

If you asked me at the beginning of this year to look over a list of the upcoming open tournaments, and to guess which would be the most stacked, I probably would have guessed a DreamHack in Stockholm, or maybe even IEM Shanghai.

I would have been very wrong. The most stacked open tournament of the year, as well as of all time, is DreamHack Bucharest. Of all time. That’s a strong statement, yet its true. Let’s take a look at a small sampling of the players who will be here:

Alicia

sOs

HerO

INnoVation

Flash

MMA

SuperNova

Taeja

ForGG

Hyun

Symbol

Jaedong

Life

……

not to mention some of the top foreigners, such as Grubby, Snute, TLO, Nerchio, and many more.

This tournament is going to be killer. Just absolutely awesome. And spoiled us, we just came off of perhaps the best tournament to date, the WCS Season 2 Finals at Gamescom.

Well damn, SC just keeps getting better and better.

Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting characters in this story (at least in my opinion)

Jaedong

DreamHack is Jaedong’s tournament. Funny to say, as he hasn’t won one yet, but he got top 4 in DH Open: Stockholm, as well as 2nd places in DH Open: Summer and DH Open: Valencia. Of course, he got 2nd in WCS NA as well as the WCS Season 2 Finals. Both of those last two times he got crushed by Terran.

Jaedong is notorious in Korea for his hard work ethic and never resting on his laurels. You can see that reflected in his SC2 rise and steady improvement. ZvP was his weakness, until he turned it into his strength at the WCS Season 2 Finals. ZvT is now his “weakness” I have a feeling this weekend it will be his absolute best matchup, especially considering the ridiculous lineup of Terrans attending this event. And let’s not forget, he’s coming as well…..

Flash

Flash. The Ultimate Weapon. The greatest video game player of all time. In his games, he’s looked nearly unstoppable. Yet…he’s been stopped every time. There were some strange circumstances throughout the year; the hardest GSL Group of all time, Bomber coming up with some insanely awesome and new TvT builds, and even losing a close series to INnoVation. All of that is in the past now, though. While his GSL Code S ro32 group this time around wasn’t the absolute best, he made the other players look like chumps. Even knowing what Flash would do, they could not stop him.

The time for a Flash victory is drawing near. His rival from SC1, Jaedong is here (and is playing amazingly), and the Terran that is overshadowing him, INnoVation, is here too. Expect him to look downright scary all weekend.

And imagine if Flash and Jaedong play. Its not even unlikely. They are both amongst the very best.

INnoVation

INnoVation hype has not and will not die. Even if he loses, it does not and cannot detract from the ridiculous skill that he shows.

Losing one of the closest and best TvTs ever at the WCS Season 2 Finals vs the best Bio vs Mech TvTer in the world, Taeja, isn’t that big of a deal.

Losing an extremely close set of Macro games to DRG in TvZ isn’t that big a deal (DRG IS BACK, CAN’T FAULT ANYONE FOR LOSING TO HIM)

His TvZ is still unbeatable (except for DRG), his TvT is still top tier in the world, and his TvP is utterly flexible, with the most exacting SCV pulls you will ever see.

Just like Flash, even if you know what INnoVation will do (as Zergs always do), you probably can’t stop him anyways.

Taeja

Taeja is one of the most deadly players in the world in all 3 matchups. He is the complete package. If he is on, he can absolutely beat anyone. This is an excellent opportunity for Taeja to really prove himself (once again). With this many badass Code S players there, Taeja could truly shine at this event if he’s playing his best. If he’s not, he might get knocked out early without people even noticing. Its funny, as I type that, I realize how everyone takes Taeja for granted. The kid is everywhere playing like a boss. lol. Please make sure to make a fuss if he goes out early, even if its Flash and INnoVation double teaming him.

ForGG in a sea of Korean Terrans

Korean Terrans are different from other Terrans. You already know that. Funny thing is, with the right run of things, in a very Korean Terran heavy tournament, TvT experts who normally get eliminated on other, weaker matchups, have the potential to do wonderous things. ForGG.

Hyun and Symbol

Both former TSL members, these two are certainly good friends. With pretty similar styles, and a long history together, I’m excited to see what can happen. There’s nothing like 2 players who are close friends and also happen to be 2 of the best Zergs in the world with similar play styles to help support one another.

Foreigners

This is a tough one. I really hope and want for the awesome foreigner pros to do well here. This is a huge mountain to climb for each and every one. Many top world players fly around and play against foreigners quite regularly: Jaedong, Hyun, Taeja, Polt, HerO, etc…

Thing is, those guys are here (except Polt. T.T), as well as a big chunk of the Koreans who actually still play in Code S. This is going to be a tough one indeed. Especially since the foreigner pool is heavy on Zergs.

All in all, this is going to be amazing. Watch it. Enjoy it. Spread the word. Could be a while before we have another one like this.