Iron Squid II Group C

Dragon 2-1 ToD and will be back next week

TaeJa, the summer's hit

Liquid’s finest Terran is in for his first Iron Squid. TaeJa is probably the player who had the hottest run in StarCraft II history. TaeJa won nearly everything but GSL showing awesome skills all the way through. He was so good that he was invited in every tournament until the point fatigue started to get to him with a wrist injury. TaeJa is still doing well since but he is not dominating anymore. He got eliminated from the GSL Code S going down 0-4 and lost fairly quickly at IPL 5. Still he reached the finals of the last DreamHack Winter and the finals in NASL, which means he still know how to do it. 2012 was meant to be the year of Liquid and HerO and him brought a lot of success to their team, advancing in the Iron Squid would be a nice way to close the year.



Brown, the Zerg sniper

Just like TaeJa, Brown is a former SlayerS player. The Protoss was trained to snipe Zergs in team league and thus always did pretty well in PvZ. He proved it once more in the finals of the Korean qualifiers as he smashed Life 4-1. Brown’s progression was very quick and he reached Code S fairly easily. Sadly for him so was the fall. He fell out of GSL and although he qualified once more, he is yet to stabilize as a GSL player. Brown kept on training and remains a very strong player. Winning Iron Squid’s Korean qualifier was very impressive since it was a very stacked bracket. As a PvZ specialist, ending up in a group with two elite Terrans is not an ideal situation for Brown but he had time to prepare since he does not travel much to participate in foreign tournaments.

The face up

Two months ago, TaeJa would have been a massive favorite. Today, the Liquid Terran is still a favorite but the odds are not overwhelming. TaeJa is on a 0-9 streak versus Protoss, seven of these losses being courtesy of his teammate HerO. He is surely not as confident as he used to be. Even when he was at his peak, if he was to be stopped, it would be a TvP. Brown has his chance in this match, and as he is yet to be announced by a team, a good showing in Iron Squid could help him.



Scarlett, North America’s finest

The adjective that would be the best to qualify Scarlett’s performance in about every tournament she enters would be “impressive”. The queen of Zerg is really discreet out of the game but transforms into a blood thirsty monster as soon as the game starts. Facing the Koreans is not scary for her as she revealed herself by beating some down during IPL 4. This is a good thing for her since she’s the only foreigner in that group. The Canadian got pretty bad luck with her seed, her three opponents are very good against Zergs. Scarlett his facing a huge challenge and although she already did well in a lot of tournaments, advancing from this group would be one of her highest accomplishment considering how tough it is. Goswser showed the way to foreigners, up to Scarlett to walk in his steps.



MarineKing, doing well since the beginning

Whatever the patch, whatever the time of the year, MarineKing has always been one of the most consistent Terrans in StarCraft II. This year was good for him as he went abroad to break his Kong curse and claimed his first trophies there. Then he focused on his practice in Korea but he is still yet to win a GSL. This was quite a frustrating year in the end for MKP as he was stopped in the rounds of 8 way too often. In the Iron Squid I for instance, he got annihilated by Symbol at the threshold of Paris. In GSL he reached the rounds of 8 several times and was always considered as a major contender to take the whole thing, but couldn’t do it. The Terran is eager for revenge and really wants his trip to Paris, the first step is to advance from a tricky group.

The face up

MarineKing is an outstanding TvZ player. His micro drove tons of Zergs crazy and can be described as a real artist of StarCraft II. He has a flaw though, he is often too greedy and tends to be punished for having too few units. Scarlett knows how to beat great Korean Terrans, she defeated Bomber at MLG. The window to beat MKP is not big, but if the Canadian hits it, she might pull the upset.

About advancing

Although they are favorites, it is nothing like a cake walk for the two Terrans. It would not be surprising to see Brown or Scarlett managing to sneak out of this group. Scarlett is surely less known by the Koreans and might use the effect of surprise to equal Goswser’s performance. The odds are quite low, and this group should offer two more Terrans in the rounds of 16. Unless one of those two great players is on a bad day.

by LeLfe

Brown - Scarlett

TaeJa - MarineKing

Brown - MarineKing

TaeJa vs. Brown
TaeJa <Cloud Kingdom> Brown
TaeJa <Ohana> Brown
TaeJa <Whirlwind> Brown
Brown wins 2-1!