by Zealously

The final group of the Round of 16 pits four excellent Europeans against each other, three with championship experience and the other rising fast through the ranks. While two players in this group have enjoyed a considerable fan following (and in some cases worship) through their careers, the actual level of these four players appears to be very even at present, making for a very difficult group to predict.


First up, we have Millenium's Feast. Who is Feast, exactly? Long overshadowed by more accomplished or famous European Protosses such as Naniwa, Sase, Grubby and even White-Ra, Feast has quietly grown to become one of Europe's most solid players. Once known mainly for being advised by Grubby, the Belgian officially broke off the mentoring in order to make a name for himself on his own. He has done a great job in HotS so far, making it through the WCS EU qualifiers, and then defeating MaNa and MMA to make it to the Ro16.

Feast has become one of the most dangerous Europeans in the Protoss mirror match-up, which unfortunately will help him very little in this group. All in all, evaluating Feast's skill level is still difficult – he's taken down players like Snute, Mana, even recently beat Stephano, which shows that he most certainly has what it takes to advance from this group if he gets it together. But, he does have the least experience in big matches like this, so we'll have to wait and see if he can bring his best play.

The other under the radar player in this group is DIMAGA, surprising as that is to say. The teamless, all-caps Zerg player has placed high at several big tournaments in his career, but with so much happening after the release of HotS, his absence at both MLG Dallas and DH Stockholm saw him quickly become overshadowed by other players. Regardless, DIMAGA had no trouble in the first group stage of WCS EU as he took out Socke and Mvp for a total score of 4 - 0 to advance in first place. Though beating up an injured old legend may not be honorable, it is certainly quite the achievement considering the decent level of play Mvp had showcased in HotS before WCS EU. With the dismantling of Socke, who has been looking quite good in ATC, DIMAGA looks like he could do a number on Feast if they should meet. How will he fare in the group as a whole? Well, we would go as far as to say that Mvp is still superior to Thorzain, and with how DIMAGA looked against the 4-time champ, it seems the biggest challenge in this group will be the potential mirror against Stephano.

Speaking of EG.Stephano.RC, how is he doing? He survived his group in the Ro32, but not before falling flat against everyone's favorite Danish Protoss BabyKnight in what used to be his strongest match-up. Let's face it, after his short journey to Korea, Stephano hasn't looked quite like himself. Of course, this low point in form also coincided with the release of Heart of the Hellbats, and Stephano's decision to quit pro-gaming come August. It shouldn't be a surprise that Stephano hasn't been looking like his championship-winning self for a few months now. How will he handle this group? After his loss to BabyKnight in the Ro32, his match against Feast looks like anything but a sure thing. Beyond that, a post-spore buff ZvZ against DIMAGA could be surprisingly unpredictable, while a match against the infrequently dropping ThorZaIN should play to Stephano's strengths. As diminished as Stephano is, he's still THE Stephano, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

The last of our four players is the Spoon Terran, EG.ThorZaIN.RC. Like the other three players in this group, evaluating Thorzain's form currently is somewhat difficult. He fell haplessly to Strelok in the Ro32 and only narrowly managed to edge out TitaN twice, thanks to a combination of smart cheese and lucky throws from his opponent. At Dreamhack, Thorzain received further punishment from Eastern Europeans as he lost to both Happy and Verdi, and he also lost against present groupmate Stephano by a 1 - 2 scoreline. With how Thorzain looked at Dreamhack and in the Ro32, he's probably happy that he doesn't have to play the hellbat mirror at least. But there is no one for him to roll over in this group, and in any case he's going to have to win at least one TvZ, which will be hard against either DIMAGA or Stephano. Hellbats and medivacs have given Terrans great success so far in WCS EU, so ThorZaIN's ability to break out of his spoon style and embrace the Euro-style will be the key to making it out of the group.

Overall prediction

Stephano > Feast
DIMAGA > ThorZaIN
Stephano > DIMAGA
Feast > Thorzain
DIMAGA > Feast

Stephano and DIMAGA advance.