Starcraft 2 news » WCS Global Finals Preview from Team Liquid

The top eight are set after four thrilling days of StarCraft II action. The WCS Global Finals will continue on Friday, the 4th of November, at BlizzCon. We are now left with four Protoss, two Zergs and two Terrans. Five Koreans, a US-American, a German, and a Pole. The bracket was drawn live on air following the deciding matches of the Group Stage and this is the result.

At first glance, two things immediately stand out. First, Europe is guaranteed a representative in the Semifinals, with ShoWTimE facing off against Elazer. Second, the lower bracket is an all-Korean showdown. How will this draw play out? Who benefits from it? We have all the answers for you right here.

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ShoWTimE is easily the biggest winner of this entire tournament so far. Sweeping his group 4-0 with victories over two GSL Champions, Dear and ByuN, he is looking in fantastic form. All around the globe, fans were wondering how so-called foreigners would fare against the toughest Korean opposition, and it is ShoWTimE who has put in the most impressive performance. He displayed rock solid defense macro against Dear in PvP, while it was his decisive decision-making that let him take out ByuN. It was two top-class showings that deserved the 4-0 scoreline he secured the group win with. Most importantly, it has earned him an advantageous seed, and the resulting draw has arguably been kind to him. Elazer poses a different challenge due to him playing Zerg as opposed to ShoWTimE’s opponents in his group, but it would be hard to argue that he is the strongest player left in the field. ShoWTimE could have been drawn against Stats, Dark or Neeb—all more accomplished players than Elazer. A Semifinals appearance for the German Protoss is definitely a reasonable prospect.

It cannot be overlooked, however, just how impressive Elazer’s group stage performance was. Most spectators probably did not expect him to survive until Day 4, let alone advance from his group. Solar, TY and Nerchio are extremely tough adversaries and all in good form. But as we learned this past week, so is Elazer. He made his preparation count by upsetting the reigning Starleague Champion Solar, initiating his elimination from the tournament, and then convincingly disposing of his countryman Nerchio. His play was not entirely without flaws, as evidenced by his loss to TY, but he showed composure when it mattered and executed his plans very well. His run to the Quarterfinals earns him a paycheck unlike any he’s received in his entire career thus far.

Their match should be an exciting one for European fans, especially, but an interesting one for any StarCraft fan. Neither ShoWTimE nor Elazer has had to play the PvZ matchup in their groups, and they are now given a week to prepare for their specific opponents. The last time they met, on October 8th, Elazer swept the series 3-0. ShoWTimE will have learned from that loss, however, and will only be more knowledgeable about Elazer’s preferred style of play against Protoss. At the same time, Elazer can look to the recent past for confidence and continue building on his previous success against ShoWTimE. Expect a series loaded with strategic depth between two players who know each other very well.

After advancing from his group in second place on Sunday, Neeblet was asked about the prospect of facing Dark and gave an interesting answer. Even though a lot of viewers consider Dark a big tournament favorite, Neeblet claimed he was not particularly scared of him and instead highlighted the other two possible draws (ShoWTimE and TY) instead. As was destined, Neeb was promptly drawn against Dark.

Neeblet has, so far, looked very impressive at the Global Finals, but some questions are still unanswered. At KeSPA Cup, he relied heavily on his masterful PvP to take him all the way to the championship. Here, he has only played the mirror matchup so far. Neeblet’s PvZ is largely untested. Even at KeSPA Cup, the player who gave him the most trouble by far was the Zerg Pet, who turned to aggressive openings to counter Neeblet’s relatively predictable PvZ. And despite declaring Dark ‘not all that scary’, there is no denying that Dark is a much stronger player than Pet. If Neeblet allows himself to be caught off guard as he was against Pet, Dark will have little trouble with him, despite the confidence Neeblet may have against him in standard games. There is no doubt that Dark will have seen and studied Neeblet’s preferred PvZ builds—the standard Dark Templar or Archon drop, as well as fast Resonating Glaives to harass a Zerg early. He will produce his own way of countering these strategies, and Neeblet will have to prepare extensively to shore up the defensive weaknesses Pet exploited so handily at KeSPA Cup. But he appears to be confident, which indicates that he has a good grip on how Dark approaches the matchup. The onus is now on Neeblet to perform to his own expectations.

Dark, however, has just as much reason to be happy about this draw. Elazer had just defeated Nerchio with excellent ZvZ, and the prospect of facing ByuN would not have thrilled Dark either. Instead, he has a week’s time to prepare for Neeblet, a player who frequently competes in online tournaments. There will be a lot of games for Dark to find and draw analysis from. Dark already defeated two Protoss opponents in his group, so he will already have practiced for the matchup in general—and he will be confident going forward, knowing that he was good enough to overcome PtitDrogo and Stats. Dark entered the tournament at #1 in our Power Rank, and so far he has performed to that standard. Now the true tests will come, though. The sentiment in the community appears to be that his chances at reaching the Grand Finals are high, given the bracket he was drawn into. If he defeats Neeb in the Quarterfinals, he eliminates arguably the strongest opponent on his way there. If not, we will have a foreigner guaranteed in the Grand Finals—an exciting prospect to say the least.

It simply had to happen. Two Terrans entered the tournament, two Terrans advanced to the top eight—and two Terrans were drawn against one another. That unfortunately means certain elimination for one of them, but at the same time guarantees a Terran representative in the Semifinals. It’s a bitter-sweet pill to swallow for Terran enthusiasts, but at least they can look forward to a TvT mirror played at the absolute highest level in the world.

TY should enter the series as a slight favorite after topping his group. His TvT throughout the year has been nothing short of excellent, and his recent form leaves little to be desired. TY is a scary player, one that seems to have no definitive weaknesses, but a plethora of strengths. He uses different strategies equally well, never misses a beat with his mechanics, and his multitasking is second to none. On top of that, his Proleague history is evidence of his craftsmanship of intelligent builds designed specifically to abuse a certain player or map. His dismantling of Dream and Cure in GSL Season 1 shows that he is absolutely no stranger to the TvT matchup either. In fact, his most recent TvTs in the WESG Qualifiers in October saw him 3-0 INnoVation and defeat GuMiho 2-1. TY has little going against him. But neither does his opponent.

ByuN has a scary task ahead of him, against a player in top form; someone who is well versed at the matchup. But he himself is a top class player as well, having just won the recent GSL Season 2. His defeat against ShoWTimE in the Group Stage may have been surprising, but it was entirely justified by how well ShoWTimE played that series. ByuN was back to his best on Sunday, easily beating Dear to book his ticket to Anaheim. What awaits him now is a battle of wits, strategy, positioning, and multitasking. TvT is a highly stressful matchup in Legacy of the Void, with Siege Tank lines constantly being relocated. Every inch of the map can be contested, every positional advantage fought over. But there is also the potential for a game to swing heavily in either player’s favor through the opening builds chosen. This is the game ByuN will have to beat TY in. That means deep analysis of TY’s preferred strategic choices, as well as refinement of his own play to avoid being outdone in any way by his opponent. But ByuN, the man who won a GSL all on his own, will certainly know how to prepare himself for one of the biggest matches of his career.

This last match is one neither player will be happy with at all. Not only are both faced with an incredibly tough bracket, they also have to go through at least one team-kill to advance. Zest and Stats have practiced and lived together for years and know each other inside out. Zest seems to have found his stride again and looks like a hot contender to take home the World Championship, but Stats leads their head-to-head record. These factors, as well as the extreme stress and volatility of PvP considered, make this match the hardest to predict in the Quarterfinals.

Before the Global Finals began, we were unsure as to how good Zest was. His GSL Season 1 championship was dominant, but he had taken some questionable losses since. But he appears to have ironed out the flaws in his play just in time. He was quite convincing against TRUE, despite being caught off guard in their second game, and he was even more impressive against Neeblet. The American who had just beaten him in KeSPA Cup was outdone by Zest’s sharp timing attacks and intelligent transitions. Zest dealt Neeblet his first PvP series loss since August, an impressive feat all by itself. He appeared confident in the later stages of PvP and was not afraid to fall back to a very aggressive build in the deciding game. That confidence and killer instinct make Zest an extremely scary player to face off against. Having already practiced PvP extensively for his group, Zest may hold a small advantage over Stats here.

Their last and only meeting in Legacy of the Void went in Stats’ favor, however. At the Korean Cross Finals, he eliminated Zest with a 3-1 score. That should give Stats plenty of belief in his own abilities; his PvP has been counted among the very best in the world for a long time now. There is just as much reason for Stats to advance as there is for Zest. Stats is a rock solid player with very few mistakes in his play. He is decisive and intelligent. But that is not what this series will boil down to. Every match we have seen between these two players in the past was riddled with mindgames and psychological warfare, both trying to outsmart the other, afraid to be too predictable against an opponent that knows their preferences so well. That’s why neither player will be happy about their Quarterfinal draw. Not only will they face the scariest possible opposition, they will also have to eliminate a good friend and team-mate to advance. But don’t expect that to stop either of them. Zest and Stats both have their eyes set on the trophy, and they will give it their absolute best. We should be in for a real treat.