EPT
So, this is it! After several weeks of intense Ro32 games, the final 16 contestants have been chosen. Some fan favourites have remained while other players including the two amateurs have been knocked out. All in all, the games were exciting and the hype is gaining steam as we keep on advancing forward.
The Ro16 promises to be even more intense as war will be waged between titans across various terrains. The addition of Arcadia to the map pool will likely vary up the gameplan and make for some unpredictable games that will be a treat to watch. Read on ahead to find out how groups G and H played out as well as our writers predictions for who will advance from the recently published Ro16 groups.
With that said, let's sit back, relax and watch some of the finest BW on the planet with the first group of the Ro16 set to be casted in both Korean and English in .
The Ro16 promises to be even more intense as war will be waged between titans across various terrains. The addition of Arcadia to the map pool will likely vary up the gameplan and make for some unpredictable games that will be a treat to watch. Read on ahead to find out how groups G and H played out as well as our writers predictions for who will advance from the recently published Ro16 groups.
With that said, let's sit back, relax and watch some of the finest BW on the planet with the first group of the Ro16 set to be casted in both Korean and English in .
Group G Recap
![[image loading]](http://giant.gfycat.com/BlissfulElatedIndochinahogdeer.gif)
I can multitask some more if need be...
In the winner's match, hero and Guemchi squared off on Fighting Spirit. hero decided to open up with pool first then double expanded in response to Guemchi's gateway nexus build. He added a hydralisk den and made lots of zerglings which kept Guemchi contained till he had speedlots. After the first engagement went in hero's favour, Guemchi added high templars and caused significant economical damage to hero (who repaid the favour with lurker drops). Then, it happened. Guemchi leveled up and became the Afreecan flash (protoss version) by outmultitasking hero on several fronts to advance to the Ro16 (gif above). The loser's match was less exciting as Sea trampled over Obba with a FD on Fighting Spirit. As a masterful tactician, Sea researched mines and vulture speed then used his marines to draw goon attention while the vultures snuck behind them to plant mines and destroy Obba's economy to win the game.
![[image loading]](http://giant.gfycat.com/ElementaryRigidBanteng.gif)
Masterful plan
The final game of the group took place between Sea and hero on Match Point. In typical opening fashion, Sea opted for rax FE while hero went for 3 hatch muta. hero kept Sea contained while he took a third, got lurkers and teched up. Sea started to become more aggressive while hero tried to deny bases while taking more of his own. Using his great understanding of map architecture, Sea started adding vultures and zoned off hero's army which helped him immensely when it came to attacking and taking down multiple bases. With action all over the map, both players were pushed to their limits and struggled to maintain their mining bases. It was anyone's games until Sea upped his level of play even further with more impressive micro and stronger economical retention. Within mere minutes, Sea took control of the game and beat hero to be the last contestant to advance to the Ro16.
Grades:
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hyde/SSL/SSLX/grades/Aplus.png)
Guemchi: Guemchi's gameplay was surprising overall. Beating ZvP specialist hero is no easy feat considering the Zerg's destruction of Bisu in SSL11 finals. His gameplay is great to watch and he manages to survive and thrive where other players will falter. He is developing into a force to be reckoned with and is quite the threat to future opponents.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hyde/SSL/SSLX/grades/A.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/prech/files/RaceIcons/Ticon_pastel_Hyde.png)
Sea: Solid macro, amazing micro and great understanding of the various matchups. Sea continues to play really well and will advance much further if he maintains his current level.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hyde/SSL/SSLX/grades/Bplus.png)
hero: hero put up quite a strong fight in all his games especially his game against Sea. His game against Guemchi was disappointing considering his past achievements in the matchup. Better defense and positioning would go a long way in helping him improve his game.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hyde/SSL/SSLX/grades/F.png)
Obba: Terrible performance all around. It might've been the nerves seeing as he's never played on the big stage before, especially against players of Sea and hero's caliber. Group H Recap
Last vs Free and Mong vs by.SpireThe first game had the players spawn in cross position. It was quiet initially as both players chose to duke it out in the lategame. When Last rolled out, he was able to take out two of Free's expansions. Last then muscled his way around the center to catch Free expanding in the other side. He beat back several large protoss armies and take out another expansion. Free tried to score some blows with two successive and surprisingly dangerous recalls. When Last held, Free felt the advantage was insurmountable forcing the GG.
Mong and Spire started the game trading lost mining time with little scuffles in each others' natural. Spire got the upper hand by investing in lings and proceeded to YOLO with a 3 hatchery muta all-in. After several minutes spent chasing mutalisks around, Mong almost died after Spire busted his natural and killed almost everything except for medics and SCVs. It turned out that medics and SCVs were important too so Mong used what little he had left to recover and punished Spire's all-in.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OgOEAGR.jpg)
Artist's Rendition of Mong vs Spire
Last vs Mong and Spire vs FreeThere's no shortage of TvT games with the amount of Terran players in the circuit. Last dictated the pace by establishing a third base earlier than Mong. Contrasting recent TvT trends, both players went for dropship play. Last was really on point as relentlessly harassed Mong's side of the map and manipulated the tank lines in the open areas to create problems for the expanding Pig Terran. Last systematically shrinked the space controlled by Mong until he couldn't breathe. Last advanced 2-0.
Spire versus Free came down to whether Spire's 3 hatchery hydra all-in would succeed. He almost succeeded in keeping Free in the dark but Free's second probe was tenacious enough to see a hydra hatching from the well-saturated third. Consequently, Free was able to prepare cannons and storms and eventually struck the killing blow on Spire's shenanigans.
Final Match: Mong vs Free
Mong vs FreeMong and Free played with tight defense early in this set. As the game progressed, Free attacked Mong's heavily mined platform to exploit the timing where Mong was vulnerable as he took his fourth. It was an spectacular setback for Mong leading to the destruction of two of his bases. Free got so ahead, that he took his time to correctly stasis all of Mong's units. GG.
Grades:
Last: Last put on a clinic with his recall defense, mech pushes and dropship plays. He played with a strong command of the strategic side as well, utterly outmaneuvering both of his opponents who were no pushovers themselves. Just really a brilliant, well-rounded from Last. Free: Free did quite well in his match versus Last but I question the logic of some his recalls. Versus Spire and Mong, he looked like a class above, where he basically made a guide on how to abuse information and timings.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hyde/SSL/SSLX/grades/D.png)
Mong: He was very shaky in his games and I don't think he prepared for his opponents well enough (or at least, it didn't show.) He was kind of lucky against Spire but the skill needed to recover was just as important. Spire: Okay. I don't see how you can hang with the big boys with a repertoire of 3 hatch all-ins. I don't dislike all-ins, in fact I welcome them. But the big boys don't have a repertoire composed exclusively of all-ins. Even guys with that reputation like Nal_rA and Silent_Control actually have very good orthodox games and use them most of the time. That's the actual reason they're good. Maybe next time Kim Sang-gon. 
Group A Preview
"Crazy Train"
Bisu, Mind, 
Larva and Jaehoon this group has the hallmarks of all the good groups of death, two extremely strong competitors in Bisu and Mind, an increasingly powerful competitor in Larva and that guy who'd have got through any other group but got stuck in the hardest possible group in the tournament, aka Jaehoon. Oh and lets not forget this is Round Robin format, so nobody escapes facing someone in a round robin. Let the fun begin.Bisu destroyed his Ro32 opponents with such relative ease without really needing to show any of his good builds either. In this group, he can't afford to be too careless, because his opponents won't be and they can push him in all three of his matchups. PvP is the easiest for him, and Jaehoon's PvP is pretty solid it falls flat against Bisu's 88% winrate in the matchup. Against Mind and Larva, he better prepare for some tough battles especially a rematch against Mind who's out for revenge after the SSL Semifinals.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6ikjrSU.jpg)
reminding Bisu that hes still able stroke his hair is reason enough to want to win, or else it goes buzz
After being the best Terran player all through the year, Mind had an uncharacteristically sloppy play during the Ro32 after dropping his opening set to his former WeMade FOX Hubae Major(although he recovered pretty well during the final game on match point) and a particularly scrappy game against Olympus. That does not bode well in a group where he needs to go against Bisu and Jaehoon who both have given Mind a lot of trouble, but Mind is a player that excels when he has time to practice as shown with his SSL11 run and is relatively quick at fixing his mistakes in a particular matchup. His TvZ is as impeccable as ever with one major loss to hero (2-3) in the Bisu Blind league but nonetheless is more than a match for Larva.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/thumb/2/29/SSL_10_selection_Mind.jpg/565px-SSL_10_selection_Mind.jpg)
I'd feel uncomfortable in this group too
Larva has put some serious hard work into being a competitor in this league and it showed in his Ro32 performance against sSak and Movie showing some good adaptive play against sSak and great decision making and crisis management against movie earning his spot in the Ro16, but against Bisu and Mind who are the best of their respective races and the best players against Zerg in their respective races it is surely going to be an uphill battle for him.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/1/13/Larva02.jpg)
Larva: I can finally graduate from being a dish washer!Jaehoon is in a really tough spot, theres not a lot of confidence in him actually winning games in this group except against Mind even that seems a bit doubtful considering their recent game in the Spotimes SL Season 2. Against Bisu and Larva, well hopefully preparation against them goes well for him and he manages to turn the group on its head, otherwise I'd expect him to be out of the group in the last position.
Group B Preview
"Bale in a Terran stack"In Group B we have Bale, Last, Sharp and HiyA. Which means we get a "Desert of TvTs and the Oasis of TvZ" package with the unfortunate storyline of a BBARAS teamkill between Bale and Sharp.
Bale, Last, Sharp and HiyA. Which means we get a "Desert of TvTs and the Oasis of TvZ" package with the unfortunate storyline of a BBARAS teamkill between Bale and Sharp.Last could not have asked for a better group as the SSL10 finalist where he got carried by his TvT, which is easily his best matchup. Here, he finds himself right in his wheel house and would certainly be favoured against Sharp and HiyA in the matchup. With the amount of practice Last gets against players like ZerO and EffOrt, playing against them and doing pretty well both in tournaments and on stream, Bale should not pose a threat to him. Last should easily go 3-0 in this group barring any significant change in form on his opponents part.
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/thumb/d/d5/LastBIO.jpg/401px-LastBIO.jpg)
Terran Up The Night!
Sharp has managed to take his Ro32 group by surprise going 2-0 with an extremely strong showing in TvT against Major. If he can hold his own against the TvT titan Last and against HiyA, his TvZ is overall pretty standard. Most of his losses has come from ZerO's hand in tournaments so it remains to be seen how he will fare against Bale. It should be noted how much they have practiced with each other under the BBARAS banner, so it will be an interesting matchup for the both of them.
Sharp turning on his swag mode
HiyA is the ZerO of Terrans, he is quite the inconsistent player but he's even more so on the down side compared to ZerO. His TvT is riddled with losses to players like sSak and Mong over Bo1s, Bo3s and Bo5s it's almost scary how much HiyA has played and lost to them. Last is going to be HiyA's biggest challenge in this group but Sharp is no slouch, he's a pretty "sharp" player. On the other hand, HiyA's TvZ is still his saving grace and with how he easily dispatched EffOrt in his Ro32 group. Bale might just end up being a fly that will be swatted by him.
Bale has a couple of things going for him, firstly having to practice only one matchup for the entire group is a great advantage. Secondly and more importantly, he's been receiving actual coaching from Soulkey's former personal coach Child (and team BBARAS coach during the sonic coaching series) who helped him prepare for his Ro32 games. It's entirely possible that he might show us some well refined builds that might break the Terran apart -- or he might just fall apart. The prospect of the former happening makes me pretty excited to see his games.
Child (and team BBARAS coach during the sonic coaching series) who helped him prepare for his Ro32 games. It's entirely possible that he might show us some well refined builds that might break the Terran apart -- or he might just fall apart. The prospect of the former happening makes me pretty excited to see his games. Group C Preview
New Players, Old FacesGroup C features two of the strongest Zergs in the game with EffOrt and ZerO, while also starring two former KeSPA-players who have decided to give Brood War another shot in the competitive scene with July and Rush. With a group of former pros and 4 OSL titles held together (1 for EffOrt and 3 for July), this group will be explosive and entertaining to watch.
EffOrt looks to rebound from his SSL 11 debacle with a strong performance at the VANT Starleague. The previous OSL winner continues to boast the arguably strongest ZvT in the game right now and his ZvZ still looks on point. He crushed Rush 3-0 in the KDS SL2 to take 3rd place, and trounced ZerO in the Spotimes SL 3-0 to take home the gold. EffOrt is hungry and looks well equipped place high in this tournament. I fully expect EffOrt to breeze past this group move into the Round of 8 as a favorite.
EffOrt’s 2015 in review:- 1st 41 Maki Starleague
- 3rd/4th Seaside Super
- 1st Spotimes SL
- 2nd Bisu Blind
- 3rd KDS SL2
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/meb7a3M.jpg)
Ayy lmao a teamkill.
July hasn’t proven much yet. He managed to beat the amateurs in his Round of 32 group but that doesn’t say much to me yet. Sure we beat free in a Bo1 in the Spotimes SL2, but he also lost to Jaehoon. As the new guy on the block in a group filled with other former pros and vets, I can’t really give him the benefit of the doubt. I hope he puts up some interesting games, but the Golden Mouse winner will have to practice more for future tournaments and make the best with what he has now.
Rush is an interesting player. As a former CJ Entus player, having teamed with EffOrt, he has already been soaring up the ELO chart, making the top 20 in only 23 games played. However, with so few games played, it’s hard to determine where his strength will lie in this group. I will say he managed a spectacular debut performance in the KDS SL2 where he placed 4th and managed to defeat the likes of hero in his Round of 8 match before ultimately succumbing to EffOrt 0-3 in the 3rd/4th place match. Rush will be the wildcard of the group. Since he only has one matchup to prepare for, I expect his TvZ to play a bit better than his average. However, is a bit better than average going to cut it against the ZvT powerhouses in EffOrt and ZerO? I think no.
ZerO is the only other player in this group who I can make a solid conclusion and preview for considering he has been in the scene for quite some time now. The ex-MSL finalist has never really held an important first place finish at a tournament for some time. He plays just like himself back in the KeSPA-era, nominated the 3rd best Zerg to never have won a major. This trend continues in the post-KeSPA era, having never a real major tournament (I don’t take the PianO SL seriously since they played a round robin finals.) He continues to play solid, almost always making the cut for top 8, and usually advancing to the Round of 4, but he can never seem to break the barrier for the gold. I expect much of the same from ZerO, playing against a new July and Rush. He should move out 2nd from this group.
ZerO’s 2015 in review:- 3rd HungryApp StarZ
- 1st PianO SL
- 3rd/4th HoSic BJ SL
- 2nd 41 SL
- 2nd Spotimes SL
- 5th-8th SSL11
- 3rd/4th Terror TEMPTS
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/thumb/4/4b/Zero_award.jpg/667px-Zero_award.jpg)
Obviously this picture is fake. ZerO has never won anything.
Group D Preview
ConsistencyI hesitate to call this the Group of Death, but considering that each of these 4 individuals have all had their fair share of success in Brood War, it seems like the most well-rounded out of all the groups. This group is going to be highly anticipated and their skill levels makes it very difficult to predict who will advance. As the title implies, the key to this group will be consistency. Whoever slips up even once, will be sent home; the ones who stand strong and hold their ground will advance.
Free, while being a solid and well-rounded player, has never really impressed me all too much in tournaments. If I were to make a comparison for Free, I would say Axe from Super Smash Brothers Melee. Consistent in placing in the top 8, but never really getting farther than that. Free is incredibly lucky to not be placed into a group with any Zergs, as his PvZ is pitiful to say the least. His vP and vT are much better shown, with matchups above the 50% mark. I believe that Free can advance from this group. He is an extremely consistent player and can hold his own in these round robin formats.
Free’s 2015 in review:- 4th SSL 11
- Top 8 HungryApp StarZ
- Top 8 Terror TEMPTS
- Top 8 Spotimes SL
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/thumb/6/67/Free_cute.jpg/294px-Free_cute.jpg)
Consistency? More like consistently cute. :3
Do I need to even bother describing Sea at this point. The dude is probably the best player of 2015 and I think he continues to improve. He’s consistently held top 2 in the ELO rankings for quite some time now. He continues to look absolutely untouchable, aside from a minor misstep here or there. His TvT boasts a near 68% and his TvP is over 60%, numbers that FlaSh would be proud of. I fully expect Sea to emerge from this group victorious, and hope the offline curse does not continue. He is also looking for revenge against his defeat to GuemChi in the Round of 32. Sea will come out strong and punish every mistake his opponents make.
Sea’s 2015 in review:- 1st 41 SL
- 2nd Terror TEMPTS
- 2nd Seaside Super
- 1st Draemong SL
- 1st KDS SL2
- 4th 41 Maki SL
![[image loading]](http://s.sk-gaming.com/image/image/451bd3fcebc33289m.jpg)
Hey GuemChi. This one is for you.
GuemChi had some random shock to his system in the Round of 32 and completely shocked everyone when he defeated both Sea AND hero, forcing Sea and hero to play in the final match where ultimately, hero lost. He played an incredible spoiler in that group; however, I think GuemChi’s run is over. He might have turned heads in his 2 Bo1 series to advance from the Round of 32, but in a round robin format, he will really have to grind his way out of this veteran group. GuemChi’s numbers look abysmal, having only a 50% win rate vT, and a catastrophic 23% vP. GuemChi will probably just prove me wrong again and demolish everyone, but until then, I think GuemChi is running out of rope.
If you read my preview of sSak’s Round of 32 group, you’ll note that I think sSak is over the hump and slumping into oblivion. Sure, he managed to get into the Round of 16 in a fairly weak group, but in a group with high skilled veterans sSak will be pushed to the brink. I’ll reiterate what I said before: sSak has fancy winrate numbers, but those don’t mean anything when you’re only 22-22 in 2015 alone. We’ll see if sSak can rise up to the challenge and prove to everyone that he deserves a spot in the Top 8, but until then, he will continue to be inconsistent and slumping.
sSak's been slumping in recent months, his TvT remains incredibly robust, and his TvP is one of the strongest in the scene, so I can see him taking 2 wins over 
