WCS Korea Season 1 - GSL

Code S Ro32 Group B
MC, Flying, YoDa, DongRaeGu


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by Fionn



Group B: SK.MC, MVP_DongRaeGu, LG-IM_YoDa, Woongjin_Flying

MC: The Protoss Legend

Offseason: With the break between the first season of Wings GSL and this new, revamped HotS WCS Korean Premier League tournament, a lot can change in terms of momentum for a player. MC, the most prolific Protoss player in StarCraft 2 history, has continued to keep his relevance throughout the past three years, keeping in the limelight while others have faded away into obscurity. The Protoss line-ups of Incredible Miracle and SK Telecom T1 might be getting the most attention from the fans, both teams hosting the best Protoss talent in the world, but MC continues to make his money, win games, and show these new guns who is still the boss of the Protoss race.

Having played in both of the major HotS tournaments so far, IEM and MLG, MC is one of the players you have the best grasp on how good he is in the new expansion. Looking out of place at IEM, not even getting through the group stages, MC was still showing some inexperience with the new game probably due to having gotten far in the last Code S season of Wings. Getting some more practice time in during the release of HotS, MC came into Dallas with a renewed purpose, using the oracle and other early game strategies to make it all the way to the semifinals. Showing other Protoss players how to combat the new Terran arsenal with skytoss, revolving around the strong burst potential of the oracle, MC was the most successful Protoss player at the first major tournament after release.

Goal for the season: Semifinals

We've seen how good he can be in HotS, so even with a tough group to get out of, MC's goals should be lofty for this season. He's one of the most experienced players when it comes to Code S, and he should always be one of the favorites of the Protoss race to get far in the tournament. Winning a championship is possible, but the semifinals would be a good first season for MC, qualifying him for the season one finals for the WCS.

Flying: The Forgotten Star

Offseason: Starting out in SC2 as one of the best, if not the best KeSPA Protoss, Flying has already had huge ups and downs in his short SC2 career. His biggest high was getting into the OSL, beating Parting and getting all the way into the quarterfinals before being bounced out by group mate and first round opponent MC. His biggest low was not too long after, going on a nine game losing streak, falling out of the Woongjin Stars starting line-up and becoming a bench player on the most stacked team in Proleague.

Flying has made a resurgence lately, getting himself back into the starting line-up for most of his team matches, and has gone 13-4 in his past seventeen games. He wasn't able to beat his teammate and Protoss battery partner, sOs, in the third stage of Code A, but he got into Code S with a strong performance in the Up/Down matches, only dropping a single game to Bbyong and beating Sniper, Byun and soO.

Goal for the season: Ro16

Out of the four players in the group, Flying will be the underdog when it comes to experience. MC, Yoda and DRG have all done more in individual tournaments, and two of them have already made an impact in HotS, getting to a semifinal and Yoda even winning an entire tournament at IEM. Still, with how well KeSPA has been doing lately, it wouldn't be any sort of miracle for him to get out of the group, especially given Flying has also been on the upswing. Getting to the quarterfinals and above would be a too big of a task for the underdog of the group, but advancing to the second round and giving himself a chance would be a good goal to set for a player who is still trying to work his way back into the Woongjin Stars starting line-up.

Yoda: The Swarm Terran

Offseason: New game, new players will rise. YoDa, who got a lot of hype in Wings for being the best player on Incredible Miracle in practice, was finally able to prove his teammates right by going to the first HotS event, IEM, and beating Mvp in the semifinals before taking an easy first place victory against another teammate, First, in the finals. He took home the world championship trophy, gained new fans, and went back to Korea with new expectations on his shoulders.

Winning IEM is all well and good, but it was still a tournament that was played in the beta. Yoda was mightily impressive, but it won't mean anything if he can't follow it up with a strong performance in the first Code S season. It's not like Yoda hasn't done anything in GSL before, having gotten to the Ro16 before, but with how good he looked at IEM, more should be expected from IM's strongest Terran in Heart of the Swarm. With Happy retiring and going back to studying, and Mvp all the way down in Code B, having to either fight his way back to Code S or move to America or Europe for those respective WCS regions, Yoda is without question, IM's Terran ace when it comes to Korea at the moment.

Goal for the season: Ro8

Having made it to the Ro16 before, the quarterfinals should be the goal set for Yoda in this tournament. You could make a strong case that he actually is one of the favorites to win the entire tournament, already having one major HotS tournament in his pocket, but then you have to remember it was beta, people are going to get better at the game, and the competition at IEM will be nothing compared to the players Yoda will have to face in this season's Code S. A quarterfinal appearance would get him qualified for the next season of WCS Korea, put him in a good spot points wise, and also give him some more credibility for all the hype that has surrounded him since Mvp came out and said that he was actually the best player on Incredible Miracle.

DongRaeGu: The Sword of Zerg

Offseason: Getting beat by jjakji in the MLG qualifiers, we really haven't seen much of DongRaeGu in Heart of the Swarm. He did get beat by MMA in the ace match of the GSTL series between Axiom-Acer and MVP, but that was one game and you can't take much from a single game between two heated rivals. Life might have gotten all the accolades last year, getting player of the year and all those other awards, but DongRaeGu was right behind him, having won two MLG events, a GSL and other tournaments as well. He had some lackluster performances during the latter part of the year, but he's still DRG, one of the best players in the world and one of the most decorated players in the history of Wings of Liberty.

This tournament will be a make or break season for DRG. With Roro, Life, Symbol and other Zerg players getting to GSL finals and doing well in offline tournaments, DongRaeGu needs to keep up with his Zerg peers. Along with Protoss and Terran getting stronger in Heart of the Swarm, DRG can't have a weak tournament. With how important GSL is now when it comes to WCS, DongRaeGu needs to get through this hard group and get into the round of sixteen, at least.

Goal for the season: Ro16

It might sound weird to say DRG's goal is "only" to make it to the second round, but coming into this group, Yoda and MC are the favorites to make it out. Yoda has already won a major championship in HotS, and MC had a strong showing at Dallas, making it all the way to the semifinals. It would be nice for his fans to make it farther or even win the entire shebang, but a round of sixteen would at least stop the whispers of a slump or some people thinking that DRG might be falling off in a new expansion.

Prediction

MC > Flying
YoDa > DRG
MC > Yoda
DRG > Flying
YoDa > DRG

MC and YoDa advance

Writers: Fionn.
Graphics: Shiroiusagi
Editor: Heyoka.