A gigantic new patch was just released, the WCS 2017 plans were just released, and many of the world’s best players are streaming regularly! It’s a great time to be a StarCraft II fan. The 2017 season, odd as it is, starts this week, with IEM Gyeonggi. This event, based in a city just north of Seoul, South Korea, is a major event for the Korean side of WCS, and thus has brought out the very best players in the scene to compete in a ridiculously star-studded event. With the recent dissolution of the KeSPA teams and the aforementioned giant patch both shaking up the scene, it’s really hard to gauge where the players are at coming into the first big event since Blizzcon, but luckily we’ve had several online tournaments where players showed off their understanding of the new metagame and their current skill after having lost their teams. Let’s take a look at the groups:



Group A, otherwise known as the Group Of Death



Stats

INnoVation

Losira

herO



Let’s start out with the weak link… one of the most consistent players in the history of the game, Losira. Ryung, Patience and Rogue all fell in the path of a rampaging Losira as he cruised into IEM on his very first try. Since then he hasn’t popped up too much in online leagues, only winning the StreamMe Arena (taking down American juggernaut Neeb 3-0 on the way) , and losing to fellow Group Of Death member herO 1-2 in the Shang gan lin tournament. If THAT is the weak link in a group, then you know that it’s stacked.



herO smashed through the first IEM qualifier. 2-1 Bunny, 2-0 INnoVation, 2-1 ByuL. In fact, his play was so strong that night, that the next day the Korean ladder was simply infested with his strategies. Then he did some work in the Leifeng Cup and Shang gan ling, killing off Creator, Leenock, Stats, Keen, Hush, 2016 Blizzcon Runner-up Dark TWICE, and Solar. His one road block? INnoVation. These two have met in 4 best of 3’s in the past couple of weeks, with herO winning 2 and INnoVation winning 2. herO is clearly in top form at the moment. That being said, he might not even make it out of this group.



Stats has been building momentum and credibility towards the claims of some as being the strongest Protoss player in the world. With countless top 4’s to his name, even a group as deadly as this shouldn’t be able to stand in his way… the only thing that stops him is the pressure at the end of the tournament. While a few top-end pros have taken some victories vs Stats on the new patch, vs others like Dark, Neeb, Snute and GuMiho (all in SHOUTCraft Kings), he put on a clinic against, with displays of a deep fundamental understanding on how to out-play his opponents.





INnoVation is in god mode right now. As mentioned above, herO is keeping up with him. The only other player whom we can say that about is the world’s greatest Zerg, Dark. INnoVation is the monster of this tournament, make no doubt about it.



To Advance:

INnoVation, Stats. Honestly, this group is nearly impossible to predict. It is a magnitude harder than every other group in the tournament, and you can easily expect for both the players making it out to make it to at least the semi-finals.



Group B



Zest

Leenock

Trust

soO



This group looks straight forward enough, and it is. Zest has been looking quite strong so far on the new patch, mixing up his play a fair amount and showing his standard crisp execution in everything he does. His Protoss vs Zerg looks especially on-point, having played a couple of fantastic games during December’s edition of SHOUTCraft Kings against TRUE and Elazer.



soO, the 4 time GSL Code S runner-up, is looking in top form as well. He has started streaming regularly since his team, SK Telecom T1 disbanded, during which he has really been showing how it is that he has gone so deep so many times in the world’s hardest tournament. He didn’t have the easiest journey through the IEM Qualifiers, having to play all 3 days to end up qualifying for the tournament, but he still looked as strong as can be in the games broadcasted.



Trust had a strong qualification match, beating TY to make it into the tournament, but hasn’t looked too hot outside of that one night. He’s been wracking up losses against lesser pros, and hasn’t looked quite as strong in comparison to the rest of the field as he did almost year ago.



Leenock looked just fantastic on the first qualifier day of IEM, beating the likes of TY and Dream, before dying to some sharp timing attacks from the WinToss himself, Classic. On his second try Leenock made it though, beating GuMiho, Scarlett and Forte in the finals.



To Advance:

Zest, soO



Leenock looked good, sure, but soO seems highly motivated at the moment. Win or lose, soO is looking fantastic. When he hits that offline arena and it’s time to preform, its hard to imagine him losing 2 matches in this group.



Group C



Dark

jjakji

ByuL

Classic



Dark, after a dominating 2016, remains on top of the Zerg race. INnoVation, herO and Dark’s personal Zerg vs Zerg nemesis Solar are the only players who seem as if they can fight vs his monsterous play at the moment. As with any tournament that he enters, Dark is absolutely a favorite to take it down.



The former GSL champion has had a really rough time in 2016, just getting slaughtered when the pressure is on. To be honest, I thought he would retire soon after his Proleague Finals bungle of a nearly 100% won game against the 2 time World Champion sOs. It was one of the most crushing defeats that I have ever witnessed, following a frustrating year of not really getting anything done. Jjakji soldiered on though, and has put out some convincingly strong play since the new patch has ushered in the 2017 WCS season. The only person in Jjakji’s way during the IEM qualifiers was, in fact, INnoVation, whom I’ve already mentioned is probably the best player in the world right now. On the first day he unluckily hit him in the first round, going down 0-2. During the second qualifier Jjakji easily dispatched the strategic front line of Protoss in Hush and Patience, a Protoss destined to be on top of the world with his current momentum before once again hitting INnoVation and going down 0-2. Luckily for Jjakji, INnoVation was able to win an additional round after his defeat and qualify through. Without this god-tier roadblock, Jjakji dominated his next day of play losing only a single game on his way to IEM. As long as Jjakji avoids INnoVation there’s a real chance that he could make something happen.



ByuL has been extremely quiet recently. His 2016 was not in the same universe as his record-breaking 2015, really having done nothing of note. He continues to fly under the radar going into Gyeonggi, having only played the qualifiers and not much else. It’s really hard to put any real rating or value on ByuL right now, as he just hasn’t shown that much.



Classic, as always, is being his quiet and dominating self. He’s been doing pretty well against INnoVation and herO, and didn’t lose a game smashing through the first IEM qualifier. The one thing that makes me nervous about him is that he showed up in ShoutCraft Kings against Solar, displaying a Carrier build that certainly would have been strong a week to 10 days prior, but was insanely week when he played it. Still, he is the WinToss for a reason.



To Advance:

Dark, easily. Classic in 2nd place.

Jjakji has been looking very strong, but Classic normally doesn’t even slow his pace until at least top 4 in a tournament. ByuL is a wild unknown; will he come back in breathtaking fashion? He’s capable of it, but has shown no evidence of a triumphant return to top-Zerg status.



Group D



ByuN

iAsonu

Maru

Solar



Another crazily stacked group in a tournament of crazily stacked groups. To start off we have the 2016 World Champion and actual esports player of the year ByuN. There is no reason to think that ByuN will not continue to put out his top end play and be a real contender to win this tournament. Just this week he took down the World Cyber Arena, and continues to dominate the online cups that he enters. ByuN is turning into a real blue-chip stock as far as StarCraft pros go.



Many fans probably know the least about iAsonu, a Chinese Zerg who started to rise to prominence in 2014. He has a long string of wins and high finishes in tournaments which are not normally paid any attention to by the west, but nonetheless show a lot of skill on iAsonu’s part. He’s actually a dangerous underdog in this group, playing a different style than most in Zerg vs Terran. iAsonu defeated Bunny handily 2-0, crushing his 3 Barracks Reaper Rushes (a strategy that ByuN is particularly known for), following up with lots of upgraded Roaches and Ravagers. This type of style could have some success vs the aggressive, micro-intensive Terran duo of ByuN and Maru. Regardless, this is a very tough group, and it would be a huge deal if iAsonu was able to make it into the round of 8.



Maru had a tough 2016. Despite reigning as the King of Proleague, Maru was unable to make it deep in any of the major individual tournaments, and thus missed out on his chance to play at Blizzcon. Being on the last remaining Korean team, Jin Air Greenwings, we predictably haven’t seen Maru begin streaming or joining additional online leagues like the rest of his teamless peers. All we have to go off of for Maru right now is his qualifier run, which was one of the least pretty of any who qualified to play in this IEM. It took Maru all 3 qualifiers, losing to the near-unknown Taiwanese player Cell in round 1 of the November 26th qual, and 0-2 to Forte, a Terran regularly considered far below Maru in the 3rd round of the November 27th qual. In the very last one, Maru finally made it to the qualifying match, where he faced off of the #1 cheeser in the world, Has. In a wild series which started off with an actual Draw in game number 1, Has completely out mind-gamed Maru in their final game, looking like he would surely win his bracket. Somehow Has made the biggest throw of 2016, and Maru squeeked through. From what we’ve seen (which, admittedly isn’t much), Maru isn’t a big contender for this tournament.



Solar is on a heater. 2nd place in WCS Korea 2016 was only slowed by his poor Blizzcon showing, but since the new patch he’s looked to be in top form. Losing just one map (in a ZvZ, nonetheless) in the first IEM qualifier, Solar has recently beaten the only Zerg clearly above him in Dark, and went on a 5 win streak showcasing immense skill in ShoutCraft Kings December. I really think this is the year where Solar truly separates himself from the crowd and gets mentioned alongside the likes of Zest, Dark, INnoVation and TY.



To Advance:

ByuN, Solar.

Maru just seem a bit below these two at the moment. iAsonu coming to Korea and making it out of this group would be a wonderful upset to start off the 2017 season with, but not one that we should expect.



All in all, this tournament is about as high end as you could hope for. With 5 days of action coming up, it’s anyone’s guess who will win. My money’s on INnoVation.

