by stuchiu

5. FXO.Hurricane

Coming in last place for the group is Hurricane. Usually this is a knock against the player as being the weakest link in the group, but this particular group is full of players that are just bad news for him. MKP and Bang have superior PvT. TRUE plays an aggressive style that has always matched well against Hurricane. And while True has good PvP, it's still PvP and his match against First can go either way. While I placed him last in this group, the gap between first and last in this group is much closer than most others and he could still pull through on his best night.

4. MarineKingPrime

How the times have changed. While he is still a perpetual fixture in Code S (at least until this season), MarineKing is no longer a dominant force that opponents seek to avoid at all costs, but rather another player desperately clinging on the edge of the Ro32 cliff. Going into HotS, a lot of his fans were hoping his TvZ woes would be fixed as the infestor was nerfed and Terran was given turbovacs, mines and hellbats. The reality couldn't have been any more different as MKP continued his abysmal form against Zerg that started with the BL-infestor era. On top of that his once vaunted TvP is no longer the most feared in the world, and his place as the ace of Prime has been taken by Byun. Still MKP has moments where he shows some of his past brilliance and he will have to hope it's one of those days if he wants to get out of this group.

3. LG-IM_First

In third is the runner-up of the HotS beta IEM, LG-IM's First. The ensuing months have proved that the results of that early HotS tournament were not the best predictor of who would actually be good in the future, with champion YoDa falling out of Code S. First hasn't done that well in the GSL, but he did make it through his Code B qualifier and has been on form in the GSTL, all-killing Azubu. His PvP and PvT are good, but the problem for First is that he has sub-par PvZ. He's also particularly weak against all-ins from other players, having died to everything from ling all-ins to waaaaay past expiration date 1-1-1’s in GSL matches. First has the skills to make it through, but only if the games break his way.

2. MVP.Bang

Coming in second is a player who didn’t qualify for Code A at all. Instead he went to the Up/Down tourney which gathered 117 Code B Kespa and ESF players to battle it out in a massive battle royale. Arguably, that tournament was way harder than making it through Code B and Code A, and only two players survived the ordeal.

The first one was Bang. He made his way through the bracket on the strength of his TvP and TvT, most notably beating Last, Brown, Hero[join] and then Vines in the finals. On top of that, he's been doing rather nicely for himself in the online Acer TeamStory Cup, as a part of the main Terran duo alongside Dream.

While completely untested in the actual GomTV booth, you can’t help but think a player who qualified by destroying only Terrans and Protosses is favored in a group made up of mostly Terrans and Protosses.

1. 8th_TRUE

The Up/Down groups are hell, no doubt about that. In terms of pure stress, they are are one of the hardest things a player can go through, especially for a Korean player who has never had a real chance, to whom victory means entry into the most prestigious league in the world. A loss means you're one bo3 away from becoming more invisible than aLive. But for TRUE, he should be in his element. TRUE is an extremely aggressive zerg player who loves roach busts, baneling busts, and nydus busts. He then moves on to an aggressive mid and late game that focuses on counters, runbys, burrowed lings and crazy dramatic attacks that constantly puts the opponent and the viewers on their toes. Up/Down groups always favor the cheesier players who will do anything to win a bo1, and TRUE is that kind of guy. On top of that he is the only Zerg in the group and a very strange one to prepare for. With these advantages, TRUE is the favorite to make it out of this group.