Keep up to date with jkillashark’s results and standings, which also includes a bit of MSL history.
Every Starleague there is a group like this one. The Group of DEATH. Since there are so many players in this MSL you'd think a group like this wouldn't happen but here it is. We have one player who has won three OSLs and three MSLs and is widely considered the best Terran player ever, one player who has won two OSLs and three MSLs and is considered the most dominant Terran ever, one player who has won two OSLs and is the most successful Zerg player in OSL history, and one player who is Chalrenge.
Every single game in this group is going to be fun to watch, and no game is going to be easy (yes, even Chalrenge vs July). It's stronger than Group B (Jangbi, Savior, GoRush, Shine) and is the most entertaining save for possibly Group D (Nal_rA, Boxer, Canata, Firebathero).
Group G: May 17th – 18:30 Korean
Game 1 – NaDa (T) vs. n.Die_cHalRengE (P) @ Loki
Game 2 – July (Z) vs. iloveoov (T) @ Python
Winners @ Monty Hall
Losers @ Monty Hall
Winner/Loser x2 @ Desperado
@ Loki
Chalrenge gets a ton of attention for his ceremonies and cockiness, but if you look past that, he's been putting up some impressive results versus Terran. Highlights include an Ace win over Canata in Proleague, and a win over Midas in Survivor. This is going to be the second PvT we've seen on Loki, and given the ridiculous amount of resources and the terrain layout, we're likely going to see a lot of 3-base turtling Terran against Protoss that are trying to get to air units as fast as they can. Given the map and the fact that it's Nada, Chalrenge is the clear underdog here, but probably not as big an underdog as everyone thinks. Nada has said publicly that he wants to stop Chalrenge's ceremonies, so look for some post-match fun regardless of who wins.
@ Python
Python has been good to us. It's 6:5 ZvT so far in all three leagues, the most recent being Savior beating iloveoov in the OSL. Oov fell behind early but cheated out an army before dying to Savior's dark swarm and ultras (you could clearly see Savior saving money for them). Bottom line is Oov had some early game mistakes but played well enough. In case you hadn't heard about July, he was released by MBC, so he's currently looking for a new team. Has he even been practicing? Will the situation with MBC cause him to lose focus, or will he be hungrier than ever? There are two different Julys that can show up on Thursday, one that is distracted and bad, or one that is angry and awesome. We all want to see the latter, but it's much more likely that oov takes this one.
I'm guessing a TvT here, despite how fun it'd be to watch July ZvT on this map. As you may have guessed, and DJetter will agree with me on this, Monty Hall is *very* balanced TvT. In Proleague, Nada's recent TvTs have him winning over Shudder, Casy, and UpMagic, but most recently a loss vs Iris. Oov has a win over Iris and ForGG and a loss against Light. Since neither is showing any real trends its a toss up, with Nada having the edge since he's advanced further in the recent individual leagues. If Chalrenge manages to get here, he's quite scary since he's OGN's Monty Hall specialist, chosen basically every time OGN has to play on this map. As for map balance, despite the small sample size, (2-1 PvZ, 2-2 PvT), the Pro Teams seem to think this is P map, given the large number of PvP's we've seen here.
In addition to what I said about Chalrenge on Monty, TvZ is also 4-0 in T favor on this map, including that really fun Boxer vs Savior game where HE goes mech. July will have a tough time on this map, but again, we all know it just comes down to which July shows up.
As I said before, double gas maps generally lead to reverse balance (P>Z>T>P). We've only seen one match on this map (Oversky > Freedom) and it didn't get past tier 1 units. It's quite unlikely that either Terran will go 0-2 in this group or that both will lose their first match, so don't expect a TvT or PvZ here. This probably will be a Chalrenge PvT, and it will be exciting to see how Nada or Oov plays TvP on this new map. One base? Three base with CC float to nearby island? Either way, lots of tanks due to double gas. Hopefully Chalrenge can 2-0 and make it through, or July shows up pissed about his contract and destroys everyone. But most likely we'll see both Terrans come out of this group.