by: Waxangel



The champ is here! ... Arriving to what I imagine would be a chorus of raucous boos. From his Code S championship run, we can deduce the two things that MVP.Sniper hates the most: fan favorites, and fun. We saw him eliminate Polt, PartinG, Leenock, Ryung, and HyuN on his way to winning GSL Season Five, all the while playing a strong but unspectacular style of Zerg. No doubt, everyone had to admit that Sniper was an excellent player—but he just happened to play that race everyone hates, in the way everyone hates.

While Sniper hasn't fully embraced the villain identity (if he had, he would have told Ryung "The only thing that's imbalanced is our skill levels."), he still shows some anti-hero qualities. From his interviews, popularity doesn't really seem to be his concern as much as respect. He knows that some fans (and players) only see his race, and not his skill.

Thus, it's not surprising at all that he decided to pick EG.HuK.RC, (the finalists of the previous season can choose their initial opponents in the next season) one of the biggest fan favorites of the entire tournament, as his initial opponent. It won't help endear him to anyone to defeat such a player, but it's the safest way to making another Code S championship run, which will earn him the unconditional respect he desires.

HuK just hasn't been performing at a high level for a very long time, and it was a huge upset that he made it through his Up/Down group. The obvious comparison for HuK would be MaNa back in GSL season 4. Receiving an Up/Down seed, MaNa played surprisingly well on the day and qualified for Code S from second place in his group. However, MaNa was on a roll at that point, having won DreamHack Summer and being considered one of the best foreigners.

The better comparison is Suhosin, who also made it through the Up/Downs that season. Much like HuK, Suhosin doesn't really play an orthodox style in general, chose to all-in a lot in his Up/Down games, and needed a bit of tie-break luck to make it through his group in second place. More importantly, their post-group interviews were eerily similar, with both players seeming genuinely surprised that they had managed to make it to Code S. That's definitely not a good sign for a player going into the most difficult tournament in the world, and not surprisingly, Suhosin was quickly eliminated in last place in Code S (so was MaNa, by the way). You can't say things are looking up for HuK, but it's fitting that the foreigner with the most Code S experience of them all is back for one more fling as the GSL phases out Wings of Liberty.

The other matchup in the group features one of the less noticed rivalries in the GSL as FXOGuMiho takes on ST_Bomber. The pair have faced off nine times in their GSL careers, all the way from Code A, the Up/Downs, and to Code S. The record thus far favors Gumiho by quite a bit, with the FXO Terran having seven wins and just two losses against Bomber.

While Bomber's on and off capability to play like a championship player makes him intriguing in any tournament, this might be the most interesting he's been in a very long time. To rehash the rule of Bomber, it is: "Bomber will always disappoint," alongside its corollary "If Bomber does not disappoint, it is in order to set up a bigger disappointment later." It's not a slight on Bomber, it's just a well observed pattern over Bomber's career, where he plays awesome and goes on a deep runs in foreign tournaments and then crashes and burns in the GSL soon after.

Since November, Bomber has been on one of his best, most consistent runs in his career. He placed second at Lone Star Clash II, top four at both IPL5 and MLG Dallas, and then crushed his Up/Down group with a 4 - 0 score. While this would be reason to think "maybe he's finally figured out how to be consistent!" for fans of other players, Bomber fans have been burned too many times to be fooled. A let down seems almost inevitable, especially now that he is facing one of his worst opponents in the very first match. And yet, he has played so well in the past few months, it's impossible not to have the tiniest shard of optimism, a small hope that this could finally be the season.

Finally, there's Gumiho, another one of those players who wears the 'inconsistent' tag, though he's no where near as accomplished as Bomber in that regard. Besides one, excellent Ro4 run, Gumiho is locked into the Ro32 for Code S, routinely trouncing Up/Down and Code A opposition to make it back after each season's early elimination. Unlike other, similar players, there's a general feeling that Gumiho should (a silly, but inescapable word in sports) be doing better than that. Part of it is that his amazingly entertaining and chaotic style of play blinds us to his flaws. But a bigger part of it is that we've seen him come through in extraordinary circumstances against some of the best players in the world. 8 - 0 in GSTL finals tells you that Gumiho is a guy who could win a Code S championship. So many players have something to prove in this final WoL season, and Gumiho will be throwing his hat into that chaotic ring.


Overall thoughts and predictions:

This group all comes down to Bomber, the king of inconsistency. At his best, he could crush everyone and top the group. At worst, he could lose to HuK, who is one of the biggest underdogs in Code S history. With HuK having nary a chance, it's up to Bomber to supplant one of Gumiho or Sniper and make it into the top 16. Of the two, he would probably have a better chance against Sniper, a player whose ZvT—while strong—doesn't measure up to his ZvZ or ZvP abilities.

In the end, there's too much past precedent saying Bomber won't get it done, and I can't go against it. If he does somehow make it through, then it's ByuN's obligation to make it as well and face off in the Ro8.

Sniper > HuK
Gumiho > Bomber
Gumiho > Sniper
Bomber > HuK
Sniper > Bomber

Gumiho and Sniper advance.