Make a Bracket and Defense It

How To Make a Bracket
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Writers' Brackets
Who Will Get it Right?

Korea's Plight
On Region Locking

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by TeamLiquid ESPORTS

While KeSPA is frequently the target of harsh criticism for their sometimes puzzling behavior and strange ways of approaching extraneous competition, the organization has played an important role in SC2 this year. With the way this year's WCS was set up, players remaining in Korea for most of the year were always going to have a rough time making the cut for the Global Finals at Blizzcon. With this in mind, the KeSPA Cup (a WCS Tier 1 Event) truly has the potential to become a saving grace for many of the attending players and the first big stage ever for others.

Of the 16 attending players, 8 were invited based on performances in Proleague or WCS Season 2. The finalists from all three regions - Bomber and Pigbaby from America, soO and Classic from Korea, San and Stardust from Europe - along with the two top performers in Proleague's regular rounds, sOs and herO. The remaining eight are the victors of the incredibly stacked online qualifiers. With Blizzcon drawing closer, the KeSPA Cup is the last chance for a lot of players to keep their names on the list of potential attendees and with a single elimination Bo5 format, we are in for one of the best tournaments of the year.

As such, this might be one of the most difficult tournaments we could ever try to predict. Every single match from the Ro16 onward could swing either way, and it's unlikely that things will go according to expectations. All it takes is one upset to make a mess of predictions, and that's what makes single elimination tournaments so compelling. Much like March Madness, formats like these encourage everyone to guess just how things will turn out. TL Writers has had the monopoly on making predictions on this site, so we thought it would be a fun exercise to encourage everyone to make their own bracket, just to see who gets lucky.

Making a bracket using liquipedia sounds like a complicated task, but it actually takes just 2 minutes (not counting upload time) once you get the hang of it. Most of the writers actually didn't know how to make one, and it only took us a few minutes to figure it out. For those who want to learn how to make a bracket using liquipedia, here is a short tutorial.

+ Show Spoiler [Tutorial] +

Now that you've make a bracket, it's time to post it and defense it!

Although we often release articles as a group after coming to an agreement on the final predictions or rankings, the writers rarely see eye to eye completely. There's a lot of arguing, mudslinging, and insults when we work on collaborative articles, and it's amazing how we haven't killed each other yet. Most of us like different players while hating each other's favorite players, and our conversations are always colorful and frequently NSFW. It's a side of TL Writing that people don't often see, and KeSPA Cup has given us the opportunity to show our dissenting opinions.

lichter

It may not be a $100K tournament, but sOs needs this win to seal his place for Blizzcon. Everyone knows the Moneybags Protoss has his eyes on the prize, and with no other tournaments for him on the horizon, this will be his last chance to book his ticket early. With no elite terrans in his way and a conga line of protoss likely to advance, there's little standing in the way of his first non-100K tournament win. Unfortunately, this is sOs, and he has as much of a chance of losing 3-0 to Reality in mind numbingly dumb ways.

lichter's Champion: sOs
The Darkhorse: ByuL
The Disappointment: Flash
Worst Bracket: Everyone with Zest vs Rain in the finals. Wow you guys have boring opinions.
Worst Prediction: XXTN - Rain > sOs? Our brackets are almost identical except for the finals. Secret demerit for you.

stuchiu

The only real surprise here is me picking Bomber over Rain. Now objectively we can look at their skill and say, surely Rain will beat Bomber. He did great in GSL, great in PL and is ranked #1 in the PR. All very true reasons. But we have to remember that at the beginning of April before GSL Season 1 had ended he called out Terran as the next broodlord/infestor. (protoss then proceeded to win 10/12 Premier Tournaments against the might of broodlord/infestor.) Now that's a strong statement, calling a race broodlord/infestor. That's the SC2 equivalent of calling someone Hitler. So I fully expect Rain to lose here because terran is approximately at least two times as strong as it was back when Rain called them the strongest race on planet Earth. The rest I just picked the favorites to win up till the finals where soO inevitably dies to a protoss.

Champion: Zest
Darkhorse: Bomber
Disappointment: Sorry (I want him to win the finals against sOs so I can use the tagline, Sorry sOs, no Blizzcon for YOU!)

CosmicSpiral

We'll probably have to wait another month for a terran champion in Korea. When it came to brackets, Reality, Sorry, and Bomber all got the short end of the stick. There's a decent chance Flash can persevere against soO and Rain; he's lost enough times to know flexibility is key to beating top-end competition. But that's a lesson he has yet to show, so I can't maintain any faith against soO. On the other hand, Rogue has a great chance to pull 'upsets' against Classic and ByuL.

I'm going out on a limb to bet Rain won't make it to the final. Usually it's folly to bet against the man who is 19-3 in his last 10 PvZ series. But if there's a man who can topple the best protoss in the world, it has to be his teammate. soO has generally had close series against Rain in the past and can be clutch in ZvP when the situation demands it. Furthermore, he is backed by my unadulterated hate for anything that doesn't result in a silver medal for the SKT zerg. And we can't let that happen, can we? No, soO must be sacrificed at the hands of another protoss god.

Darkhorse

With the exception of the first two matches, the Ro16 looks pretty cut and dry. Afterwards, it starts to get more interesting. I've been looking for Rogue to have a breakout performance for awhile now and this could be his chance, so I am predicting him to make the semifinals here. Zest vs sOs could be an extremely tense PvP that I could see either player winning. soO should have the advantage over Flash given his recent victory over him in Code S, and Rain has been looking like one of the best players in the world in recent days. In the end I am going to predict that soO will overcome the obstacle of the SKT killer Zest and get his revenge by winning in the finals.

banjoetheredskin

Flash still sucks in my book because he refuses to accept that CheeseDust's playstyle will eat him alive. The only reason I have soO losing to Rain is because I don't want him to retire after getting another second place. Rain beats Zest in the final to confirm SKT is best KT, and then proceeds to beat him in GSL. Only then can soO beat Rain so that he can get another second in the GSL before retiring.

Soularion

Unlike the rest of these filthy plebeians, who all root for the corrupted tosses of Zest or Rain, I have chosen our one true god. Rogue. The King of Katowice. The Rollercoaster Zerg. These are all nicknames (that nobody uses) that he possesses, and he will add one more by the end of the KeSPA Cup - Killer of Dreams. He has a budding hatred for Zest and Rain, considering they knocked him out of Code S, and he's more than ready to give righteous vengeance to those who delayed the inevitable. It's worth noting that he beat both of these at Katowice, so if he comes in looking as strong as he did then, then the games are nothing more than formality.

Soularion's Champion : Rogue
The Darkhorse : Rogue
The Disappointment : Flash
Worst Bracket : Gemini, lichter, stuchiu, banjoe, XXTN, Zeweig - You are all heathens.
Worst Prediction : Everyone listed above - picking Classic over Rogue. Seriously? Not even a good toss?

XXTN

Those of you who participate in March Madness know it's not smart to always pick the favorites. In this case, Pigbaby beating Zest would be as big an upset as Mercer eliminating Duke. This is by no means impossible: Pigbaby has an unorthodox style and a knack for preparation. As an overwhelming underdog, he took down TaeJa in WCS S2, and I believe he can do the same now to Zest. With sOs' track record of winning the biggest tournaments, I wouldn't be surprised to find him in the finals. In the end though, the ever-solid Rain has to be my favorite to take the entire tournament.

Most anticipated match: Bomber vs Rain, 2013 OSL S2 rematch
Wildcard: Bomber (all depends on law or no law)
Worst Prediction: Lichter sOs > Rain. sOs is good but not good enough to beat Rain in PvP.

Zeweig

Classic has proven himself very good at multi-pronged harass against Zerg. Going against someone like Rogue might prove difficult as he is very inconsistent in his match-ups, sometimes looking to be one of the best and sometimes not getting close to Code S, and if Rogue has a good day it might just as well end the other way around. That said, Classic is in my opinion more solid than Rogue at the moment, and I favor him to win.

sOs versus Zest is a juicy one. Many think Zest will beat sOs, and I don't blame them. My head agrees – Zest is better at PvP most of the time, but sOs is unpredictable and sometimes you just have to go with your heart. And it says sOs. soO versus Flash will be interesting as Flash proved himself extremely strong against Zerg, but soO is one of the best Zerg players in the world. Although the same could be said about Flash (best Terran, that is), I would favor soO over Flash in an extended series – unless soO pulls a Solar and forgets how to hold a scouted 2-rax.

The finals will then be sOs vs soO, and here soO should win since it is a best-out-of-7 format and not just three or five games. sOs is strong, but when the series gets too big, he can't pull off his strongest all-ins without doing them twice, and soO is not going to die to the same build twice. That said, soO is on the verge of becoming a Kong, and since Protoss finals seems to be his weak spot, he might suffer a mental breakdown and give away a few easy games for sOs.

Final prediction: soO wins the final... or joins ranks with MarineKing

Trasko

Rain has truly showed us what it means to be an excellent StarCraft player and all fingers point at him as the eventual champion of the 2014 KeSPA Cup. This won't come easy as he first has to plow through a plethora of top tier players in order to reach the finals. soO, Flash, Zest, soO and sOs are all potential candidates who can take him down and so it will be very interesting to see how this tournament plays out.

Best Matchup: Rain vs soO
Dream Scenario: soO loses in the finals.
Worst Prediction: Soularion. Rogue > Zest <-- wat

Gemini

I don't see Rain not taking this, he's just been too solid recently and his bracket is more than manageable for him. The only thing that was hard was doing Flash over soO. It can go either way, however I still feel like Flash can take him out. I'd rather have a bunch of fanboy reddit hype instead of seeing soO lose in the finals to another protoss. There were a few matches in the Ro16 that I just wanted to put a 3-0 for, however everyone in the bracket is so good that I can still see them taking at least one map (except Sorry, how the fuck did he get in here?).

Soularion: Stop trying to make Rogue happen, he's not going to happen.

Destructicon

I consider most of my choices here safe. Rain has Bomber's number, herO, Zest and soO outclass Sorry, Pigbaby and Super, San and Classic's best match ups are against zerg, Rogue sucks in offline events that aren't BO1.

However I'm favoring Flash overall. Despite his early exit from the GSL it was still a very close ordeal where if things had gone just a little differently in either of his series vs soO or DRG he could be in the RO8 now. Flash's amazing August run, tearing trough all online qualifiers and also winning IEM still lingers on my mind. To win all those Flash displayed solid TvP and the KeSPA cup is full of protoss, albeit very solid ones.

His first challenge and his biggest danger will be StarDust. The mYi protoss plays a similar style to MC, willing and able to pull out the cheese whenever necessary, not averse to calculated risks, but also extremely solid in macro games. We saw Flash display weakness to MC, so he'll need to be on his guard, however if he can defeat StarDust I believe Flash has what it takes to go all the way. He will most likely have studied his loss vs soO and will be better prepared this time. While Rain is a very solid macro protoss, Flash has proven he can go toe to toe with the best of them and win and at this point he will have momentum on his side. If he reaches the final against Zest again then it should be easy sailing to another gold.

What I think will push Flash all the way his is drive. He has already proven he can do incredible things when he sets his mind to it. He helped his team secure victory against SKT1 and then, without the burden of Proleague to worry him, he went on a rampage that ended in him winning IEM Toronto. His loss in the GSL was a harsh reminder that he still has to work harder, but KeSPA Cup is where the train gets going again!

Korea's Plight

by Zealously
Disclaimer: this is an opinion piece. It does not reflect the official opinion of TeamLiquid.net or its staff (other than Zealously)

Of all the criticisms aimed at Blizzard's WCS system, perhaps the greatest is that it fails to properly reward the best players in the world. No one can say that Stardust or jjakji are bad players, but there is a lot of ambiguity as to whether or not their achievements within the WCS system this year are comparable to those of some players currently ranked far below them. The WCS system promotes international travel and global participation - a sensible goal to make sure that the best players are properly rewarded for their successes overseas - but unfortunately punishes those who wish to focus on maintaining their status in Korea.

In a way, the existence of Proleague has only aggravated this problem. Granted, without Proleague there would likely be no KeSPA (at least not the KeSPA we know), but it is undeniable that Proleague's existence has severely limited the abilities of some of the world's very best players to travel internationally and rake in the big points from Dreamhacks, IEMs and Red Bull tournaments. You might ask whether or not this is even a problem since all players could potentially choose not to play Proleague and make a move overseas, and whether or not players that never make an effort to win as much as they could deserve to make it to Blizzcon.

With that said, consider that of this year's three GSL finalists (Zest, Classic, soO twice), only Zest is guaranteed a ticket to Blizzcon. Classic's elimination from GSL at 2650 points makes Blizzcon a dream he no longer controls, while soO - currently in his fourth consecutive quarterfinals - remains in the risk zone. Of this year's 7 semifinalists (Life, TRUE, Maru, Classic, Zest, Rain, soO twice), only three are likely to make Blizzcon. The others might still make it, but their chances hinge on championships, miraculous circumstances, or both.

It is a well known problem that the Korean region is too stacked for its own good. The high concentration of skill makes it the place to be when it comes to improving but also often makes staying there synonymous with career suicide. There are too many players in Korea and not enough room for them to compete, which is the very reason behind most players venturing overseas to participate in the American and European regions. Personally, I think there is an issue when the players that don't are punished. The fact that there are so few Korean tournaments beyond GSL (and even then those tournaments are always tied directly to it) promotes travel to international tournaments and moving to other WCS regions but, as a consequence, misses the original mark: crowning the best player in the world.

With the recently announced changes to the WCS system, this question becomes a much more pressing one. Presently, making Blizzcon is already difficult for the players that choose to compete in Korea instead of Europe or America. By forcing players that are champion-level anywhere but in Korea back to Korea, the system will become even more volatile. Because less points will be distributed across a greater number of players, making Blizzcon via GSL alone (which, in my opinion, should be possible) will become even more difficult. One early elimination (consider a group of Zest, Rain, soO and Innovation) might almost completely nullify your chances of making Blizzcon without significant overseas travel. Needless to say, commitments to Proleague makes travel difficult and making Blizzcon even more so.

It's the eternal plight of Korean players to be - to some extent - unwelcome elsewhere because the players are too good. No fans want to see their players crushed by players that are both unfamiliar and superior in terms of skill. Restrictions are put in place to ensure that foreigners aren't completely shut out,Region locking the WCS might promote regional growth and eventually an evening out of the skill differential between Korea and the rest of the world, but as things stand now it will come at the cost of a stacked Blizzcon.

The fact that the KeSPA Cup - one of a precious few Tier 1 events this year - is absolutely necessary for many of the attending players says something about the flaws in this year's WCS. The Season Finals of last year - although awkwardly executed - acted as point boosters for each season's top performers, ensuring that the majority of WCS finalists made Blizzcon. Their removal changed the direction of the WCS system, and while one might argue whether or not it was a good change, Korea doubtlessly suffered.

KeSPA Cup might prove the saving grace of the GSL's top performers by allowing them to assert their dominance and secure tickets to Blizzcon, rendering this rant mostly pointless. However, it might also - and this is far more likely, given Korea's tendency to produce new championship caliber players every other month - see them all eliminated and their chances to make Blizzcon minimized. In either case, the incredible significance of the KeSPA Cup demonstrates a problem in the WCS system that I hope will be addressed for next year. If nothing else, then for the health of the world's best Starcraft scene.

Writers: lichter, Zealously, stuchiu, CosmicSpiral, Darkhorse
banjoetheredskin, Soularion, XXTN, Zeweig, Trasko, Gemini, Destructicon
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Photo: GOMeXP.
Editor: Zealously, lichter.