WCS AM - Ro32 Group A Preview/G Recap (Season 3) Text by TL.net ESPORTS 2013 WCS Europe WCS America - Season 3



Ro32: Group G Recap

HerO and Heart advance





Ro32: Group A Preview

Polt, HyuN, Sage, Revival



Brackets and standings on



on Youtube



HerO and Heart advancePolt, HyuN, Sage, RevivalBrackets and standings on Liquipedia VODs on Youtube Ro32: Group G Results HerO and Heart advance to Ro16, Jim and Neeb eliminated



by Wunder



After a Jimspiring run through the second season of WCS America’s Premier League, fan favorite and top Chinese player showed that even he could not stand up to the Korean onslaught. Seen as one of the hopes against Korean domination at WCS America, Jim fell to AX.Heart's trademark aggressive play and Liquid`HerO's fantastic PvP unit control.



As for America's own ? Sadly enough, you probably guessed his placement the second the groups were announced weeks ago. However, he managed to look decent in elimination, saving some face before dropping out of the tournament.



Ro32 - Group G 1. Liquid`HerO 2 - 0 2. AX.Heart 2 - 1 3. IG.Jim 1 - 2 4. Neeb 0 - 2



Detailed results from Live Report Thread by NovemberstOrm.

+ Show Spoiler [Click for Detailed Results] + Jim vs Neeb

Jim < Akilon Wastes > Neeb

Jim < Whirlwind > Neeb

Jim < > Neeb



Jim wins 2-0!



HerO vs Heart

< Akilon Wastes > Heart

HerO < Whirlwind > Heart

HerO < Bel'Shir Vestige > Heart



HerO wins 2-1!



Winners' Match

HerO < Akilon Wastes > Jim

HerO < Bel'Shir Vestige > Jim

HerO < > Jim



HerO wins 2-0!



Losers' Match

Heart < Bel'Shir Vestige > Neeb

< Akilon Wastes > Neeb

Heart < Whirlwind > Neeb



Heart wins 2-1!



Final Match

< Bel'Shir Vestige > Jim

Heart < Frost > Jim

Heart < Whirlwind > Jim



Heart wins 2-1!





HerO and Heart advance to WCS AM Premier Ro16!

< Whirlwind > HerO < Akilon Wastes >< Whirlwind >< Bel'Shir Vestige >< Akilon Wastes >< Bel'Shir Vestige >< Bel'Shir Vestige > Heart < Akilon Wastes >< Whirlwind > Heart < Bel'Shir Vestige >< Frost >< Whirlwind >

Almost certainly qualified for the Grand Finals at Blizzcon, HerO still played like someone with everything to gain as his Ro32 exit last season must have left him blushing with embarrassment. Trying to start off the group with a cute, harassment-oriented strategy, HerO lost his first game against Axiom’s Heart with Heart playing a strong bio style throughout the series. However, HerO buckled down for the next two games and showed some spectacular play, defending amazingly against bio attacks in game two, managing to close out the series with some powerful DT play in the third game. After that, HerO took a strong, straight-forward 2 - 0 PvP win against Jim to advance to the Ro16.



Heart on the other hand, had his plate full, scraping through each series with a 2-1 result. Using strong Banshee play to get by Neeb, he showed some good TvP to defeat Jim, combining good ghost usage with unstoppable SCV-pull all-in timings.



After arun through the second season of WCS America’s Premier League, fan favorite and top Chinese player IG.Jim showed that even he could not stand up to the Korean onslaught. Seen as one of the hopes against Korean domination at WCS America, Jim fell totrademark aggressive play andfantastic PvP unit control.As for America's own Neeb ? Sadly enough, you probably guessed his placement the second the groups were announced weeks ago. However, he managed to look decent in elimination, saving some face before dropping out of the tournament.Almost certainly qualified for the Grand Finals at Blizzcon, HerO still played like someone with everything to gain as his Ro32 exit last season must have left him blushing with embarrassment. Trying to start off the group with a cute, harassment-oriented strategy, HerO lost his first game against Axiom’s Heart with Heart playing a strong bio style throughout the series. However, HerO buckled down for the next two games and showed some spectacular play, defending amazingly against bio attacks in game two, managing to close out the series with some powerful DT play in the third game. After that, HerO took a strong, straight-forward 2 - 0 PvP win against Jim to advance to the Ro16.Heart on the other hand, had his plate full, scraping through each series with a 2-1 result. Using strong Banshee play to get by Neeb, he showed some good TvP to defeat Jim, combining good ghost usage with unstoppable SCV-pull all-in timings. Ro32: Group A Preview CMStorm_Polt, Quantic.HyuN, EG.Revival, ROOTSage



by lichter



The champ is back, and for some reason, finds himself in arguably the toughest Round of 32 group in Season 3. Group A features the Season 2 champion , the Season 1 runner-up and IEM China champion , the DreamHack Valencia champion , and ROOT Gaming’s Ace player . It’s a ridiculously strong group full of players who could go on to win it all, but only 2 players will be making the trip to California for the Ro16. Curiously, there's no clear hierarchy between these players, with all of them having a varied amount of relative success against each other. It should be a very interesting group, and unpredictable until the end.



Leading the pack is CMStorm_Polt, who’s looking to become the first player to ever retain his title in the WCS format. Polt did have a disappointing showing at the WCS Season 2 Finals in Cologne, losing twice to First in the group stages to get knocked out immediately. However, now he’s back on familiar American soil.



While there is the concern about the end of vacation and school once again getting in the way of Polt's practice, his play has always been more about decision making and proper responses than pure mechanics, so don’t expect his skill level to drop steeply. Polt should have confidence in advancing—his records of 8-4 against HyuN and 4-1 against Sage are positive signs—and he’ll relish a rematch against Revival. It’s the only blip on his stellar TvZ record, and he’ll be hoping to avenge his 2-3 series loss from IEM Shanghai.



Before he can get that rematch, however, he’ll have to get past former GSL runner-up and fellow TSL alumni HyuN. The Quantic Zerg and original mastodon is always considered a title contender in any competition he enters, but he only recently broke his championship duck at DreamHack Valencia. Whether that is a sign of him reaching his potential or just a fortunate tournament has yet to be seen. His decent finishes at IEM Shanghai (5th-8th), ASUS ROG Summer (Ro4) and DreamHack Bucharest (Ro16) since then once again showed a dangerous but not-quite-championship player, with his exits a result of losing lopsided series.



We’ve been touting HyuN’s strong play since his astonishing run through IPL Fight Club, but just a single championship seems disappointing for a player who has the potential to do so much more. He finally has his chance here in WCS America, where HyuN makes his first foray after some uncharacteristic Challenger League flops in the first few seasons. He has amassed so many WCS points from other major tournaments that he’s already in striking distance of Blizzcon, with a good outing here able to cement his place.



In the other match, we have the always-up-and-coming EG.Revival. He had always been a good Zerg and one to watch during his time in TSL, but he was constantly overshadowed by the likes of HyuN and Symbol. It wasn’t until his 2nd place finish in WCS America Season 1 that, perhaps, he had finally made something out of all that potential. His run was arguably not as strong as others (beating Snute and aLive in the Playoffs) but few expected the EG Zerg to do so well.



Unlike so many players who we’d thought to have finally broken out of their shells, Revival was able to follow that up with an impressive 1st place finish in IEM Shanghai over players like Polt, MC and Oz. Many were shocked to see Revival win his first championship before Jaedong, but sometimes that's just how the tournament world goes. He did fall short in the Round of 16 in WCS AM Season 2, but now Revival can show that he’s not another flash in the pan and compete with the world’s best players at Blizzcon.



Finally, there’s Sage. ROOT’s ace has served his team well so far in online tournaments, and his winrates across the board are decent albeit unspectacular (~55%). However, Sage has had the advantage of beating up on foreigners in order to boost his stats. A quick glance on



Overall, I expect Polt to make it out in first place. He’s been one of the more consistent players in SC2 lately, and by consistent I mean consistently great. He has the upper hand against all the players in this group in terms of matchups, even against Revival (who has 45% ZvT). Second place should go to either HyuN or Revival, but I’m going to have to go with the former due to his strong ZvZ and mastery of roaches.



Overall Predictions:



Polt > HyuN

Revival > Sage

Polt > Revival

HyuN > Sage

HyuN > Revival



Polt and HyuN advance.





Qualified for Ro16 (8/16)



Zerg: Jaedong, NesTea, ByuL



Protoss: Oz, HerO



Terran: Apocalypse, Hack, Heart

The champ is back, and for some reason, finds himself in arguably the toughest Round of 32 group in Season 3. Group A features the Season 2 champion Polt , the Season 1 runner-up and IEM China champion Revival , the DreamHack Valencia champion HyuN , and ROOT Gaming’s Ace player Sage . It’s a ridiculously strong group full of players who could go on to win it all, but only 2 players will be making the trip to California for the Ro16. Curiously, there's no clear hierarchy between these players, with all of them having a varied amount of relative success against each other. It should be a very interesting group, and unpredictable until the end.Leading the pack iswho’s looking to become the first player to ever retain his title in the WCS format. Polt did have a disappointing showing at the WCS Season 2 Finals in Cologne, losing twice to First in the group stages to get knocked out immediately. However, now he’s back on familiar American soil.While there is the concern about the end of vacation and school once again getting in the way of Polt's practice, his play has always been more about decision making and proper responses than pure mechanics, so don’t expect his skill level to drop steeply. Polt should have confidence in advancing—his records of 8-4 against HyuN and 4-1 against Sage are positive signs—and he’ll relish a rematch against Revival. It’s the only blip on his stellar TvZ record, and he’ll be hoping to avenge his 2-3 series loss from IEM Shanghai.Before he can get that rematch, however, he’ll have to get past former GSL runner-up and fellow TSL alumniThe Quantic Zerg and original mastodon is always considered a title contender in any competition he enters, but he only recently broke his championship duck at DreamHack Valencia. Whether that is a sign of him reaching his potential or just a fortunate tournament has yet to be seen. His decent finishes at IEM Shanghai (5th-8th), ASUS ROG Summer (Ro4) and DreamHack Bucharest (Ro16) since then once again showed a dangerous but not-quite-championship player, with his exits a result of losing lopsided series.We’ve been touting HyuN’s strong play since his astonishing run through IPL Fight Club, but just a single championship seems disappointing for a player who has the potential to do so much more. He finally has his chance here in WCS America, where HyuN makes his first foray after some uncharacteristic Challenger League flops in the first few seasons. He has amassed so many WCS points from other major tournaments that he’s already in striking distance of Blizzcon, with a good outing here able to cement his place.In the other match, we have the always-up-and-comingHe had always been a good Zerg and one to watch during his time in TSL, but he was constantly overshadowed by the likes of HyuN and Symbol. It wasn’t until his 2nd place finish in WCS America Season 1 that, perhaps, he had finally made something out of all that potential. His run was arguably not as strong as others (beating Snute and aLive in the Playoffs) but few expected the EG Zerg to do so well.Unlike so many players who we’d thought to have finally broken out of their shells, Revival was able to follow that up with an impressive 1st place finish in IEM Shanghai over players like Polt, MC and Oz. Many were shocked to see Revival win his first championship before Jaedong, but sometimes that's just how the tournament world goes. He did fall short in the Round of 16 in WCS AM Season 2, but now Revival can show that he’s not another flash in the pan and compete with the world’s best players at Blizzcon.Finally, there’sROOT’s ace has served his team well so far in online tournaments, and his winrates across the board are decent albeit unspectacular (~55%). However, Sage has had the advantage of beating up on foreigners in order to boost his stats. A quick glance on Aligulac.com shows that when facing only Korean competition, Sage only has a 47% winrate in games and 48% in matches. His PvZ is his only consistent matchup regardless of competition, and his 5-1 record against HyuN looks promising. Unfortunately, he’s also 1-4 against Revival, the player he needs to face first and the guy who beat him 0-2 in last season’s Round of 16. It’s certainly going to be an uphill climb for Sage against these three championship contenders, but fans of ROOT will be hoping for an upset.Overall, I expect Polt to make it out in first place. He’s been one of the more consistent players in SC2 lately, and by consistent I mean consistently great. He has the upper hand against all the players in this group in terms of matchups, even against Revival (who has 45% ZvT). Second place should go to either HyuN or Revival, but I’m going to have to go with the former due to his strong ZvZ and mastery of roaches.HyuNSageRevivalSageRevival