Crimson Starleague Invitational Season 3

Potentially the group of death in the tournament, Radley went all out on his switches and brought in some of the strongest players into his group. Seemingly wanting to test himself in deep waters, his first game will be against dre11[PaiN], who advanced from his group with a 2-0 in impressive fashion and is looking to be a quiet contender to advance from this group of death. Along with Radley and dre11, we have E.v)TelecoM and Jemah, both of whom also advanced from the qualifiers 2-0 with lopsided games from TelecoM and Jemah showing some strong mechanics in his game against LRM)SpaNiarD. This looks to be a hard group to predict, and I'd hate for any of these players to be eliminated, since they would probably be able to advance had it been any other group. In the end, I see our defending champion, Radley, and the player who is almost always streaming his games on Fish, Jemah, advancing from the group in a close series shown by all 4 players.

Prediction: Radley and Jemah

Seeded replacement NinaZerg will be seeing her first games in Crimson against Lannister[BG], a Protoss who managed to upset one of the favorites to win the tournament in the qualifier stages and has a knack for pulling off some impressive plays on occasion. Along with the two, we have sB.Birdie and Ender[eMg] who will play in a ZvZ, so it's practically impossible to predict who's gonna take that game. We'll have at least 2 guaranteed ZvZ's, so this group is definitely a toss-up for anyone to advance, especially if two Zergs make it to the winner's match. Couldn't watch any of Ender's games because of him advancing through the qualifiers via walkovers, but I think sB.Birdie and NinaZerg will be advancing through the tournament. I think Birdie's ZvP, if he ever were to run across Lannister, would be too strong and based on the few games I've watched of Ender over on USEast, I'd have to say Nina is a superior player.

Prediction: sB.Birdie and NinaZerg

An unfortunately weak group for our runner-up last season, flying[eMg] is paired up with two D level players in sh4w and sB.Passafist. Knowing how well DsT-Napoleon can play, this is a relatively easy group to predict, and unfortunately for Passafist or sh4w, it's hard to expect either of them to pull off the upset due to the massive difference in skill and mechanics.

Prediction: flying[eMg] and DsT-Napoleon

We get another candidate for group of death in Group E with 3rd place finisher Plus, my potential dark horse to win the tournament, sMi.ShoX, possibly the best player of the tournament, Qus.Talent, and Maroon Starleague finalist, Favian[PaiN]. Another relatively hard group to predict, Plus tried to get away with coasting through the group stages by putting in 3 Terrans in his groups, but alas, flying[eMg] and Radley both said no and pitted him into a possible group of death. Regardless, Plus vs sMi.ShoX can go either way, as it's a PvP, and crazy things like Dark Templars and a lack of detection can end the game in an instance, as evidenced by two games during the qualifiers. The two are possibly equally in skill level as well, roughly around the C+, maybe B- level, but I'd have to say Plus would be able to pull out a win. Qus.Talent vs Favian[PaiN] has two solid players who knows how to pull off builds perfectly, but with Favian having to play an offrace vs Talent, I'd say Talent wins in a close game with Favian putting up a fight. And with that, it becomes Plus and Talent... We missed this treat last season when Talent forfeited halfway through the Ro16 group stages, but hopefully that doesn't happen again and we see Talent play the game in form and advance the group with a 2-0, with Plus, ShoX, and Favian left behind... Between ShoX and Favian, I'd wanna say Favian might win, but again, simply because it's main race vs offrace, I'd have to say ShoX comes away with the win, and rolling with the momentum, takes down Plus in the final game to advance along with Talent into the Round-of-16.

Prediction: Qus.Talent and sMi.ShoX

I wonder what matchup puppykiller is going to practice during the group stages... Our seeded player puppykiller is pitted with 3 rather creative Zergs who can pull off the upset with their cheesy, yet solid play. And again, we have 2 possible ZvZ's, and that makes it even harder to guess who's advancing from the group. I think with the amount of practice puppykiller has been putting in, he'll be one of the two players to advance, and then it becomes a toss-up of dazed, Ty2[eMg], and Artanis[xp]. All 3 have their own reasons as to why they WON'T advance: dazed doesn't practice, Ty2[eMg] has said he's semi-tired, for whatever reason, and Artanis[xp] has been playing SC2 rather than Brood War. I think Ty2 will be advancing from the group with a possible 4pool and rekindle his motivation to play his cheesy, yet entertaining style.

Prediction: puppykiller[eMg] and Ty2[eMg]

Originally cursed with 3 eMg players, castle[eMg] managed to put two relatively weaker players of the tournament into his group along with a solid Protoss player in LRM)SpaNiarD. Personally, I think sB.Minscandboo can pull off the bold upset against either Protosses, and I think either castle or SpaNiarD falls. I have no doubt that Sero will be eliminated, and I don't expect him to pull off another miraculous upset against either. I'd have to say that castle stays true to this solid play while SpaNiarD makes an unfortunate blunder and drops a set to Minscandboo and becomes eliminated from the tournament.

Prediction: castle[eMg] and sB.Minscandboo

A relatively solid group with some high expectations from myself, I'm excited to see how well sas.zimp can do against players who can play solid and stick true to it. He managed to make it to the Ro8 last season with some fishy play and a walkover in the Ro16, but showed off that he can hang in there with a solid player when he took Plus to 5 games in the Ro8. However, Demurity, art_of_turtle, and Mewka[AoV] can seemingly exploit the multiple holes in zimp's game and take him out on the funky maps that are Queensbridge and Sin Peaks of Beakdu. I think Demurity is another dark horse to make it far in the tournament and Mewka is possibly the best player in terms of mechanics, in Group H. Unless the 3 players don't show up for the tournament, I don't see zimp being able to make it out of the group this time around and art_of_turtle will have to invest a lot of practice to keep up with the two players I predict will advance.

Prediction: Demurity and Mewka[AoV]

Round-of-48 Qualifier Preview

Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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Group 4
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Group 5
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Group 6
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Group 7
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Group 8
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Group 9
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Group 10
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Group 11
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Group 12
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