BEFORE YOU READ: I don’t have any clue how or what Tumblr takes out a bunch of my damn spaces inbetween paragraphs and then leaves others in. If anyone can help me with that please tweet at me.

This is supposed to be it: the best year in StarCraft 2’s history. The vast majority of the top Korean players have been sent back to the Korean leagues. We now have 5 days a week of SC2 action in Korea…plenty to keep all the top players on their toes. We have 2 individual leagues as well as the ProLeague.

It’s starting to look a lot more like SC1. For those of you who weren’t around back then, let me explain the bread and butter of the game:

OnGameNet StarLeague (individual league with 3 seasons a year)

MBC Game StarLeague (individual league with 3 seasons a year)

ProLeague

Now, for comparison, SC2 this year:

GSL Code S (individual league with 3 seasons a year)

SPOTV StarLeague (individual league with 3 seasons a year)

ProLeague

Pretty similar.

So anyways, I’m pretty pumped for this year’s SC2. It probably won’t surprise you that I’m most excited about the return of the GSL. Code S has always represented the very finest SC2 players, and the absolute highest level games consistently, without doubt. Some people over the past years have wondered, though, about how well the Koreans who have decided to play outside of Korea would fair against the stone-cold KeSPA killers that have remained in the country.

First, let’s get this straight…

GSL wiped all the seeds for this first season of Code S. It was just a giant open qualifier for Code S, to try and welcome back the players who have been playing in WCS NA / EU over the past years. If they hadn’t have done that, it would have taken at least an entire additional season to get anyone like MC or TaeJa into Code S. Some players, like the previously mentioned MC and TaeJa, made it right in to Code S. I saw lots of comments, tweets, etc. from people saying “see!” and “Obviously TaeJa is Code S level!” and “The levels of these players are all similar, as expected!”.

No. This was an open qualifier. There is always a lot of randomness in a giant open qualifier. That’s why we have seeds. If you prove yourself by getting into the top 8 in a season of Code S, you don’t have to risk your tournament life going through a random bracket. Yes, MC, TaeJa, and many others from the WCS NA / EU regions made it right in, but that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily contenders. soO, the 4 time consecutive GSL Code S runner up didn’t make it in. It’s not as if he’s not one of the top 32 players in the world. Same with Zest and sOs. There’s a lot of randomness involved in such a gigantic bracket. Best of 3’s can be unforgiving. Have a good or bad day on the qualifier day, and anything can happen.

While this season’s Code S is, without a doubt, extremely stacked (as well as REALLY exciting), it is not the strongest field we’ve ever had. There are tip-top players missing. Don’t worry though, they will be back. You can’t keep soO, sOs, and Zest (as well as a few others) out of Code S for long.

Now, it IS cool to see all these players from other regions get right back in, and have the chance to prove that they belong. Do they though? Let’s take a look at the players who have rejoined the Korean scene:

Back to Korea and Code S

Protoss

First

MC

San

Terran

Bomber

MMA

YoDa

Heart

TaeJa

Zerg

NOBODY

To quickly review my thoughts on this list:

MC, Bomber, MMA and TaeJa stand out. These guys have all been badasses for ever. They have all shown they can compete all over the place, and have won//placed highly in Korean-dense fields before. Let’s go into some more depth, though, because that’s what I like to do.

MC

The Boss Toss doesn’t really need anyone’s stamp of approval. The guy has won the most money in all of SC2 (almost up to 500,000$ in pure prize winnings wtf?). He’s won absolutely every title you could ever want, including 2 GSL Code S’s. Those were a long time ago though, right? Well, I guess he did win WCS Europe Season 1 in 2014. Well, the truth is, there isn’t a lot (really for anyone in this list) of information on how MC will do in a tournament with lots of prep time and only the best Korean players in it. The one thing that we do have to look at is MC’s performance at Blizzcon, where he played against Code S regular herO. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from MC in that match. Boy, was I wrong. Although he ended up losing 2-3, MC played out of his mind. He showed a great variety of builds (as always), and just ridiculous intelligence. His builds and play were smart and strong. In fact, I felt like he might have just misplayed a bit on the King SeJong Station game, and I think he actually could have won that game. This is all PvP though. PvP is a lot about mind games, reads, and execution. These have always been strong points for MC.

PvT and PvZ are a different matter. While in general terms MC’s strength of mixing up builds and mind-gaming his opponents are strong qualities for any matchup, you have to have a rock-solid foundation underneath all of that to make it deep in Code S.

How often do you see MC play straight-up strong macro games vs Terran? Recently we’ve seen a lot of strange, off-the-wall play from MC, such as Blink/Charge/Immortal/Storm. Sure, he’s done well. Sure, it’s won games. But, from the pool of Bomber, TY, Maru, INnoVation, MMA, YoDa, Heart, MarineKing, Dream, FanTaSy, GuMiho, TaeJa and Hack, how many times can you hide Oracles or open Charge and be victorious over the course of a multiple month tournament?

2 base allins are still strong in PvZ, but not like they once were. More and more we are seeing PvZs go late game, where it becomes a battle of Swarm Host / Corrupter / Viper vs whatever Protoss can muster. If MC doesn’t hit a sharp timing attack in the weak points of a Zerg tech-switch, will he be able to keep up?

The one thing I can say, and often times do while casting MC, is that he knows how to win. No matter what spot he’s in, no matter how weird the game, or how behind he is, he knows exactly what to do to be able to pick up a victory.

Bomber

Bomber used to compete easily with the top back at the early stages of SC2 in Korea. Since then he’s definitely been through some ups and downs, but overall is a very strong player still. He’s got some impressive stats, and a slew of tournament victories and high placings. The one thing that scares me a bit about Bomber though, is how differently he plays. Its both a strength and a weakness. You can be quite unpredictable and catch your opponents off guard, sure….but strange and off-beat strategies are not the norm for a reason. They are not as solid as “regular” play. You definitely need a mixture of it all to end up going really far, but if you rely too heavily on your own style, the studying done by regulars on big KeSPA teams -should- be enough to tear you apart.

MMA

MMA surprised everyone in the whole damn world by getting 2nd at BlizzCon. So unexpected. His play was good. His multitasking was strong. I find it really hard to put my finger on exactly where MMA will fit, but I do have my doubts that he will be able to deliver this season.

TaeJa

TaeJa is rock solid good. His micro, macro, strategies. Its all so strong. Its going to take a bad day or some badasses to take him out.

First

First left the GSL at a time where he looked to be one of the absolute best Protosses in the world. I remember while casting him that season that I was shocked that he improved so drastically for that season. It didn’t go his way, but his level was top 4 GSL quality, to be honest. After going to WCS Europe, First just didn’t…keep up with what he looked like in that final GSL season? Based on my watching / casting of him at events outside of Korea, I don’t expect great things this season. That being said, he’s been up to the level before, and I really hope to see him get back there eventually again.

San, YoDa, Heart

I just don’t see an impact from these 3 guys in Code S right now. I just don’t see it.

The Non-KeSPA players

I wouldn’t be me or a good analyst if I didn’t bring up KeSPA teams vs non KeSPA teams. As the KeSPA players switched over fully to SC2, we saw the trend of them replacing non-KeSPA team players over time. Let me put an excerpt here from my preview for the 2014 GSL Code S Season 3:

“The KeSPA asteroid hit the Korean professional scene some time ago, and the climate change is almost complete. The old guard has been reduced to just a handful of players. Only DRG, PartinG, Hurricane, Avenge, Dark and Maru were around before the KeSPA teams finally made the switch to StarCraft 2. That’s a mere 6 players out of 32. The most interesting part?

DRG

PartinG, Hurricane, Avenge, Dark, and even Maru, all have something in common. They joined KeSPA teams. DRG on the other hand, has not, as of yet. This makes him the only truly non-KeSPA player left in the entire GSL Code S.”

The GSL is a meat grinder. Its exciting to have all of these players that left the Korean scene back for another go at it, but realistically, they are at a disadvantage over time.

~~~~~~~The Groups~~~~~~

Group A

MC

PenguiN

Rogue

FanTaSy

This group is actually really hard to predict. To be fair, following such a long downtime in Korean SC, tons of team transfers, and the huge batch of fresh players in Code S, I’m probably going to say that a lot in these group predictions….but it’s true.

Fan-Fiction author Artosis wants to say that MC’s pure reputation will put the new player PenguiN into such a funk that he won’t have a chance. Rogue and FanTaSy have both already made it into the ro16 in SPOTV’s new StarLeague, and both pretty convincingly through 3-0s in same race matchups against Soulkey and MarineKing, respectively. All this being said, I expect Rogue and FanTaSy to advance, with MC securely in 3rd place. MC is MC though, so even if he won the whole damn GSL, no one should be surprised to the point of a heart attack.

Final thoughts: Rogue, FanTaSy advance.

Group B

MarineKing

Soulkey

YoDa

San

I’ve got to say, I know that MarineKing has had some insanely good results lately, but I think he won’t live up to the hype around him. If I was doing FPL right now, he’d be on my anti-team. His Hot6ix cup run was on the back of holding Protoss allins, and none of his games have been too impressive in my eyes. I expect Soulkey to be able to take him out.

YoDa vs San could be quite a nice matchup. I think you’d have to favor San a little bit, but it will probably be rather close.

Overall I have to favor Soulkey to get out of the group in first. There is some chance that San’s 4 gate Zealot rushes and Immortal pushes could take him out, but I have to trust that Soulkey will have prepared for what we all know San is going to do vs him. MarineKing’s TvP style I think will actually match up favorably against San, so that could do very well for him if the bracket turns out right. His TvT doesn’t seem to be too flashy at the moment, though, so that could be a problem.

Final thoughts: Soulkey, YoDa advance.

Group C

GuMiho

Life

Rain

Panic

Holy crap this group is good. GuMiho has been an absolute killer recently, both in online cups as well as in the qualifiers for…well…everything. Life is the World Champion. Rain is still one of the best Protoss on earth. Panic…is probably panicing about being in this ridiculous group.

Panic won’t be going to the round of 16. Who will though? Life ended up losing to the mech based play of ForGG, and if there’s one player that mechs more often than ForGG in TvZ, it’s GuMiho. I would say though, that Life is completely aware of this, and should have prepared for it as well. The question is, will Rain defeat these guys? I lean towards yes. Rain, since his championship, has never been worse than 4th best Protoss in the world. Despite leaving his KeSPA team, I would venture to say his level is still very, very high.

Final thoughts: Life, Rain advance.

Group D

TY

Bomber

Dream

YongHwa

Pretty wild group here. What stands out is the fact that YongHwa, the qualifier hero, is in a group of 3 strong Terrans. His first match is against Dream, a young and (still after years) up and coming Terran, the least popular out of the 3. Its always the young talented kids who slay the older macro players like YongHwa, so its a hard match to call between these two.

TY vs Bomber is a really cool match, to be honest. Anyone who’s a fan of international events knows and loves Bomber. They’ve also heard every caster in every TvT he’s ever played, quote his wildly successful TvT win rate. I bet most people are thinking Bomber is lucky to be in this group of 3 Terrans and YongHwa who never quite preforms as well as he should. Well maybe he is, but I still think TY is going to beat him in the first round.

Seriously though, these groups are tough as hell to call right now. I guarantee my predictions will be much better next season when we actually have an idea of how people are playing at the moment…

Final thoughts: TY, Bomber advance. I’m sure about TY but that second spot could be YongHwa as well.

Group E

Maru

Hack

First

PartinG

Hack did knock Cure out of getting into the GSL this season, and has been fielded by his team in Proleague quite a bit.. but come on…Maru. Sure Maru got out shined the last few seasons by some other badass Terrans, but his results recently have been pretty damn on point.

PartinG is still looking very strong recently, despite a couple PvP losses to tip-top Protosses. On the other hand, First hasn’t really done anything. Most of his recent PvPs have been pretty unimpressive.

Final thoughts: Maru, PartinG advance. I’m sure you’re all surprised by this.

Group F

TaeJa

herO

Terminator

Curious

TaeJa vs herO is probably the best match in the round of 32 along with the possible Rain vs Life match. It should be awesome. herO has had the best, or very close to the best PvT in the world for quite some time. I expect herO to take it down.

Terminator is a funny case. This guy gets into absolutely everything, but as soon as he faces a tip-top guy, he gets rekt. It’s hard to say if he will beat Curious to be honest. Curious has been pretty strong lately, but not so strong that he’s a sure bet. A hard one, but maybe I don’t have to think about it too much, because neither of these guys should be favorites to advance.

Final thoughts: herO advances in 1st, TaeJa in 2nd.

Group G

Dark

MMA

Seed

Dear

One of the few groups which I immediately had strong opinions on. Sorry MMA, Dark is one of the absolute best players in the world at the moment. Every single season I’ve been hyping this guy a little bit more. His improvement has been steady and noticeable. SKT1 is now starting to field him every time in Proleague, and even using him as the Ace. The kid’s skill is insane. He will advance from this group.

Dear’s career goes like this:

A Killer -> joins non-Korean team -> Not A Killer -> goes back to join a KeSPA team -> A Killer????

Yeah, I think so. Seed, despite being a former GSL champion, has never been super consistent or solid either. Pretty clear choices in this group I think.

Final thoughts: Dark, Dear advance.

Group H

Heart

Solar

Super

INnoVation

Final thoughts: Solar, INnoVation advance. Yes, I’m aware that Heart just had an amazing WCS NA season, and that Super did very well in the KeSPA cup and SPOTV Starleague.

So that gives us a ro16 that consists of:

Terran:

FanTaSy

YoDa

TY

Bomber

Maru

TaeJa

INnoVation

Zerg:

Rogue

Soulkey

Life

Dark

Solar

Protoss:

Rain

PartinG

herO

Dear

And that, folks, is a pretty damn good looking ro16.

Maybe I’ll do another writeup then, after we get to see exactly where everyone’s at after a couple of months of both individual leagues and PL games.