played inspired starcraft in this IPL TAC, beating Eclypsia, and going the distance against Prime. On the flip side, Mousesports had only a 1-5 loss to Liquid to their name, and look listless as a team without ThorZaIN. I wouldn't worry about them too much, as HeRoMaRinE is growing into his role as a regular starter, and MaNa is clearly taking initiative as Mousesports' new ace. But for IPL TAC3, at least, Mouz is out and Acer is moving on.

ParanOid was the big hero for Acer, taking three key wins, and most importantly clearing out MorroW. Both the Swede and his teammates HasuObs and biGs had to do better for Mousesports if they were going to get a win. HasuObs's opening loss against DarkHydra, who is not the cream of Acer's line-up was a big opening blow. HeRoMaRinE did well to bring back a game. It should be said that his adaptation as a Mousesports regular has been quite solid. But it wasn't enough, ParanOid went on a spree, and MaNa took back two before Acer sent off Nerchio and he shut the door.

Acer's next opponent will be aTn-Type, and with Acer having picked up Scarlett, they look like favorites to advance. For Mousesports, it's a difficult tournament to swallow; this is the team that made the finals of the first IPL TAC, and to be eliminated 0-2 here is an unfortunate result. Perhaps a new terran pickup could've saved them, but in general, you can ascribe everything to ThorZaIN's exit. Mousesports has plenty of talent, including the Dreamhack Summer Winner. They just couldn't put it together.





For more on this match, please read our interview with the hero of the day, Beastyqt!

But from an outsider's point of view, this was a big win for Empire; after a very awkward whipping at the hands of SlayerS, responding with a all-kill of their Eastern European rivals is a huge confidence boost. Beastyqt has looked very good recently, including a win in the NASL open bracket. With Beasty this good, Kas and Happy as good as ever, TheMista coming up strong, and ViNES and viOlet being ballers, Empire should be heavy favorites for their next match against Karont3. For FXO.CIS, it was a good run, beginning with a win over CompLexity, but sadly, it wasn't to be.





No surprises here, as dtG's army of Code B Koreans proved their worthiness against EG's foreign line-up, but fell to EG's A tier Korean one. A big story was IdrA getting two kills, and looking like he may be pulling himself out of his 2012 funk at the midway point. After DeMusliM was sent out in a TvP (curious, but not so odd; as DeMu has confessed to having more TvZ issues recently than TvP) and lost, JYP came in to eliminate dtG's ace Sickness. dtG was able to pull out Someday (alt: IcaruS, maybe dtG's second best, although who can tell) who punished JYP's PvT before falling to PuMa. In the end, it all unfolded really predictably. EG got the win they needed after the embarrassing all-kill at the hands of MvP.Monster. dtG put together a spirited performance and played well to get to this point. All's well that ends as expected, right?

dtG had a great run, benefiting from some great luck, but taking advantage of it brilliantly. Their win against aTn-Type was impressive. Sure they got all-killed by IMYongHwa, but so would many teams. With predictions floating around of a 5-1 and 5-2 in this match, dtG put togehter a solid fight and impressed. Credit to dtG, they did well.

For EG, their next opponent is Dignitas, who is sorta the sick man of this tournament. The aging power, with plenty of strong players not at their peaks, will be a sure underdog against the might of EG. EG took dtG more seriously than might've been expected, sending JYP and PuMa to stem the bleeding quickly. They shouldn't make any careless errors against Dignitas either.





This writer's most anticipated match of the week, Quantic's forfeit was a serious disappointment. With at least fifteen serious players, it's inconceivable that Quantic would have cause to forfeit a match. Anything beyond possible disbandment or a team wide tragedy would make sense, and it's not appearing like either are the case. In which case, I say...

WTF??

If Quantic forfeited because they couldn't schedule a time that was appropriate for their top players, then play with their second line. Perhaps Quantic's management weren't aware that Vile lost only 3-5 against FXO in the previous IPL TAC, and FXO hasn't impressed since then. Apocalypse isn't sent to enough tournaments, but theoretically he should be available then for this match. TheStC could surely have spared time from Code A preparations. If Quantic forfeited because they didn't think the match was worth their time, then they are simply wrong. Forfeiting a high profile match in a high profile tournament is really disappointing. It would be great to hear a statement from Quantic as to why this occurred. They should do better.

Week Seven (Winners Round 3) Preview

By NrGmonk

Last season, Prime was the best team in the GSTL. This season, Liquid was by far the worst team in the GSTL. Yes, Prime are the defending champions of this league; and they are the defending champions of the GSTL and the KSL. From this perspective, this match looks extremely grim for Liquid, but let's add some recent developments into the equation. Prime, as a team, might be considered to be in "slump" after losing to Fnatic in the GSTL, and almost losing to Acer in the IPL TAC. And Liquid certainly didn't show their best play in the GSTL, with none of their players showing their full potential and their offline team missing two of their best players in Ret and Sheth. Certainly they'll be able to do better with their full team?

However, things still look desperate for Liquid unit you realize this match happened. Team Liquid members are extremely streaky, known to display great amounts of strength in single tournaments or matches. Examples include Haypro's run in MLG Providence or Sheth's all-kill of EG. In this particular match, it was TLO who stepped up, killing MKP, Creator, and AnnYeong, in one of the most impressive 3 kills ever. While it may not be TLO this time, each player on Liquid definitely has the potential to be the hero for the team.

Still, none of Prime's players are in a true slump. MKP still got third at the MLG Spring Championships and made Code S in a Group of Death in the GSL. His only slightly disappointing results including not winning MLG and losing to Moon in a controversial match-up at the moment. Although Creator recently got knocked out of Code S, he's still showing he can play up to his reputation in team leagues, being the MVP for Prime in both their recent match versus Fnatic in the GSTL and versus Acer in the IPL TAC. Byun (He's not Ghostking anymore, yay!) made it into Code S round of 16, and Maru only got barely knocked out from probably the second hardest GSL round of 32 group this season. With Prime still going on strong, Liquid will definitely have a challenge in front of them.

Prediction: Prime 5:3 Liquid




Rematch! Almost exactly one month ago, SlayerS and NSHoSeo met in an epic clash to determine GSTL dominance. In this match, we saw the debut of Freaky's unique "I only make infestors" style, the first and possibly only instance of maxed pure 3-3-3 carriers in the GSTL, and the beginning of Puzzle's rise to prominence. It was a great day of games and a perfect way to reintroduce GSTL to the Starcraft community, but at the end of the day, it was NSHoSeo who left the studio with their heads down, already plotting their revenge through the most diabolical of means.

While NSHoSeo lost their last match versus SlayerS, they are in an upswing. Even more recently, they beat Startale with just two players, two Terrans in fact, in Sculp and Jjakji. They advanced with a win in their "Pennant Race" portion of the GSTL, something their opponents in Slayers cannot say. However, only the Terrans in NSHoSeo seem to be doing well. Last night in the GSL, Jjakji defeated a very strong player in a surging Monster while both Seal and Freaky dropped out of Code A, with Seal even losing to SlayersPuzzle. NSHoSeo Terrans have shown what damage they can do, but just one race does not a team make; it's time for their Zergs to step it up.

Speaking of one race teams, it seems not too long ago that SlayerS was known as THE Terran team, with a lineup of MMA, Ryung, Boxer, Ganzi, Taeja, and Clide. It seems strange to say that SlayerS is now Protoss dominated team. For example, in their last GSTL match, SlayerS-EG actually chose to use zero Terrans, forgoing MMA, Ryung, Puma, and Thorzain for Puzzle, Crank, and even JYP. Whether this is because of perceived match-up imbalance or because the Protoss lineup just happens to do really well in practice is unknown, but the trend is large enough that we can expect it to continue in the future. Puzzle has especially stepped up, now widely regarded as the new Ace of SlayerS, with a solid number of wins versus Zenex, Empire, MVP, and even NSH in their last meet-up. Known as one of the most solid players ever in the team league format, rivaling Creator, Puzzle is a major concern to any team, an obstacle that NSHoSeo knows well and an obstacle they will have to overcome to stand a chance.

Prediction: SlayerS 5:4 NSHoSeo




MVP and IM are both very similar teams in many ways. Both have GSL champions; MVP has DRG while IM has both Nestea and MVP. Both teams have GSTL championships, with MVP's being slightly more recent. And both have a relatively weak supporting lineup compared to some other more well-rounded teams. So why is it that in recent times, MVP has had much much more success in team leagues than IM?

The first is issue is that both MVP and Nestea just absolutely suck at team leagues. Nestea is actually 1-5 in the GSTL, with his only win coming from the Ace match in the GSTL finals which IM won. MVP has not done too much better, with a 11-9 record, a respectable record for most other players, but not for a 4-time GSL winner. Compare this to DRG, who is 28-9 in team leagues, a record which is even more impressive when you restrict it to the GSTL: 21-4. This reinforces the narrative that MVP and Nestea are more calculated and brooding players who thrive in the GSL format where you know your opponent beforehand and have days to plan beforehand. DRG, on the other hand, is a player with more raw skill, a player who does well in formats where your opponents are unknown and varied; his success at MLG or the GSTL echo this sentiment.

The second issue is the IM coach. The IM coach tends to send out his worse, less well-known players in awkward orders, and he sometimes doesn't even use his GSL champions in important matches. And while previously all of this has just been mostly criticism from fans, we recently heard the following words from Nestea himself, after losing to both TSL and Fnatic:

With even the players showing reservations at the coach's methods, perhaps he'll take all the criticism to heart, change his ways, and start to lead IM to the championship team it has the potential to be.

For the reasons mentioned in IM's shortcomings, MVP is the clear favorite to advance into the semifinals of the winners bracket. With DRG, as strong as ever, as well as a surging Monster and Sniper, MVP's Zerg lineup alone seems to be able to propel them past IM, even with the loss of MVPGenius.

Prediction: MVP 5:3 IM




When talking about TSL these days, one can't help but direct all his attention to Symbol. Symbol is no doubt the strongest player at TSL these days, and is arguably the player who has climbed the highest from complete obscurity in the shortest amount of time in Starcraft 2 history. With recent second places at the Iron Squid, MLG Spring Arena Korean Qualifiers, and MLG Spring Arena II, as well as 9 straight wins in the GSTL. This is not to mention Symbol's qualification to Code A straight to the round of 16 in Code S, getting past a group of death, and beating Parting and MKP along the way. Symbol even looks like the best candidate we've had for a royal-roader in a long time, and he's the Ace that TSL needs.

However, TSL has also proven to be a one man team. In their last round in the IPL TAC, Symbol fell against FXO.KR, but Inori was able to clean up. And against FXO.KR again in the GSTL last week, TSL did not even need Symbol clean up the struggling team. Symbol and TSL's story seems to mirror that of DRG and MVP. After first breaking out as a Super-Ace for their respective teams, their teams also stepped it up and proved that they were not one-man teams.

Startale, however, has been more shaky lately. Although they probably have more top-end players than possibly any other team, none of their players have really stepped it up like Symbol. Last week in the GSL, Startale was beaten by only two players, NSH.sculp and NSH.Jjakji, something that should not happen in such a supposedly "solid" team. Bomber and Squirtle can still be regarded as extremely solid players, but Parting has not recently lived up to his hype, dropping out of Code S by losing horribly to Symbol and dropping an unlosable game to Yugioh. In addition, he lost an Ace match in the GSTL to essentially a proxy 2 rax.

While Startale is still the better team on paper, and probably the safer pick for this match, I'm going to throw my hat into the ring for TSL. With as much momentum as TSL is currently experiencing, they should have the confidence going into the match to beat any team. Or perhaps TSL will just simply figure out Startale's weakness: proxy 2 raxes.

Prediction: TSL 5:4 Startale