WCS Europe 2014
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Mvp, FireCake, Snute, HasuObs

by Waxangel

Over the last six WCS Europe Ro32 groups, the average length of a broadcast has been approximately four hours and forty minutes. Such lengthy broadcasts have long ago ceased to daunt followers of esports, who are some of the most passionate fans in the world. However, the player list of WCS Europe's Group G is enough to give even such devoted fans reason to fear for their sanity.

Mvp. FireCake. Snute. HasuObs. They are not the four horsemen of the apocalypse, but it may very well take until the end of the world for them to finish their games.

IM_Mvp: The greatest SC2 player of all time is famous for his preference for playing macro games, and he was a pioneer of mech play in both TvT and TvZ. He's also notorious for being completely unafraid of cheesing in important matches, which means Mvp's series could be very long or very short.

Mvp's chance of getting out of this group is unclear as well. It's safe to say this is the most mysterious Mvp we've seen. He has only played a single official game in the new year, that being an SCV-pull win against Samsung's eMotion in Proleague. In 2014, every other Terran seems to have benefitted from using a modified version of Mvp's banshee-mech, but we didn't have a chance to see Mvp use it himself. If we look at Mvp's slightly dated tournament results from late 2013, his form was erratic as usual. He had convincing wins against players strong players like Curious, mixed with equally one-sided losses to players like Jaedong and CJ_herO.

The one result that sticks out above the rest is Mvp's elimination at the hands of ShoWTimE in the previous WCS Europe tournament. Some would disregard it as a one-off, fluke result. Others could see it as evidence that while Mvp still has a high ceiling, his floor continues to sink.

Vega.FireCake: FireCake is the main reason this group inspires terror in the hearts of StarCraft fans around the world. The French Zerg was a participant in the longest StarCraft 2 game of all time, showing everyone how annoying swarm host turtling could be before it went mainstream. Afterward, a 2 hour long ZvZ swarm host war against Stephano on ladder confirmed FireCake's reputation as the world's most loathsome player.

That said, it's not like like FireCake is some kind of twisted deviant, intentionally trying to make every game he plays go past the 1 hour mark. He has a good knowledge of the maps and the current meta, and is completely capable of playing a more active style as needed. It's just that when he's put in a position where swarm hosts are the best option, he becomes the most patient player in the world. Depending on how the match-ups play out, and what compositions FireCake's opponents use, we might not even see a swarm host game from him at all.

Yet, secretly, isn't an excruciatingly long FireCake game what we're all hoping for?

Liquid`Snute: Snute is the outsider in this group. Of the all the players, he's the one who has the least reputation for producing long, grueling games. It's somewhat ironic considering the fact that he was one of the first Zergs to experiment with and utilize swarm hosts, but he's developed a more tolerable playstyle over time.

Snute is our not-so-sneaky, not-so-underdog pick to make it out of this group. Similar to VortiX, he's what we ironically call the "faceless foreigner," an international player who prefers to do his talking through his play rather than antics on the stage or social media. A brief look at his stats on Aligulac.com show that while he's stayed out of the spotlight, he's maintained a very high level of play.

mouz.HasuObs: Alongside FireCake, HasuObs is the main reason we're afraid of watching this group from start to end. Over nearly four years of StarCraft 2, HasuObs has established a reputation of being playing a style that is unmatched in terms of safety and patience. "Counter-attack" is a word that simply does not exist in the German Protoss' vocabulary. And who can blame him? Riding an advantage to a fifty minute win is the same as a twenty minute win.

Like Snute, HasuObs has never been a player to command the the spotlight. But quietly, he's enjoying some of the best form in his SC2 career. As a player who reached the WCS Europe Ro8 in 2013, one has to seriously consider the possibility that he could do it again.

As an side, StarCraft 2 fans around the world will be looking on with an almost perverse fascination to see if HasuObs vs. Firecake happens. That's the series that has the potential to break records and tax our patience. And we mean that in a good way!

Predictions:

Mvp > FireCake
Snute > HasuObs
Mvp > Snute
HasuObs > FireCake
Snute > HasuObs

Mvp and Snute advance.