As I’m sure many people know, the Intel Extreme Masters is going on this weekend in Singapore. Here are some of the reasons why I’m excited about the upcoming 3 days:

GRUBBY:

Last weekend, Grubby was at the Blizzard World Championships in Sanghai, China. It was an event he tried very hard to qualify for, and obviously wanted very badly. I have no doubt that he came to Shanghai very well prepared, even staying in Korea for a bit beforehand for some extra training.

Sadly, Grubby got a terrible case of food poisoning at the even ( as did many others). Although he was reportedly feeling a bit better when he played, I doubt that he was able to show what he was truly capable of. Now, with a bit more rest and recovery time, I’m looking forward to seeing a fully prepared Grubby, and I feel like this could possibly be his first huge tournament win in SC2.

YUGIOH:

If you didn’t see Yugioh play in the final SlayerS team league match, let me sum it up for you: he was mad. He’s always been a solid Code A (and sometimes higher) calibre player, but he just ripped through everyone with amazing play. Now Yugioh sits in this tournament, having no team and having just dropped out of Code A. It almost seems a bit do or die: play super well and possibly get picked up by a foreign team with a good budget to fly around, or go back to Korea empty handed and become “just another Zerg” in one of the many great Korean teams.

The thing is, if you look directly at how YugiOh plays, he’s perfectly built for this tournament. YugiOh is a player who takes a lot of damage from sharp timing attacks in the early game from Code S quality opponents, but then stays alive FOREVER and sometimes even wins on a tiny economy by never losing a Broodlord or Infestor. In this tournament, full of many very strong players, not many of which are known for having the sharpest of timings, he may be able to make it deep.

NINJA:

Ask any fan of the Australian scene, and they will tell you that Ninja is really good ZvZ. Ask Artosis, and he will tell you that the kid is a strong up and comer who can do very well in a situation he knows. In a group with Tarrantius, a somewhat untested German Protoss, WhiteRa, a solid but not unbeatable veteran, Zenio, a Zerg who has lacked great results lately, and almost lost ZvZ to a relatively unknown Singaporean Zerg already this weekend, and Jabito, an almost completely unknown Terran, Ninja has a pretty decent shot at making it into a career altering bracket phase.

PIG AND MAFIA:

Everyone knows mOOnGLaDe is a top performer, even recently placing very highly amongst non Koreans at MLG. What not as many people know is that MaFia and PiG, while not as famous or accomplished as mOOnGLaDe yet, are of a comparable level. Singapore, not being too far off time zone wise, and both showing very good results lately (PiG via practicing with the Prime Team in Korea for a month, MaFia in slamming down Lucifron on day 1), this could be a breakout performance for either player.

VORTIX AND LUCIFRON:

The brothers. They seem just about unbeatable, except to each other, and to Code S champion level players. What really excites me though, is this question: in what round will they face off this time?!?!?!?!

MC:

How long is it really going to take him to win a million dollars??