by stuchiu

Where they Stand

Axiom-Acer: The Little Team That Could

'Feel good story' doesn't begin to describe Axiom-Acer in the GSTL. Coming into the tournament, everyone was pegging them as one of the weaker teams in the league. It was clear that even Axiom-Acer's own players were trying to keep their expectations realistic. Without talking up their chances, their attitude was that of 'if we work hard and prepare well, we can make it into the playoffs.' That, they did.

With wins against giants like MVP, LG-IM and Startale, Axiom-Acer finished at second place with a 5 - 2 record. Despite having one of the thinnest rosters of any team, frequent foreign tournament travel to deal with, and Miya retiring halfway through the season, Axiom-Acer pulled a reverse-Prime and got the very most out of their limited resources. Every week, a different player seemed to come through in a big way. MMA brought his 2011 form back against team MVP. Scarlett sniped multiple GSL champion Mvp. Player-coach-driver-cook Crank filled in as an unexpected ace a couiple of weeks. Ryung scored a valuable all-kill against Startale. Yes, you can say they got kind of lucky, but when a team is lucky whenever they need it, there's usually something more behind it.

Axiom-Acer's problem now is that their opponents are just as locked into GSTL as they are. One thing Axiom-Acer players seemed to believe is that they were better prepared and more focused on winning the GSTL than anyone else. That sounds pretty plausible, since a bigger team with more superstar players might have trouble getting their players to go all-in on the regular season. But now that the championship is just a couple of matches away, you can expect everyone to be taking things very seriously. If Axiom-Acer want to keep this Cinderella story going, they have to take their preparation to yet another level.

Good luck, and have fun.

LG-IM: So Overrated They're Underrated

On the other hand we have the only team in the league that is both overrated and underrated at the same time. Ever since its creation, IM has been the premier team in SC2 of raising up champion after champion in their plan to have every player on their roster win at least one major tournament. And while their individual results are nothing to scoff at, it has often come at the expense of their team league results. The coach has even gone on record saying they have sacrificed chances in the team league, often preferring to give their B-teamers as many chances as possible to level up their skill and be able to reach the next stage in their careers. But that was not the case this season as they announced that they were tired of the jokes and would just straight out win going all guns blazing. But despite that bold declaration, their results have been mediocre and have often come down to whether or not their Protoss lineup was able to kill the other team or not.

Mvp and MC are the wild cards for LG-IM, capable of swinging things in their favor if they can bring the veteran savvy that makes them dangerous individual league players still. In a game seven of WCS Grand Final, there's probably no other player you'd trust more than Mvp. Sadly, we can't say he's brought that same ability to GSTL ace matches... yet.

LG-IM are the most successful StarCraft II team in history. Let's see if they can live up to that reputation.

Overall outlook

Usually I would say that Axiom should only worry about the triple threat of First, Yonghwa and Squirtle. But the playoffs have been weird, as players like Genius and YoDa are showing up and reminding us that the all-kill format is incredibly unpredictable. Both sides have players that are capable of getting hot and four or five-killing the other team, and it's hard to take that into account.

Besides that, This should be a battle where Axiom can see if their super-sniping that worked so well in the regular season can see them through a playoff match as well. The difficulty here is that it's now a best of nine instead of a best of seven, and Axiom-Acer's roster will be stretched extremely thin. One failed snipe will severely constrain them. Two failed snipes will basically destroy all their options and force them into autopilot. Taking the first point and forcing LG-IM to be ones reacting will be crucial for Axiom-Acer.

For LG-IM, the gameplan is "don't f*** up." They are the favorites through and through with a much deeper line-up. They should win if they take things seriously and don't underestimate Axiom-Acer like they did last time. But, it's LG-IM, and they might overthink things or find a way to make a weird mistake. Will we see Ruin get sent out randomly and hand his team a loss? Everything is possible in LG-IM land.

Prediction: Axiom-Acer 5 - 4 Incredible Miracle