Last week's highlight was definitely Zeus' amazing play against both Terror and Hi. The old man impressed me, hopefully he practices some more and comes back next tournament! Scan upset hugely with his 2-0 of group C, and Sky going out 0-2. Otherwise the results have been on par with the expected. This week we have some great matches. Both Jaehoon and Mini have their SOSPA debuts, and Killer plays against Shuttle in group H! Look forward to that.

Unfortunately for us kerpal found a job (good for him though!). I tried finding a new recap writer, but everyone was either busy or didn't have enough time to write on such short notice. If you have time and watch SRT, please consider helping out Brood War by applying for writing the recaps. You don't need to be especially good at writing, I am here to help. Just shoot a PM if you are willing. A prime of example of this is Selenus who is doing great work for TLS right now.

This week it's all on me. First of is what I have dubbed the kjwcj style recap, where I don't go too indepth, you're gonna have to watch the VODs for that (the recommended VOD section for the round of 32 is coming next write-up). Read the recap here. Followed shortly by the second part of the round of 32 preview. Watch group E in !

The week started with a very anticipated match-up; Zeus vs ChRh. It was uncertain who was in good shape. Zeus turned out to be quite impressive but ChRh was lacking. The opening match went in favour of Zeus quite easily. In the second match; Terror and Hi were duking it out in a very even game. But in the middle of the first game Hi's mother was harassing him, which led to several pauses. Sonic eventually got tired of it and gave Terror a walkover win. In the second game Terror won with some persistent ling aggression.

This is were fun started; in the winners' match Zeus put up a very good fight against Terror's constant drops. Eventually Zeus mechanics couldn't keep up and he had to make a last ditch effort of attacking. Zeus stormed beautifully but didn't have enough army to withstand Terror's reinforcements. ChRh didn't feel good enough to play in the losers' match and forfeited against Hi.



The night ended with a PvP between Zeus and Hi. Hi took the first game without much trouble. In the second game both players decided to be Rock and put gateways everywhere on the map. A micro-fest ensued and fights were going on everywhere on the map. Zeus eventually got the advantage and pulled out the victory. Game three was another close game but Hi's superior mechanics were enough to close the deal.






Everyone expected hero and HiyA to advance, and rightfully so. Hm surprised by winning against Britney 2-0, showing that either Hm has improved since the progamer days or Britney has become worse, relatively speaking. The highlight of the group would be the second match, the match for first place between the aforementioned. hero managed to snag the first game but eventually got overrun by HiyA's superior TvZ and bio control.

The winners' match was another TvZ, which HiyA didn't have much trouble with. The losers' match was a ZvP for hero and we all know how that always goes. The final match ended with a ZvZ, which hero dominated in. Not much can be said about this group. The better players won.






My prediction was that Sky would actually play well again because of him not winning any money as of late. I guess Sky got economically independent. Sky won the first game in the opening match but lost the following two to Mong. The surprise of this group was Scan. Him winning against Cola wasn't too surprising, but winning without losing a single game was not what I thought would happen, although he did cheese.



In the winners' match Scan cheesed again and beat Mong unexpectedly. In the losers' match Cola beat Sky, knocking Sky out of the tournament. In the final match Mong rode his amazing TvZ to get out of the group by 2-0'ing Cola. Scan advances and Sky is eliminated, this group completely blew my mind.






Pusan and Ample were clearly the favourites going in to the group. I thought Pusan would win the PvT against Ample due to him being very good and abusive in the match-up. But Ample seems to be back in shape again and 2-0'd Pusan with ease. The second match was a foreign level ZvZ between StarCue and newcomer Starry. StarCue finally managed to break his eighteen game losing streak by winning one game against Starry. Starry countered by winning the following two, maintaining StarCue's 0% win rate in best-of-series.

As expected both Ample and Pusan destroyed their respective opponents in Starry and StarCue. The final match started with a huge surprise with Starry going up 1-0 against Pusan. Pusan mustered up his Spirit and beat Starry two games in a row and made it out of the group. Pusan has to step it up a notch if he wants to go further than the round of 16.

This group got a lot better when sSak got switched, and Mini's incredible chances at advancing to the round of 16 just got extremely small. Larva opens up against Han in his worst match-up but should still be able to take it as Larva is a far better player than Han is. Most gosu amateur Terrans excel in TvZ though and Han can give Larva a tough time. I haven't seen Mini play at all so I can't judge how good he is. sSak has the best TvP in the scene at the moment, though Sea might arguably be better now but saying that just feels wrong. I don't think Mini has had enough time to beat sSak in a best of three. He was however really good at the end of pro Brood War. He might go really far in the near future.



sSak should crush Larva in the winners' match, especially on the TvZ favoured map; Neo Electric Circuit. Mini should also destroy Han, depending on Mini's skill though. He could be terrible for all I know. Either way Larva should defeat either of his opponents in the final match as his ZvP is his best match-up, and the only one he still plays really well in.

sSak and Larva to advance.




This suddenly became the easiest group ever for Tyson and Lazy. kkong and KaZe_Hyun are neither especially notable or good. The MBC Protoss duo should waltz to the round of 16 easily. kkong is playing for the first time since SSL8 and that shouldn't increase his chances. He hasn't won a single game against a notable player except for Sexy, and he still lost that series 1-2. Tyson on the other hand constantly has good series against the likes of Mong and HiyA. Tyson should wreck kkong. KaZe_Hyun had a tough group last season, losing to both beast and Mong, but taking one game off of beast. Lazy's PvZ is incredible, he has gone toe-to-toe with top Zerg players like Killer and hero. Going 1-2 against both of them this year. KaZe_Hyun's PvZ has gone untested so far but it should be no match to Lazy.



The winners' match should be an interesting PvP between Tyson and Lazy. Lazy has won both the head-to-head encounters between the two. Going 2-0 in SRT13 and 2-1 in SRT15. The statistics really speak for Lazy. The losers' match should be quite even as both players are lower tiered in the match-up, whoever goes to the final match should lose there. As always with round of 32 groups there are two players that are just a lot better than the other.

Lazy and Tyson to advance.




Jaehoon has been playing a lot lately. He definitely seems to be a mainstay in the SOSPA scene. His first match in his SOSPA career will be against ZergMaN. ZergMaN was doing very well for a while during SRT15, beating both Movie and Sky. It turned out to be just a fluke and he is now back to his old self (SOSPA version, that is). PvZ was Jaehoon's worst match-up but things might have changed. The hype around Jaehoon won't disappoint, he will beat ZergMaN.

Hint looked amazing in SRT15, making a huge run to the quarterfinals, almost upsetting sSak by going 2-3. Hopes were huge in SRT16 but he eventually disappointed and lost to both Ample and Larva, dropping out of the tournament without winning a single game. The Gods are merciless and matches him against Sea in his first match of SRT17. Everyone should know that Sea is unbeatable by now. His power level is too damn high. Sea will go on another one of his insane tournament records of 16-2 or something, the guy is properly insane at the moment.



I wrote last week in The Shore that Jaehoon might be a contender to Sea's throne; Jaehoon isn't there yet, and he might never be. Sea should absolutely crush Jaehoon in the winners' match, no question about it. The losers' match and the final match are a toss up. Either ZergMaN or Hint could win in the losers' match. Hint has a chance at beating Jaehoon too. I believe Jaehoon will advance, and I have nothing to back that statement up.

Sea and Jaehoon to advance.




The opening match of this group is probably the best match-up of the entire round of 32. Killer and Shuttle are at the top of their respective races, and both are in the top ten of the Power Ranking and the ELO Ranking. Killer has a whopping 75% in ZvP and is 7-3 (70%) lifetime against Shuttle, 2-1, 2-0, and 3-2 in the three best-of-series they have played. Shuttle's worst match-up is PvZ, but he had some really good series against both Killer and hero around April and June, going 2-3, and 3-2 respectively. If Shuttle can repeat that performance it might be closer than the story that the numbers tell. Realistically Killer should still win the opening match.



The two other in the group serve as fodder. 1023 has only played five games in SOSPA leagues, and all of them were in late 2012, going 2-3. Only winning against and out of shape force[Name] and Sonic himself. beast should win that match easily. Killer will destroy beast with his 77% ZvZ win rate, and Shuttle will destroy 1023 with his 65% PvT win rate. Shuttle vs. beast could be close but beast's recent performance isn't very convincing. Shuttle will advance with Killer.

Killer and Shuttle to advance.