IEM Katowice: StarCraft 2 World Championship Preview

2015 World Championship is going to see 16 top-caliber players from around the world Korea to compete for 7000 WCS points and more than $100.000, which is going to be distributed in a more or less ordinary fashion unlike last year winner-takes-it-all. Learn about the most interesting features of this event, which are the indicators of the most significant processes of StarCraft 2 competitive scene, and individual overviews of each of 16 players.











New champion

The previous IEM World Championship saw the unprecedented, controversial and memorable moments of 15 mercilessly crushed dreams and a single player, whose name was Kim ‘sOs’ Yoo Jin, taking all $100.000 prize money with him, earning the nickname $o$ as well as an entire airplane (not for personal use unfortunately) with his photo representing his team Jin Air Green Wings. This time sOs wasn’t able to qualify for the event and leaves the spot for a new player who will claim the championship of the grand opening of the new 2015 season.





Absolute Korean dominance

One year ago it was already pretty obvious that foreigners are no longer capable of putting a decent fight against Koreans with rare exceptions. Last time only Johan ‘Naniwa’ Luchessi had a chance to keep the foreign dream alive but did not succeed for various reasons. However, this time we will not see any presence of European or American players in the main event at all, which certainly is not a healthy indicator. Jens 'Snute' Aasgaard came the closest to qualifying for the event from the European region but was denied twice in close ZvT series against Jung 'Fantasy' Myung Hoon and Kim 'Cure' Doh Wook.

Nevertheless, the internal Korean competition is at one of its highest peak right now with players demonstrating mind-blowing performance and skill-level, thus in this regard the quality of event is not decreased by any means.

SC2 bonjwa?

StarCraft 2 has seen many outstanding players who were somewhat near close to being called the absolute best player with established dominance but no one of them did not manage to reach that indisputable point. This IEM we have chance to witness possibly the beginning of the era of a new one.

It's KT.Life who is recently showing nothing but almost godlike performance in every event he has participated since his Blizzcon triumph. Life is still not eliminated from GSL and was narrowly beaten 3-4 in SSL semifinals, the largest individual leagues, and has all chances to win. In next couple of weeks, we will see whether these expectations are going actually materialize and IEM Wold Championship is the next page for the complicated answer. On the other hand, Innovation is showing an equally impressive performance, defending his GSL title and not losing a single game at 2015 Proleague Round 1. This IEM is certainly going to be the huge intrigue after Life and Innovation have already faced each other in GSL quarterfinal, resulting in an extremely tense, action-packed nail-biting bo5 series in this year.

New maps

The balance is always the biggest question for everyone who has anything to do with SC 2 or most other competitive eSports games. The current developers' policy is that maps play the crucial part in this complicated part of the game and are the key to eliminate certain problems. The biggest tournaments have not yet transitioned to the new ladder map pool, therefore this World Championship is going to be one of the first large offline tournaments, besides IEM Taipei and WCS, to prove or reject the developers' point of view.

The players

Prediction: Top 4 is going to consist of herO, Rain, Maru and the winner of Zest/Innovation/Life trio, who are unfortunately have to face each other rather quickly in this bracket. But everything could happen - wouldn't be the top Korean Starcraft that beautiful if it would be easily predictable?

Taeja - Yun Young Seo is one of the most interesting players in all of eSports considering a controversial nature of his success: consistently being extremely strong and intimidating Terran for any opponent Taeja has 11 Premier Trophies – a scary number and the absolute record. However, these 11 titles do not include that ONE big trophy, the victory at the tier-1 event like GSL, Blizzcon or IEM World Championship, such trophy which could make the name of its bearer immortal in memory of StarCraft fans. This IEM in Katowice is going to be the chance for quadruple Dreamhack champion to prove to himself and everyone else – that he is worth to be the absolute best at something larger and more prestigious than generic “$10.000 weekend tournament”. His first opponent is going to be Dark - one of the best SKT players and has great ZvT style - but Taeja has certain experience in eliminating 'best SKT Zerg' in the first round of such tournament.

Solar – Kang Min Soo is a young Zerg player who had a breakthrough performance through 2014 and making big promises with reaching IEM Shenzhen Finals, GSL Playoffs and claiming victory at Dreamhack Stockholm, making one of the best Zerg player soO lose in yet another final. All these hopes had an extremely harsh start in 2015: Solar failed to help his team at Proleague, recording disastrous 0-6 stats within one round, and not advancing to Naver Starleague Ro16. Recently Solar has started to regain his shape and momentum: closing his cold streak on Proleague by defeating sOs and showing quite impressive GSL run, reaching playoffs from a group where he was considered underdog, and then falling to Parting in really close series 2-3. For Solar this IEM is an opportunity to remain in ‘top Korean players’ club.

Flash – Lee Young Ho is a BroodWar superstar, the ultimate macro Terran called nothing less than ‘God’. However, his results in StarCraft 2 convincingly prove against everything said above. Inconsistent success (or rather consistent failure) in domestic Korean tournaments never reestablished his status; mediocre appearance at international tournaments certainly are not something what people would expect from arguably the best BroodWar player. 2014 saw a significant improvement in Flash’s performance, allowing him to qualify for IEM World Championship but 2015, without qualification neither for GSL or SSL and the second worst stats at 2015 Proleague Round 1 (1-6), was a bucket of cold water in the face of those who believed in the return of ‘God’.

Zest – Joo Sung Wook, for whom 2014 was a sudden journey from KT Rolster tier-2 bench to a status of indisputable ace of the team and the strongest Protoss around the world. At Blizzcon Zest was defeated in the first round by eventual champion Life and went almost completely off radars until this IEM, where he will present an answer for a question: whether it is a return of the most-feared player of 2014 or continuation of a starting 2015 slump after failed qualifications for GSL and SSL and mediocre Proleague stats (6-7).

herO – Kim Joon Ho walked out of the previous IEM World Championship with the most frustrating feeling possible – taking 2nd place and zero dollars as his prize. 2014 and a beginning of 2015 were not super good or bad for CJ Entus ace – the results are not super impressive but not disappointing at the same time. In a way, herO resembles Taeja – he has 3 regular IEM trophies without the main course and now he is going to enter the battle with his own consistency – being almost 100% favorite to reach Top-4, and even the finals considering the bracket (and even more chances if herO has to face Zest whom he defeated twice in Round 2 Proleague), but is likely to finish second at best because his consistency has both lower and upper limits.

Rain – Jung Yoon Jong is representing the most recent wave of Korean KeSpa emancipation: from strict SKT to a more freelancing foreign regime. In second half of 2014 Rain left SKT along with most of its core players: Soulkey, Parting and Fantasy; everybody with a clear objective of a stronger presence on the international tournaments. The results of such decisions are still not fully clear – mediocre run at GSL and 2nd place at IEM San Jose give not much room to make conclusions. IEM World Championship is going to present more convincing answer for that question and most likely is going to set the momentum for Rain’s performance for the rest of 2015.

Life – Lee Seung Hyun the young Zerg prodigy is having such period of his career that you would call the highest peak but he is continuing to improve. The current Blizzcon/WCS 2014 champion is still present at the largest individual league in Korea: GSL is having all chances to win it, although dramatically falling 3-4 to Dream in parallel SSL playoffs. He is certainly a favorite of this IEM while only a few other players are capable of putting up a decent and even fight against him. Nevertheless, Life has his weak points including certain problems with late-game ZvP match-up and it is for sure going to be a spectacular match when his opponent will manage to pick a key for the victory against him.

Maru – Cho Seong Ju is the youngest player entering this IEM but is far from an easy prey. Young Terran prodigy is capable of eliminating anyone else from this tournament. Maru’s games are ranging quite widely – from a clumsy losses to a miraculous epic must-see games. His talents can make everyone scratch their heads and ask ‘how on Earth a human being is capable of doing such things’ but unfortunately for Jin Air Green Wings ace, however, he is not always playing to his own potential. Although ending his run at current GSL season in quite unconvincing fashion he was the closest to defeat rampaging ZvT monster Life at IEM Taipei.

Innovation – Lee Shin Hyung was once considered undefeatable machine, executing his build orders without any slight stutter. 2014 was quite a shaky period after a series of mediocre tournament results following the disband of his home team – STX Soul. Innovation joined foreign team but never managed to return to his former level until finding new home under SKT T1 flags. The transition went almost perfectly – immediate GSL victory and dominant Proleague performance with impressive 7-1 record. This World Championship is going to see Innovation directly battling against KT.Life – his opponent, who eliminated him from GSL playoffs and, most importantly, his main rival for the absolutely best player title.

Trap – Cho Sung Ho is not a novice at StarCraft 2 scene but only recently did he manage to found his play to be the mojo to be a top player, showing significant improvement and claiming MLG Anaheim first place. Although he's absent in current GSL and SSL seasons top divisions, Trap is performing quite successfully at Proleague and is able to bring big surprise and eliminate a significant favorite from this IEM.

Dark – Park Ryung Woo did not show an outstanding 2014 both in terms of individual leagues success and assisting his team SKT T1 in Proleague. With the start of new season in 2015 Dark became a real surprise in the domestic Korean scene, going through the main stages of GSL and SSL in a dominant fashion, and establishing himself as the top gun for SKT T1. However, his most recent results have dropped drastically with elimination from both individual league. This World Championship presents an opportunity for Dark to prove that his recent breakthrough was not a random spark.

Bbyong – Jung Woo Yong, a.k.a. Gangnam Terran has not visited many international tournaments. Despite not performing outstandingly in Korean leagues, he is known as a very creative and surprising player. For him this IEM will be a chance to demonstrate his potential and skill in condition of fast-paced ‘weekend’ foreign championship.

Patience – Jo Ji Hyun is part of the most recent massive Korean homecoming which came after WCS region lock. The domestic competition turned out to be quite harder than the EU one, so he has not been seen much in 2015. His advance through Korean qualifiers was quite surprising, considering the big stars names being stacked there. Therefore, it is very hard to predict his performance at this IEM – his past record is not clearing him of an underdog status but something indicates that this might be a second wind breakthrough in Patience’s career.

Hydra – Shin Dong Won is a complete hipster among contemporary Korean expats, who try to compete in easier European or American regions. WCS Region block forced almost most of Korean to return on their home soil while Hydra has managed to slip the other way, joining foreign team and playing in American Premier League. His all-time record in StarCraft 2 would never suggest him as a serious contestant for a championship title at Katowice and his performance at WCS America has not shown the viable reasons to doubt that.

FanTaSy – Jung Myung Hoon was another BroodWar big name who is struggling to overcome his mediocre performance for quite a long time. Although leaving his long-time home of SKT T1, Fantasy has managed to show a significant improvement and almost get a breakthrough but still failed to demonstrate a good run at GSL or StarLeague. However, both his elimination were nail-biting close series with him demonstrating an top class play. Fantasy is certainly on a rise and ready to put up a good fight to reestablish his reputation.

Cure – Kim Doh Wook is one of the core Korean players the whole competitive scene is based upon – balancing somewhere between mediocrity and extra class big names. Recent months went pretty good for Cure who established himself as a quite consistent Code S player, despite failing to qualify for the current seasons of GSL and SSL, and solid main-four representative of Jin Air Green Wings at Proleague. Nevertheless, Cure has yet to prove that he is worth of not being a huge underdog at tournaments like IEM.

Images sources: ESL, Dreamhack, SpoTV Proleague, Esports.daily.kr, GOMexp, Vallen's tumblr, Battle.net, Team Liquid