After an all too short Christmas break, here we are again with yet another of Sonic's tournaments. This time, it's the SonicTV 11th SOSPA Ranking Tournament, or the 11SRT for brevity's sake. Although this tournament is played online and boasts less than 500 USD in prize money, it features almost every top player from the current Afreeca scene, several of whom are making their official debut in SOSPA competition.

For those who are unfamiliar with the latest comings and goings on Afreeca in the latter stages of 2012, this tournament should provide an excellent primer of what to expect in SSL8. Join us as we take a brief look ahead to the Ro16, taking place in lightning fashion over the next four nights.

Sea will be up against some stiff competition as he looks to shake off the rust built up during his brief SC2 career and establish himself as the Terran to beat in the SOSPA scene. Meanwhile, fresh from his third place in the most recent SSL, Sky will pose a significant obstacle to the former MBC ace, with a PvT match-up that has seen him easily overcome players like HiyA and Mong in the past.

ZeLoT and Ample, the other two players in Group A, are stalwarts of Sonic’s competitions and have shown themselves to be capable of upsetting heavily favoured, ex-A team opposition. In SSL7, ZeLoT was one game away from eliminating TvZ powerhouse Mong from the tournament and prior to that had beaten Pusan in a series that was later re-gamed. Ample’s SSL7 run was even more impressive, barely eliminated by Cola in the Ro16 having taken a game off Sky and dominated Koala.



With his Brood War career having only just resumed, Sea is unlikely to be at a level yet where he will be able to take a series off Sky in anything other than exceptional circumstances. The real concern for Sea in his first Ro16 group of his SOSPA career is the presence of Ample. Having made it to the Ro4 of SSL6 and with decent showings against HiyA and Shinee in past TvT series, Ample could pose a genuine threat to take second in this group.

Sea’s pedigree in the Terran mirror will count for a lot against Ample who never actually played a televised game, however TvT is a more mechanically intense match-up than it can sometimes appear and any remaining SC2-induced sloppiness in Sea’s play could prove fatal.

Sky and Sea to advance.



Featuring two of the Afreeca old guard, Group B looks to be a fairly straightforward proposition on paper, however Force[Name] (who invented crazy zerg) and Terror (who is just crazy) always have the potential to shake things up. Making up the group we have Tyson and Mong, who should be looking to make it out of this group with as little drama as possible.

Mong is coming into this tournament off the back of a decent performance in SSL7 that ended in disappointing circumstances with a 0-3 loss to Killer in the Ro8. Tyson is the only real newcomer in Group B and as such is mostly untested in official competition on Afreeca. Based on his ladder play since his arrival a few months ago, Tyson appears to be one of the weaker players from the latest batch of ex-pros, but he should still have enough to deal with both of the Zergs in his group.

This tournament marks Terror’s triumphant return to competition following his stint in Afreeca Disneyland. While Terror is a former SSL champion and one of the true greats of Korean amateur competition, a combination of time away from Starcraft and a keyboard sodden with soy sauce and vinegar has left his skills somewhat diminished. Force is a slightly more regular competitor in Afreeca tournaments but is rarely a factor beyond the first round and went out of SSL7 0-2 in the Ro32.

There are two match-ups that are worth looking out for in this group, the first is Mong vs Tyson, the match-up which will likely decide who wins the group and which will severely test Mong’s ability to scout for citadels and build turrets. The other is Force[Name] vs Mong, this match-up is most likely to happen in the losers’ final and with any luck will feature lots of ultralisks but absolutely no lurkers. Mong has fallen victim to the Crazy Zerg’s signature strategy many times in the past, surely he will see it coming?

Tyson and Mong to advance.



Often when previewing a group stage, a writer can feel obliged to figure out which group is the most difficult and then give it the perfunctory label “Group of Death”. This group features four players, any one of whom would be favourite to advance in first place had they been placed in one of the other three groups. Any two players can advance from this group, and the two that are eliminated will have little to complain about other than their luck for having been drawn into this group in the first place.

In by.hero and Larva, Group C features the two strongest Zergs in the tournament. However, neither hero nor Larva have particularly impressed against Terran in the past, both of them losing out to HiyA in the last SRT. Larva then, seems almost certainly destined for the loser’s match. hero meanwhile, faces his former teammate and captain Shuttle in the first series, another rematch from the last SRT and one in which hero should be fairly confident.



After another in a series of depressing TvP exits in SSL7, HiyA struck back in the last SRT by beating Pusan, Larva and then Hero in the final. Shuttle meanwhile, has the special misfortune of drawing two incredibly strong ZvP players after having struggled badly against hero’s ZvP in the last SRT. HiyA’s PvT likely remains a weakness but Shuttle will likely not get a chance to test it. If HiyA’s TvZ remains as it has in the past then the key match-up in this group will likely be between hero and Larva in the losers’ final, with hero’s progamer experience likely to be a deciding factor.

HiyA and hero to advance.



The final group of the Ro16 is likely to be all but over after the winners’ final. Movie has so far looked to be one of the strongest newcomers to the Afreeca scene, even when taking into account his heavy loss to Mong in the last SRT. Perfectman, meanwhile, only narrowly lost out to eventual finalist Larva in the SSL7, having demolished his Ro16 group in a way that was almost embarrassing for his opponents.

Beast is a late addition to this tournament, having come into fill the place left by Nada. While Beast has always shown himself to be a worthy opponent to more established A team ex-pros, there’s little about him that suggests anything other than an 0-2 exit from this group. Shinee has more of a history of beating top players but after his series against Perfectman in the Ro16 I’d be very reluctant to predict any TvP series in his favour for a while.

The likely group deciding match-up between Movie and Perfectman is the only thing about this group that is genuinely difficult to predict. With neither player having been particularly impressive in PvP during their progaming careers (if indeed Perfectman was impressive in any match-up in his progaming career) and neither having any recorded PvP series since the beginning of their SOSPA careers. When the most interesting series in a group is likely to be a PvP you know something has gone horribly wrong, if you were going to skip watching one group from the Ro16, this one is it.

Perfectman and Movie to advance.