by Fionn and Waxangel

TSL_Polt vs. LG-IM Mvp

The drawing of brackets is either a godsend or a nightmare. For horror and Miya last night, it was similar to hitting the jackpot and winning the lottery on the same night. Both inexperienced Code B players knew that they could play with a calm mind knowing that their opponent was just as green, and not a legend from a far away land or S-level player. Good for the players, not quite as good for the viewers.

In tonight's first match, the luck of the draw has given the viewers possibly the most anticipated match of the entire first round, pitting the most decorated player in Starcraft 2 history, the four-time GSL champion Mvp himself, against the player who won the biggest tournament in Starcraft 2 history, TSL's Polt.

The last time these two met in the GSL, it was a TvT classic. As you would expect, it was a clash of styles. Polt, known for his marine heavy bionic style, went up against Mvp's legendary mastery of mech. After a failed cheese by Polt in the first game, the two players showcased their talents in the following two games as they took a game a piece, making the score 2 - 1 in Mvp's favor going into the fourth set.

On Calm Before the Storm, the two Terrans played one of the best games in the history of the GSL. We saw the very best of two champions: Polt with his heavy drop style, precise micro, and aggressive attacks; Mvp with his calm, intelligent decision making and rock solid defense. The lead swayed back and forth, with both players being pushed to the brink of defeat before fighting back heroically. In the end, Polt decided he needed to make a risky transition in order to gain the final edge on his opponent, but Mvp was more than ready to take on Polt's Battlecruisers. Polt's fleet disintegrated in the air, and he surrendered to the king of Terran.

Now, eight months later, both are both changed men. Mvp, even with his recent GSL title, is truly a mystery. With his constant injuries and clearly declining mechanics, he has now more than ever, been relying his intelligence and experience to grind out victories. Polt, who started the year by throwing himself into foreign tournament after foreign tournament and hosting one of the most popular streams on TeamLiquid, wasn't able to perform well in the GSL and even fell out of Code A.

Recently, Mvp has been resting. Instead of going to the IPL Team Arena Challenge finals in San Francisco this weekend, he has decided to hang back in Korea and let his team do the work for him. For a lot of players, less tournaments and less games would be a sign of a player maybe slipping or going into a slump, but a long rest might be the key to Mvp's success this tournament. If he can overcome the difficulties with his health and feel rejuvenated coming into WCS Korea, you would have to peg him as one of the favorites to qualify.

Polt, who was doing awful in the GSL and Korean tournaments in general, finally decided to hang up his stream for a bit and decline offers to play in international tournaments. By focusing solely on Korea, he has already proven that it could be one of the best decisions of his career. He made it back into Code S by beating Xtreme, Maru and Shine. He qualified for WCS Korea by toppling Bogus and Hyun. To complete the hat trick, he recently qualified for WCG Korea, not dropping a single map to Sage, Jaehoon or DongRaeGu.

This series depends on how well Mvp is feeling. We have seen Polt produce result after result for the past month and show us that he is in the best condition he has been since possibly his semifinal appearance last August in Code S. If Mvp plays like the Mvp of Homestory Cup and last season's GSL, Polt can and should beat him. If it's a semi-healthy Mvp with a regained passion, then prepare yourself for a classic of a TvT series with one of the best attacking bionic players against one of the best defensive mech players in the world.

Prediction: Mvp 2 - 1 Polt


LG-IM Happy vs. MVP.TAiLS

Tick, tick, tick.

You hear that, Happy? That's the clock of time counting down your relevance. Once a player that made the semifinals of Code S in his rookie season, showing new mech builds and living up to the expectations of being the protege of Mvp, Happy has done almost nothing since last October. He has been stuck in a limbo of mediocrity. In most cases, it wouldn't be that bad. If Happy was on HoSeo for example, he would still be seen as a player with lots of potential and someone who was just unlucky in not getting farther in the GSL.

But he's on Incredible Miracle. Have you seen that team lately? Mvp is a four-time champion. Nestea is a three-time champion. They can call a two-time champion MC to play for them whenever they want. They even have Seed, a player who went from being completely irrelevant for over a year to becoming a GSL champion. Add Yoda, who got through Code A without a map loss and was said to be the best player on IM from Mvp's lips, and Happy is on the verge of not even being the second best Terran on IM any longer.

He needs this win. To keep up with Yoda and the rest of the players on Incredible Miracle, Happy needs to have a good showing this tournament. With Seed taking home another championship for LG-IM and Yoda already dreaming of the royal road, this needs to be Happy's comeback tour. If he gets eliminated in the first round of the winners bracket against a Code B player, it's only going to get worse for the once known MiniVP.

Tails, on the other hand, is in a similar, but not as dire situation. He beat Mvp and Nestea a long time back in the GSTL and was another one of those Protoss players that we thought would lead the post-MC generation. After that, he went to IPL4, did terribly and hasn't really done anything of note since, besides lose his starting spot to Vampire and finale. With his qualification in WCS Korea, a win against Happy in the first round would keep his Incredible Miracle Killer moniker alive and add a bit of hope for the people hoping he can become the next Squirtle or Seed. He played decently against Leenock in last season's Code A, but couldn't get the job done and fell in a 2-1 series that sent him back to Code B.

Both players need this win to stay in the community's eye, but Happy is the one who needs it the most. Once a Code S semifinalist and one of the main players on Incredible Miracle, he might not even crack the top five anymore when it comes to their depth. If Happy wants to stay as a core member of the Incredible Miracle team, he needs to win and win fast. The clock is ticking and his once golden future might turn into a pumpkin before too long.

Prediction: Happy 2 - 1 Tails


SlayerS_CoCa vs LG-IM Seed

After honestly admitting his desire to live the sweet life as a top Code S player, LG-IM's Seed fulfilled his dream two weeks ago by defeating SK_MC in the Code S Season Three grand finals. Tonight, he gets to enjoy the benefits of his lofty position for the very first time, coming into the WCS Korean Nationals as one of the ten seeded GSL players (by GSL points). He must be cautious, however, as the benefits don't come without a cost. He's wearing giant target mark on his back now, and he'll have a very dangerous sniper taking aim tonight.

Having served his suspension with SlayerS, CoCa has gone on one hell of a rampage in his quest for redemption. His 11 - 4 record (including an all-kill vs Prime) netted him the most-wins award in the past GSTL season, while it earned his team a spot in the finals. On the other hand, his search for individual glory has not gone so well, with even Code A staying out of his grasp after making the top eight of Code S ten months ago. You could imagine that CoCa was rather pissed off after missing out on Code A again last season, and he went undefeated through his WCS Korea qualifier group to give him a chance at winning a 'consolation' prize.

For the first time in months, Seed is NOT the underdog in a match. In retrospect we could say he was criminally underrated, but how were we supposed to know that a player with zero tournament winnings in his career was actually better than Curious, viOLet, TaeJa, Symbol, GhostKing and MC? To CoCa's credit, he has his own fair share of victories over high profile opponents as well, including Polt, MKP, Maru, Creator, Oz, etc. However, none of those victories came in high stakes, high pressure, situations as they did for Seed. Instead, CoCa's victories came in the GSTL and various online tournaments, which we know are only a partially indicator of singles tournament success.

That highlights another way these two players contrast. CoCa's online tournament and GSTL success came because he is one of the most technically proficient players in the world. While Seed is certainly not lacking in that department, he's not one of those players whose macro and micro look almost robot-like in their precision. However, Seed more than makes up for it with his strengths outside of game play mechanics. His fearlessness and confidence under extreme pressure saw him overcome near-elimination situations in the GSL and cause mental breakdowns in his opponents instead.

Though CoCa is the underdog against the defending GSL champion, facing Seed early is still preferable to facing him later. The pressure should be a little lesser in the lower rounds, which will negate some of Seed's advantages. Still, Seed's best match-up is PvZ, one he was very impressive in when he powered through the lower rounds of the GSL before anyone knew his name. It's less than an ideal tune-up match for the champ, but he should still be able to prevail.

Prediction: Seed 2 - 1 CoCa


FXOGuMiho vs. Woongjin_Soulkey

Someone high up really must hate Soulkey. Entering the hybrid Proleague as the player that almost every other KeSPA player said was the best of the bunch, Soulkey has been asked to live up to unbelievable hype. Playing well in Proleague and helping his team to be one of the top two currently in the standings, he has done his job against his peers. Unfortunately for the star of Woongjin, his luck in who he draws in tournaments has been simply awful.

In the WCS Korea qualifiers, he got paired against MMA, one of the best TvZ players in SC2. Not surprisingly, the inexperienced Soulkey didn't stand a chance and got run over by the former GSL champion. He tried to hang on for as long as he could, but he couldn't keep up with MMA's play and eventually got trampled. On the bright side, due to his impressive play in Proleague, he was given a second chance in WCS Korea and given a seed into the tournament. More on that in a sec.

In the WCG Korea qualifiers, he got paired up against Taeja, the... well, the player who could claim he is playing the best Starcraft 2 in the world at this very second. Soulkey actually played a lot better against Taeja than MMA, showing improvement in a short amount of time. His early and mid-game were solid and he even pushed Taeja into a corner at times, but his late-game wasn't enough against one of the strongest Terrans in the world. For the second time in a few short weeks, Soulkey had been thrown to the Terran wolves.

Now, in the actual WCS Korea tournament, he's been charged with the simple task of slaying the guy who just all-killed SlayerS in the GSTL finals. Good luck with that, Soulkey. Not only is Gumiho in the zone and playing some amazing Starcraft, his style of TvZ is sure to give Soulkey fits. Throughout the first few games between GSL Terrans and KeSPA Zergs, one of the main weaknesses the Zergs have shown is defending against multi-prong attacks with drops. They aren't able to react in time and have fallen to these type of TvZ players.

Soulkey already lost to one of the best players at that style, MMA, in the first round of the qualifiers, and now he has to play against another player who excels at that style. Gumiho is not afraid to drop you at three different locations and stretch you thin. His hectic drop style and control of units has won him many games against Zerg, and if Soulkey has any chance at getting to the second round, he is going to have to play flawlessly.

We already saw two of the KeSPA Seven fall last night to the losers bracket without a single map victory. Soulkey has shown flashes of a high-level player against Taeja, but he is going to have to do more than that to beat Gumiho. If he doesn't pull an elephant out of his hat, Soulkey will make the KeSPA Seven fall to 0 - 3 in matches, and 0 - 6 in maps in the tournament.

Prediction: Gumiho 2 - 0 Soulkey