IEM Katowice players preview

Ryung; 232 points. Best EPT result: code A qualification GSL season 3

Coming into Katowice as a last-minute replacement after Armani Covid-related withdraw, it’s fair to say that the ex-Axiom Terran EPT resume hardly scream world championship caliber. His sole code A participation resulted a quick 3-0 beating at the hands of Keen (who himself would have also qualified to Katowice if it wasn’t for his retirement late in the year), although he did manage to beat herO in the qualifier to get that spot, so it wasn’t entirely without merit. However, when we look outside of the EPT circuit we see that Ryung might yet have so tricks up his sleeves. He comes in as the ace of Team GP’s miraculous World Team Championship, where he managed to defeat many adversaries ranked way above him in the standing. He hasn’t been able to translate that performance into individual event yet, but don’t be surprised if he managed to trip someone out of their world championship dream, especially in TvP and TvT. If not, then he will at least be able to coach Maru.


Kelazhur: 265 points. Best EPT result: Second place, Dreamhack fall: Latin America season 2

The Brazilian Terran continued his long-standing tradition of getting into the world final by way losing to Special, as 240 of his point came from regional event. Even then, it was harder than one could have anticipated, finishing 3rd in season 1 and 2 after losing to Erik and Cham respectively. If I’m blunt about it there’s little sign pointing at something else than a quick exit, but Kelazhur always had a knack for some creative build orders since his glory day at the end of LOTV so maybe he can make some magic happen like he did last year taking out Armani before losing to Hurricane.


hero: 277 points. Best EPT result: Top 8 Super tournament 3

Many rounds of 36 participant must wish that herO military service could have lasted just a couple more months. The DPG protoss arrive at Katowice like a rocket, garnering more and more momentum as the days go by. Having missed most of the year, he has yet to score a big performance in a major tournament, having the misfortune of getting mixed up with Maru twice in a row in Super tournament (the latter being part of the 2022 season), but he’s winning online cup left and right, already having 72 points from EPT cup, and looking as deadly as ever, with his adepts and blink stalkers play. The round of 36 will be an interesting test for herO, he has a chance to make a statement that he’s back and ready to dance with the best of the best, but the Polish arena has reserved him some pain in the past and he must be weary not to fall in the trap of other ex-military player like ByuN or DRG that couldn’t carry their initial momentum as far as we thought at the time.


Percival: 305 points. Best EPT result: Round of 16 GSL season 2

The second GP terran at the tournament, his results aren’t exactly much more impressive than Ryung. A rather lucky draw in code A against ForGG saw him get to code S, where he defended himself rather well, but still ended up last in his group. Can he cause some upset in Katowice? Hard to say, he’s a solid player in all three matchups but lack the explosive capability to go on a rampage in a bracket or punch above his weight class. Katowice 2022 will be the first time the youngest player in the Korean scene plays a Starcraft game outside of Korea, getting out of the round of 36 would be a massive achievement, but not one entirely outside his reach.


Spirit: 368 points. Best EPT result: Top 8 Dreamhack Summer Europe

Spirit, formerly known as Soul, also known as the Europe top players favorite training partner, must start to feel the pressure. Once part of the new generation of European talent looking to overthrow South Korean dominance, he has been unable to follow some of his rival like Clem, Reynor or HeroMarine, instead getting stuck in the “always good, never great” spot that can be so hard to get out of. The ultra-solid polish player is still looking for his big break and a tournament at home may be the time to do so. He has taken some series from players like HeroMarine or Showtime before but barred from a willingness to make his play evolve away from his typical standard into late game, he’ll need quite a lucky bracket to make it out of the round of 32.


Creator 375 points. Best EPT results: Code A GSL season 1-2-3

Creator play looks better that his result would lead you to believe, it’s a tale as old as time for the NV protoss. After getting blasted by his 10+ years teammate Maru in the first season of code A, he lost 3-2 to Special in season 2, 3-2 to Dream in season 3 and 3-2 to Dark in Super tournament 3 while also putting some good performance in the WTL. If it was anyone else than Creator, I would be saying that he’s just one or two small adjustments away from greatness, but anyone who has followed his career know that heartbreaks are legions behind him. Still, I wouldn’t count him out just yet, he has one of the highest based skill levels of the round of 36 and his pvz is looking good which could very well play in his favor.


SKillous 404 points. Best EPT results: Top 8 Dreamhack fall Europe
Yes, Skillous did in fact qualified for the ESL Pro tour final, but sadly for him, there are no more Hellraiser, Milkycow, Bly or Kas at this level of competition. The young Russian has shown a bit more upset potential than his fellow European online warrior Spirit but getting out of the round of 36 would be a big surprise nonetheless, however, expect him to take out a couple weaker players before bowing out of the tournament.


Cyan: 417 points. Best EPT results : First Place Dreamhack winter China

Cyan is my personal dark horse of the round of 36. It’s maybe a bit unfair to the European players I get to see more often, but the with the Chinese scene getting even more isolated with Covid, the lack of Chinese specific qualifier for most events and Time being a mighty adversary in Dreamhack event, Cyan had little opportunity to match out against other foreigners on an even playing field in the last few years. Whether it led to people underestimate or overestimate him a bit uncertain, but I tend to fall toward the underestimate crowd. When he plays at his best, he’s solid in all three matchups, but especially impressive in pvz, and capable of the consistency that could make him a surprise round of 24 participant. Although, it should be noted that his sole DH season final appearance ended up being rather disappointing.


Astrea: 493 points. Best EPT results: 3rd place Dreamhack America Summer-Fall-Winter

A couple of years ago, Astrea would have been my dark horse instead of Cyan, now I’m not too sure. He’s undoubtedly the third best NA player, but the gap between him and Scarlett and Neeb seems to be widening rather than shrinking. He has done some good performances offline in the past, and he may very well restart diligent practice in anticipation of Katowice, but he’ll need to show more than he has in the past year to make a dent in the bracket.


Has: 520 points. Best EPT results: First place Dreamhack Fall TW/HK

Oh, my dear Has, who could have thought all those years ago when you pylons walled Jaedong natural that you would still be giving us such joy all these years later? The time is long pass when anyone would get surprised by the Taiwanese protoss cheeses, but occasionally, when the stars aligned just well, he can pull of the kind of nonsensical bullshit only he can do. Outside of that, his pvp his always good (some could say it’s because the matchup essentially is nothing but nonsensical bullshit). I can’t see him go far, but I’ll make sure not to miss any of his matches anyway.


Probe: 525 points. Best EPT results: First place, Dreamhack Summer-Fall Oceania

It’s never a good sign when most of the conversation around someone going into a tournament is whether they should even be there at all. Ever since Katowice 2021, Probe has beaten a grand total of 4 non-Oceanian/SEA opponents; Yoyo, Lunasea, gyulzzing and Fork, none of whom have a picture on liquipedia. To his defense, he didn’t play that many game against opponent outside of his region, but it’s still nothing to inspire much hope for the Snute look-alike. His trip to Poland might be short, especially since he failed to protect his Oceanian crown at the end of last year, bombing 0-4 in groups, but crazier things have happened.


Elazer: 589 points. Best EPT results: Top 6 Dreamhack Summer Europe

Now we are entering the interesting part of the round of 32. Elazer had some disappointing results in the European EPT competition, getting stuck in the giant round robin group twice, but he showed some flashes of brilliance multiple time throughout the year, including qualifying, then eliminating Rogue, at Dreamhack last chance as well as a top 8 at the King of battle tournament, couple that with having a habit of showing up in big tournament and you have a recipe for a very serious round of 24 challenger if he can have the right bracket.


Nice: 673 points. Best EPT results: First Place Dreamhack Summer-winter TW/HK

A bit like Cyan, it’s hard to tell if the lack of offline competition has favored or hindered the Taiwanese champion. Nice clearly has the potential to make the round of 36, he’s all around solid like many players here, but he also has more than a couple trick in his bag to beat mechanically superior opponents. At the last offline Katowice, he pulled off a massive lower bracket run, notably eliminating Clem and Bunny before falling a map short of the main event against Hurricane. There’s little to show that he has fallen off since then, he will need one or two clutch matches to make it out of the bracket, but it is certainly within his grasp and would be just what he needs to finally step out the shadow of Has.


RagnaroK: 697 points. Best EPT result: Round of 16 GSL season 2

The ex-TSL Roach-boy has been steady all year long until he peaked at the end of the year with a top 4 at TSL 8 beating Reynor, ByuN, Elazer, herO and Solar along the way. While the 10-year veteran still hasn’t been able to play at his best from start to finish in a big tournament, his performances this year have lost a lot of the shakiness he has been known for in the past. It was particularly on display when he all killed team liquid in the World team league playoff, topping it off with a 2-0 over Clem. He should be regarded as a favorite to make it out the bracket and could very well advance even further if he gets the right group.


ByuN: 710 points. Best EPT result: Round of 16 GSL season 2

After his unexpected triumph at Asus ROG at the end of 2020, 2021 was a bit of a cold shower for ByuN fans. He didn’t play especially bad, he has even had particularly good online result since the start of 2022, but he seems to have missed his chance to get back to even with the very best Starcraft have to offer. If he can, avoid DRG, Ragnarok or herO it should be relatively smooth sailing to the round of 24, as he’s been stellar vs foreigner especially in tvp. But that’s a rather big ‘’if’’ though and once in the round of 24 any groups he could get feel bad for him.

DRG: 796 points. Best EPT results: Top 8 GSL season 2

The man from Busan, like ByuN, didn’t quite managed to continue his post-military high, but he has proven far more capable of challenging the best of the best. His elimination of Serral at Dreamhack last Chance was the highlight of his year, but he has showed plenty of other great games. zvt and zvz are his best matchup, which could prove a bit problematic with the high number of Protoss in his bracket, but as the de facto favorite, he has a reasonable shot of reaching the group stage.

Lambo: 740 points. Best EPT performance: 3rd place Dreamhack Summer EU

Three years remove from his two WCS semi-final, 2021 was the year of the Lambo renaissance. While he didn’t quite reach the same height, a shocking elimination of Serral at DH Summer EU, some MVP worthy zvp performances in the WTL as well as his first ever final in NeXT season 2, where he came one map away to get the trophy, have earn him just enough point to squeeze into the round of 24. He was blessed with a group that might be just what he needs to get some more queen-walked centric upset. Trap and Zest are the two best protoss of the competition, but Lambo have slayed their kind this past year, and Bunny and Heromarine are certainly manageable opponent. It will be hard, but don’t be surprised if Lambo sneak out of the group in third.


ShoWTimE: 752 points. Best EPT performances: 3rd place Dreamhack Winter EU

“The wall” performances have been good enough to put him just above his compatriot. While the Protoss did not have the same massive upset as Lambo, he was undoubtedly more consistent all year long, true to his habits. His play has been particularly impressive these last few weeks, seemingly flipping a switch and winning a couple of EPT cup at the end of the year to inched out Lambo and guarantee his places. He has said to be happy with his group, with good reason, Serral and Dark are probably too much for him, but Time and Special are within his reach for a third place.


Zoun: 1106 points. Best EPT performance: Top 8 GSL season 2

The slayer of Maru in GSL season 2 and two-time Super tournament finalist had no problem at all getting the ‘’global’’ spot, getting over 300 points more than DRG. The protoss didn’t has much punched above his weight class as he moved up one class, while he can still drop a couple of series to lesser regarded players, he became part of the finest Korea has to offer. He must not have been happy with his draw though, having no pvp to look forward too and two very different terran and zerg player could prove a bit hard to prepare for. It will be a tall ask for him to get top 12, but at the very least he could end the run of one of the many fan favorites stuck with him.


Dream: 1172 points. Best EPT performance: Top 4 GSL season 1

Dream was mighty close to knock out Rogue in the GSL semi-final of season 1, ever since then he didn’t look as mighty. Still able to hang in with the best and maybe even to advance to the round of 12, a deep tournament run would be surprising at the moment.


SpeCial: 1237 points. Best EPT performances: First Place Dreamhack Latam Summer-Fall-Winter

Special once again swept the Latam region, although for the first time in a long time he couldn’t really show up in any competition outside of his region. He couldn’t make it out of the groups in the season finals, had middling performances in WTL and only managed to get a couple of big wins in third party tournament, including one over Rogue in Next, one over Dream at TSL 8 and one over Creator in season 2 of Code A. For someone accustomed to deep run, it was probably a year to forget and despite landing the easiest group in the round of 24, it will be hard for him to advance.


Bunny: 1240 points. Best EPT performances: Top 4 GSL season 2

Do you guys want to learn a slightly depressing fact? Ever since Cure won GSL season 3, Bunny is now the last active Kespa player to never win a premier tournament, all of friend won one except for him. It didn’t look to phase the happy rabbit too much this year though, even if he got absolutely blasted in the two semi-finals, he took part in (GSL and Fall final), he played some of the best Starcraft of his career all year long. Even getting an ace match nod over Maru for team NV in the WTL (which he won). He still lacks the strategic dept to worry the best of the best but considering the group he got and the volatility of tvp he can certainly hope for a round of 12 finish.


Neeb: 1265 points. Best EPT performances: First Place Dreamhack North-America Summer-Fall

Neeb come into Katowice as one of the biggest unknown entities. While his undeniable skills allowed him to easily get into the round of 24 from the NA circuit, one can’t hardly miss that he seems to be phoning it in. With minimal tournament participation, including a complete absence of the competitive circuit since the Winter final, it’s unclear weather Neeb is still interested in Starcraft 2 and his performances have certainly not been up to his standard for someone who was once the greatest foreigner ever. Breaks have proven beneficial for some players in the past, so there might be some hopes for the American, but sign point firmly to a quick exit.


Scarlett: 1315 points. Best EPT performances: First place Dreamhack North-America Winter

Don’t call it a comeback, Scarlett is the North American champion once again and she’s looking poised to take out some names. A 3-2 lost to Rogue in the semi-final of the Winter season have reminded us of the Scarlett we all know and love, someone who can show up at any time and turn a whole tournament upside down. She certainly has the group to do so, with a zvz against the world champion and two zvt against the best terran in the world, it looks exactly like the kind of setting for Scarlett to pop off. I for one predict that she’s getting out of that group.


Time 1333 points. Best EPT performances: First place Dreamhack China Summer-Fall

After nearly missing the tournament because of Visa issues, the number 1 Chinese player will in the end be allowed to have a chance to channel the likes of Looner and Xigua and compete for the world championship crown. He certainly has proven worthy of the shot, he got top 8 in two season finales as well as the Last Chance tournament, although his detractors could say he has gotten some rather fortunate draws on a couple of occasion. Once again, he found himself in a nice group with everyone sleeping on him, there’s in fact little doubt that he’s the favorite to get that third-place spot if he keeps playing like he did all year long. It’s again the heavy hitter that Time had problems this year, getting rather bopped on a couple of occasions and it’s probable that he once again become pray to such a treatment right out of the groups.


Solar: 1369 points. Best EPT performances: Top 4 Dreamhack Last Chance

Solar might have the best zvt in the world right now, he might be the best overall zerg in the world right now, he might ace his group at Katowice but he’s absolutely not winning this tournament. There’s no good reason for it, the fact that he has not won a single tournament in the last 6 years is simply incomprehensible. He doesn’t really choke, nor is he particularly bad in big tournament, but there’s just always something that go wrong along the way. This year was the same, he’s been good all along he can beat absolutely anyone in this tournament, he’ll just have to wait and see when fate decide he’s gone far enough.

HeRoMaRinE: 1573 points. Best EPT performances: Top 3 Dreamhack Fall Europe

Heromarine come to Katowice having played arguably the best year of Starcraft of his career. In 2021, he turned the EPT cup into the “Big Gabe cup”, wining week after week in dominating fashion, at the start of the year, made two Season finale top 8, two TSL top 12, a top 4 at King of battle as well two DH EU top 4.

The aged old question “Is Heromarine actually good?” have finally been put to rest, the new question “Is Heromarine actually great?” has not. He has won a myriad of online cup and has beaten the likes Zest, Serral, Clem, Trap and Reynor multiple time, yet success in big tournament still elude Gabe, as he’s on the cusp of entering his second decade of programing with yet a major grand finale appearance to his name.

This year alone he managed to find himself a match away from the final four time. The results? 1-3 vs Serral; 0-3 vs Clem; 0-3 vs Serral; 0-3 vs Maru. None of those scores are particularly embarrassing on their own but considering that the has again and again proved to be able to hang in and beat the best of the best in smaller online cup, such repeated beating at the latter stage of tournaments paint a pattern that is hard to avoid coming into an offline Katowice.

His group is a doable one, Bunny and Lambo should be the kind of player he beat, his tvp has always been stellar and while there’s a couple of open bracket guys that could prove tricky for him, no one is outside of his reach if he manages to keep his cool. At the end of the day though, it is highly unlikely that the 10th ranked player comes home with the Katowice crown even if plays at his best, on paper he has the skills for a top 8 or top 4 finish, although, like many, I’ll believe it when I see it.


Reynor: 1914 points. Best EPT performance: First place Dreamhack Summer finale
Alright, we’re with the heavy hitter now. The reining World Champion has had a puzzling year. After a well-earned vacation, he came back to DH Europe in full form but couldn’t shake Clem on the last day, he followed this up with another silver in TSL 7 where he let go of 1 map head start in the grand finale against Trap, but he made some quick adjustment and in the Summer final became the first player to punch his ticket to Katowice beating Maru 4-3 in an epic macro duel that ended well into the night. But ever since that, thing have been looking…let’s say middling. From “not the right desk/computer” to “I just moved to another country” and “I’m in vacation at Rotti” it just look like Reynor may have taken thing a bit less seriously than in the past. He missed both the Fall and Winter finale and couldn’t do more than a single top 6 at TSL 8.

Now that’s not to say that he somehow collapsed on himself, if fact ever since his Season finale win, he has only been eliminated from tournament by players in the top 15 of the EPT circuits with the exception of that one-time Showtime beat him in a EPT cup (and the very strange two week when he got 0-4 by Skilous). His slump was mostly losing to Clem, Serral, Maru, Zest and Trap, but at the end of the day, for the world champion it is still a slump. Now the big question is how much of those performances were due to some lost motivation and a lack of practice and how much were due to not being able to figure out a way to beat his opponent. If it’s the former, Reynor must be one of the upmost favorites with his practice time ramping up going into Katowice, if it’s the latter he must hope he found the answers to his problems in the last two months, because with the group he has one small slip up and his tournament run might end before it even gets started.


Zest: 1976 points. Best EPT performances: Second Place GSL season 3

The two-time Katowice vice-champion is looking for the crowing jewel of his career. Zest got little to prove at this point, having already made a comfortable amount of money and won tournament across the world, however he was looking like a hungry 18 years old all year long. Having played over 2300 games of Starcraft since last Katowice and winning 80 plus tournaments, his inhuman workloads finally paid off in the last Super tournament, marking the end of a surprisingly long series of second place in premier tournament. Since then, Zest has gone back into hiding, barely playing in the last month, knowing his talent for build order creations and execution it might be even scarier to have him not play at all than to see him win every tournament under the sun (and the moon). All three of his matchups have looked great at time this past year, although the sheer number of games he played also made for some rather unfortunate showing in random online cup number 368. When he’s focused his execution is second to none, his two and three bases pushes in particular find success where everyone else just fell flat on their heads, but everything from an adept all-in to a sky-toss rush is fair game when playing Zest.

Zest got points in almost every events in the year, including a record 286 points for EPT cup, but his most impressive win was his triumph over Rogue in the semi of GSL 3 that saw him stop the zerg offline-best-of-7 reign of terror as well as himself getting a 4th Code S final, passing MC’s three.

After flirting with retirement all year, it will now certainly be his last Katowice before the military and once again he’s among the favorite to bring back the crown to Seoul. Doing so, he could become the second two-time Katowice champion, and the first three-time world championship finalist. The first step however will be to navigate out of a group that will force him to play all three match-ups, hopefully without showing to many of his builds. After that it’s all up to some Zest magic, and as we all know it’s the best kind of magic.


Cure: 2153 points. Best EPT performances: First Place GSL season 3

The Korean terran well is endless and full of talent, after Innovation and TY retirement, the world could have thought they were finally seeing the end of getting dunked on by marine and marauders, but that’s just the moment Cure was waiting for to make his move. He went full speed ahead at the mid-point of the year getting fourth place at both TSL 7 (where he wiped the floor with Serral) and Next season 1 (beating Reynor and Solar) before lifting the GSL trophy beating an absolute killer gauntlet of Protosses in Parting, Trap and Zest.
Overall Cure was one of the most consistent player of the years, except for one major mishap, as he got soundly defeated by Ragnarok in Code A missing an entire season of GSL-DH final, which did not deter him of getting 7th place in the yearly ranking, ending it with a second place at the last chance tournament.

There is a big chance no one will look at Cure as a serious challenger for the world championship, other flashier names catching the attention, but make no mistake Cure is absolutely going there to win it all.


Dark: 2397 points. Best EPT performances: First place GSL season 2

Speaking of flashier names, Dark has rather surprisingly won only a single tournament all year long, in fact GSL season 2 was his only final (although he just came second in Super tournament in “2022”) and he only got another top 4, at the rather forgettable NeXT season 2. What he did have in place of trophy was consistent excellence, including an ongoing stretch of 8th straight top 8 since TSL 7.

His dueling against Rogue didn’t do him any good as he seldom came out on the winning side of them. Nevertheless, Dark as all the necessary tool to win Katowice and he could have hardly wish for a group more well-tailored to his strength, it looks like whatever happen, he should be good for another round of 8.


Serral: 2670 points. Best EPT results: First place Dreamhack Fall finale

2021 will be remember as the year the dam broke for Serral. From 2018 to 2020, Serral had been the favorite in every tournament he participated in, all his losses where razor edge defeats, but nonetheless with each month passing by we waited for the moment the Finish Phenom would get back to his late 2018 height and it never quite just happened. First came soO at Katowice, a close 2-3, then Innovation at WESG, 3-4, then Reynor at Kiev and Blizzcon, an ultra-swich away from his second Blizzcon final, then it was Zest time to throw a wrench at Serral precise macro game, 2-3, after that it was Clem that gave Serral a bit of trouble, but he nonetheless kept flying high until the Fall of 2020 when he ended up on the receiving end of a brutal 3-0 at the hands of Cure in King of battle. Ever since then it just been harder and harder for Serral to keep his aura of invincibility, it’s not just that he’s losing more (more being a relative term) but it’s the kind of loses he’s suffering.

Between his Blizzcon victory and the beating Cure gave him, Serral had only lost a BO5+ series by more than one map 4 times, three times against Reynor, and he had never been swept, since then Serral has lost BO5+ series by more than one map 15 times and been swept by Cure, Stats, Clem, Dark and Maru. His zvz has been hurting the most, DRG giving him the first group stage elimination of his adult life, the last one being five years ago by a pre-military Gumiho. Does that mean it’s all doom and gloom for Serral? No, not a all, in fact he might still be the favorite to win the whole damn thing. His zvp is second to none, he's able to man handled any terran or protoss second tier opponent like he did in the season 2 final, almost scoring a perfect tournament. His zvt has been more and more solid, as he started to regain the edge over Clem (and coincidentally Reynor) in Europe, but I for one must admit that I no longer glance at a bracket and immediately think Serral should win.

His group is an interesting one for him, I don’t think anyone can imagine that he won’t beat Time, Showtime, Special and most probably the last players from the round of 36, but Dark offer him a zvz test he probably would have liked to skip out on. If Serral is to become a two-time world champion, he will need to win some zvz and if he can’t get pass Dark in the group stage, we will have an early indication that he’s in some trouble.

Time is starting to run out for Serral, if he wants to be remembered as the greatest to ever touch SC2 he needs to find a way to stop his very slow but steady decline since Blizzcon 2018. He will get the chance to carve his name in the Katowice trophy in a few days, he better not let the opportunity pass, because he might not have to many more.


Clem: 2536 points. Best EPT performances: First place Dreamhack Summer-Fall Europe
The little corporal opens our top 5 but enter the tournament with many questions mark around him. Despite making back-to-back-to-back European final, it’s hard not to feel like Clem has not lived to his potential this year. He failed to make an impact in international competition and was barely able to hold on to a 53%-win rate against Koreans. In fact, his only top 4 outside of Europe, at the Winter final, came on the back of a single win over a Korean (a rather impressive 3-2 over Trap tbh).

His nigh untouchable tvz seemed to crumble around him, once again especially against Korean as Rogue, Dark, Solar and even Ragnarok were able to completely neutralize his super aggressive playstyle. Ping might play a big role in it, but a pretender to the world championship crown should be able to find way to play around it. His tvt also proved to be too timid as Maru and Cure were able to pick a wider array of build and used their experience to navigate the matchup much better than him. His tvp his however his saving grace and he should be confident going up against any representative of Aiur in Poland.
However, here’s the opposite side of the medal, Clem has been unstoppable all year long against other foreigners, winning lots of EPT cup, dominating the EU circuit and putting impressive number in the WTL. He also has been playing some excellent Starcraft these last few weeks, winning the last 4 European EPT cup as well as the French championship and seemed on high spirit in his interview with TL leading up to Katowice. He seemingly has the group of death, but it might be a blessing in disguise for him, Maru is the worst matchup he could have gotten, but might as well get it out of the way at the start, he knows Reynor like the back of his hands and should be confident against him and Scarlett and closing it out Zoun is exactly the kind of protoss Clem has been eating for breakfast. If his nerves don’t betray him, he should be able to navigate to a round of 12 spots without too much problem.


Trap 2897 points. Best EPT performances: Second place GSL season 2

Oh how the mighty have fallen, Trap arrived at the end of the year with 4 trophy, two global silver medals and two more GSL semi-finals, yet listening to most people speak of him right now he seems like the worst player of them all. Yet, while it is undeniable that Trap has had a bit of a down in performance toward the end of the year, a closer look at the actual performances drastically dedramatize the situation, since he got run over by Serral at the season two final, two more of his tournament came at the end of the best zvp player in the world, meanwhile he got the unfortunate chance to get to meet Cure twice, in GSL 3 and ST 3, not something any protoss would have wanted, and his last GSL loss came at the hands of a red hot herO.

Does that mean that there’s nothing to worry about? No, not at all, his high-profile losses where intersect with troubling online cup performances, and even then, Trap is supposed to be the best Protoss in the world, beating other player is part of the deal, if he doesn’t get his mojo back, he might be in for another disappointing Katowice run.
If he can recall his form from the start of the year though, then everything is possible. Following his grand final reverse sweep of Serral at the 2021 last chance tournament, Trap won back-to-back Super tournament, lost the narrowest of 4-3 to Maru in GSL season 1, beat Serral, Cure and Solar to win Next, went 8-2 against Zest in TSL 7 before running back the grand final vs Reynor from the lower bracket and destroyed sOs and Bunny before bowing down to Dark in the GSL final for the second time. It was amongst the best Starcraft run we have seen, yet it seems to have been all to quickly forgotten, like Trap that even at the top of his game was often overlooked.

The one time he wasn’t overlook by anyone however was the 2021 Katowice final. We all know how that end up, now that no one is thinking about him much, maybe it will be the opposite and we’ll finally crown another Protoss World champion.


Rogue: 2937 points. Best EPT performance: First Place GSL season 1
The two-time IEM Katowice champion is looking for his third. It was a strong year even for the DPG zerg standard, getting 3 trophies (GSL, ST, TSL) as well as two second place, both against Maru, and a good number of top 4. With his third GSL he also tied Nestea old mark for most GSL as a Zerg and continued to beef up his bank account in prevision of his upcoming military service.

That his not to say that Rogue didn’t have a good number of his typical buffoonery, among which getting 0-2 by Cham in the WTL, getting eliminated by Special at NeXT or by Elazer at DH Last Chance, however he also has shown plenty of his trademark killer instinct. He hypnotized Maru into forgetting roaches existed in GSL, won the majority of his zvz duel against Dark, found a weakness into Serral zvz he exploited again and again, and figured out Clem tvz. Both his zvt and zvz are looking top tiers and while his group might not be what he was hoping for, a top 3 finish should be expected with a good number of favorable draw in the knockout stage.

As a potential weakness for him going into Katowice is his zvp. He has played relatively few high profile zvp matches so it gets a bit hard to analyze, but Zest and Zoun for example have created some major headaches for him all year long with the former robbing him of a 4th GSL final. While he won’t have to worry about them in the group stage it may become a problem latter in the tournament.

His other problem of course is the that pesky terran who beat him in the two final he lost, I’m talking of course about:

Maru: 3185 points. Best EPT performances: First Place Dreamhack Winter finals-Dreamhack Last chances

There he is. The man of the hour. Maru last Katowice run ended in disappointment as he couldn’t hold on to his lead against Reynor despite a favorable position in game 3, but it didn’t seem to have phase him at all. In his 18 individual tournaments since last Katowice, Maru made 15 top 4, and won 8 of them, including four big trophies; King of battle, AsusROG, DH Winter and DH Last Chance, he also was back-to-back World Team league MVP, a GSL finalist for the 6th time and the only one to reach two season finales. In short, life’s good if you are Maru right now, the way he’s playing is also particularly impressive. He has demonstrated a mastery of tvt that was for the longest time deemed impossible with an almost comical superiority in the late game against anyone else, his tvz is a Swiss army knife, while his methodical late game ghost army seems unkillable and unmovable, he has also reminded us plenty of time that he has one of the fastest pair of hands in the world notably serving a beating to Serral at Asus Rog with bio parade pushes and mine drops. As for his tvp he hasn’t have the chance to show it as much, but from what we have seen it’s the same high-octane aggression he has always been known for in the match-up.

One could feel pretty good about all that, but long-term Maru fan will know that his skill-set is only matched by his ability to fuck things up when they most want him to win. And there’s plenty that could go wrong at Katowice. Just the group stage is tricky for him. It would be a particularly “Maru” thing to do to end a 20 or so win streak vs Clem just when it matters the most, Zoun has already knock out Maru of one GSL this year, Scarlett always gives him a run for his money and Reynor is by no mean a sure win even if he plays the best Starcraft of his life. After the group stage will come the Dark, the Rogue, the Zest, the Serral, the Cure and the Trap, all players who can, and have, beat him.
With all those caveats, the number 1 ranked player in the EPT circuit is undeniably the favorite going into his 6th global final. It is also a momentous opportunity for him to end the “GOAT” discussion (well for his fans, I’m sure he doesn’t give a shit). With a world championship to his name there would be little discussion that he is in fact the best of the best. It’s not the first time he gets such an opportunity though, even going back a decade, let’s see if he can close the deal this time.