WCS America - Premier

Ro16: Group D Preview
Jim, Crank, Alicia, Polt


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

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China vs. Korea

by DarkLordOlli

The final WCS America Ro16 group takes place today after yesterday saw the foreigners strike back at the Koreans with Scarlett and MacSed advancing over Revival and Sage. Group D features three more international Koreans in Crank, Alicia, and Polt, alongside another Chinese Protoss. Yes, it's none other than the long awaited and much hyped iG.Jim, and NASL should really be making sure Rotterdam isn't doctoring the maps to make sure he advances.


The Jimcredible One will start off the group's games as he crosses blades with Axiom's captain AX.CranK who should be feeling cranky indeed after barely managing to get to the event after an appalling string of flight booking problems. He had to wait a long time, but he's finally here to play his matches.

Jim, the man we first really got to know long ago when he eliminated EG from the ATC qualifier by tearing through Jaedong, Thorzain, Suppy and Revival, might just be the happiest of them all to be here. In order to confirm his visa for WCS America, Jim had to leave during IEM Shanghai and could not return to the venue in time, which led to Rotterdam's man crush being disqualified from the tournament. As if that wasn't heartbreaking enough, he then got his visa request denied and it looked like he had given up IEM for naught. But the red tape was finally cleared after more attempts at it, and Jim has come, passport in hand, ready to conquer the world.

Now, what do we know about Jim as a player? He was rank one on the Korean server, or at least several people will attest so. He smashed his WCS AM Up/Down group 4-0 (including a 2-0 against Jaedong), after which he did the same to his Ro32 group, destroying Nestea and Major. Oh, all with China - US lag on top of that. He recently won the unbroadcasted CPL Invitational Championship, going 4 - 3 in total against Marineking to take the championship. Now he's here to continue his strong run and we will finally get to see him play in the later stages of a big, live tournament.

Axiom's CranK and Alicia have had their own adventure trying to reach the shores of California. However, if Jim's tale was a heartwarming foreign language drama, the Axiom Protosses were part of a Michael Moore-style corporate takedown documentary, as TotalBiscuit narrated the incompetencies and evil deeds of various companies in the travel industry. Anyhow, they've overcome that hurdle and have successfully made it to the States. A nice conclusion to the movie would be a tournament win, but that remains to be seen.

CranK's WCS America story has been plagued by - well, too much adrenaline. He attributed his 0 - 6 elimination from last season's tournament to nerves and an overdose of energy drinks which, considering the way his games went, is believable. CranK did not look like himself in those games, he seemed all over the place and got smacked around by aLive and Snute. Meanwhile his teammate Alicia managed to put up a much better fight at both the regional finals as well as the global ones. This could be CranK's moment to show Alicia that it's very much an active competition to be called Axiom's ace Protoss.

Speaking of Alicia, his reputation is growing each time he plays. Not only is he an extremely solid closer for Axiom in the Acer TeamStoryCup where he most recently all killed a TeamLiquid that brought their best players in Snute x2, TLO, Taeja and HerO, Alicia's live tournament results are picking up again as well. He has suffered hard under the Artosis curse and is still looking for a big tournament win that many would say he's been deserving of for a long time, but his form suggests he could finally take one soon. His PvT has always been rock solid but he's also added formidable PvP to his repertoire. Those two matchups being the only ones he has to prepare for will certainly please Alicia. While his PvZ is good because of his ability to safely tech to void rays off three bases, he still looks the shakiest against top Zerg players. It's the same story as always for Alicia. He's got what it takes to win the tournament; now it's time to show it.

And finally, there's the only non-Protoss in this group, CMStorm_Polt. While he'll certainly start his day lamenting the lack of any more free MLG money this year, he has plenty of reason to feel good about his group. His results against the gloomy aliens from Aiur have always been good to say the least. As of today Polt sits at an astounding 84% series winrate against Protoss in Heart of the Swarm. Even his studying abroad hasn't managed to drag the handsome Terran down, silencing doubters by smashing through MLG Anaheim and winning the tournament. On top of that, vacation means more practice for Polt, and he'll possibly be even stronger than we saw him at MLG.

Those facts should already give you a taste of why Polt's section in this preview is rather short. He's been around forever, he's been performing almost ever since. He's also in top form and only has to play his historically brilliant TvP matchup. His first series of the night against Alicia looks set to be a cracker. Expect sparks to fly.



Man, these groups are tough to call. From a neutral perspective, Polt has a slight advantage from the get-go as he only has to prepare for one matchup. But that's really all that stands out here. CranK's PvT may be the most exploitable out of the bunch as Alicia has been rock solid and Jim is rumoured to be a master of the wild phoenix-colossus style that's been becoming more popular as of late.

With CranK and Alicia being teammates and probably each other's main practice partner for PvP, absolutely anything is possible if they meet. Jim's PvP is largely unknown but doesn't seem too shabby looking at the few results we do have. Tonight's group may turn out to be the most evenly matched of them all. Jim's PvT style could very well carry him through should he meet Polt as the US-Korean may not have that much experience against it.

Jim > CranK
Alicia > Polt
Jim < Alicia
CranK < Polt
Jim > Polt

Alicia and Jim advance! PROTOSS!

Writers: DarkLordOlli
Graphics: Pathy
Editor: Waxangel.