[WCS] Winter Championship 2016 - Preview Text by TL.net ESPORTS Graphics by Shiroiusagi

A New World Order



Power Rank



Brackets and standings on Brackets and standings on Liquipedia



A New World Order



After a lengthy wait for the first true WCS event of the year, the Winter Championships are finally upon us. It’s been a long time since last year’s highly praised Season 3 Finals in Poland, and it’s finally time to return for the sequel. We’ve had many changes over the Winter break, most obviously of all to the tournament format, which has been changed to a 32 man, single elimination bracket. Understandable, perhaps, given the time constraints of fitting what used to be a multi-month competition into a single four day period, and with such a cut-throat format it’s uncertain how the matches play out. Gone will be the buffer of the group stages, and one mistake could mean elimination from the competition. Will aggression be the name of the game for the underdogs, in an effort to cheese their way into the next round? Or will defensive safety be the general trend? Whatever the case, even with matches extended to Best of 5s throughout the competition until the Best of 7 Final, the slim margin for error almost guarantees that we’ll see upsets galore during the week.



But what would even be considered an upset nowadays? If the past few months have shown anything, it’s that Legacy has taken the natural order of things and shuffled the pack. While certain players in Korea have maintained their status at the top of the scene, the new expansion has definitely proved to be more of a gamechanger in the WCS system. In the first WCS Seasonal event of the year, this is a chance for players to come and stake their claim to sit on top of the pile.



It will certainly be interesting to see where the eight invitees stand once the dust settles on Saturday night. The decision to grant invites to the top eight WCS-eligible players from the WCS 2015 standings is a thoroughly confusing one. How it’s been decided that performances in a different year, in a different game should affect seedings in the 2016 season is a mystery. Nevertheless, those eight will be keen to show that the administrators’ faith in their abilities is justified. It shouldn’t be forgotten, after all, that the winner here is granted a seed to the newly-christened Global Playoffs at the pre-BlizzCon event in Anaheim, and even a high finish will contribute heavily towards earning enough points to qualify.



Whoever ends up on top come Saturday, we will finish this event knowing a lot more about where players stand in this new-look scene. It’s been just over a month since Leipzig, and in the meantime we’ve been limited to online competition. We’ve seen throughout Starcraft 2’s lifespan that online wins do not necessarily translate to offline success, and this event will prove to be the first major test for several attendees. There’s a sense that there’s not a whole lot of difference between most of the qualified players, with no one truly consistent across the few events we’ve had so far, and it may well be that it's the players most suited to the pressure-cooker environment that the weekender format brings who end up succeeding.







Despite those difficulties, making sense of the jumble of results that we've been give so far isn't a task that one of us has shied away from. Normally when we produce a Power Rank as the TL Writing group, we issue a disclaimer stating that the final ranking produced was some Frankenstein’s monster created from trying to make a final list out of all our individual opinions. However, this time, Soularion has taken it upon himself to produce a list by himself. Please note that this is wholly his opinion (and thus please direct all complaints to him rather than the rest of us). It's also pretty damn long, so settle in and enjoy.





Power Rank

by Soularion



For this Power Rank, I looked at everyone’s overall results in LotV with additional weighting given to offline events and events in 2016. Online results don’t always translate to offline success, and the early LotV meta doesn’t reflect the games we#re seeing right now. I put a lot of focus on in-region rankings, and put the regions together based on a mix of historical performance and international performance in LotV so far. I’ve also given a boost to players who have proven in the past that they can perform in such events, even if their victories aren’t in LotV—a ‘clutch factor’ of sorts. Do note that things are very close, to the extent where within the tiers I’ve defined things are incredibly close. Head to head also wasn’t considered between players, although a player’s dominance against the others in their tier is worth noting. Also, note that this list was made before the recent WCS Shanghai qualifiers, although those results would have made little difference to the overall feel of the PR.









32. PiG

Qualification Path: 2nd, Oceania Regional Challenger. 2-0 Probe, 2-3 Petraeus, 3-1 iaguz, 2-4 Petraeus. (Petraeus already qualified)



Although his presence in the community is both respected and appreciated, PiG simply hasn’t shown enough outside of Australia in Legacy to place him higher. While he might be bottom of the rankings, that's more on a sleight on his minimal exposure in the new expansion than on his proven skill. If his WCS Season 1 from last year is anything to go by, he’s certainly not to be overlooked. PiG doesn’t have much to lose—much like this time last year—and with a bit of luck could certainly roll back the clock.





31. PiLiPiLi

Qualification Path: 7th-8th, NA Regional Challenger. 3-0 State, 0-3 Neeb, 3-2 PandaBearMe, 0-3 JonSnow. (Neeb, Hydra, Polt, viOLet, puCK, MaSa already qualified; JonSnow forfeited)



Oh god, PiLiPiLi is here. It’s interesting that he replaced JonSnow considering how hard the zerg beat him in their Bo69, but the protoss is certainly much stranger than the player he replaced. His general failure in NA gets him placed fairly low, but it’s not out of the realms of possibility that he comes through and takes some games with odd strategies and wild tactics. If only the brackets gave us Has vs PiLiPiLi...





30. MajOr

Qualification Path: Top 2, NA Qualifiers Week 2. 2-1 puCK, 3-2 viOLet.



Fun fact - MajOr’s only series losses in Copa America (over three years) have been this season, where he lost to Cham early on and then was swept by Kelazhur in the finals. It’s yet another example of the changing winds of LotV taking away the kings and replacing them with fresh blood, although MajOr managed to qualify for WCS anyway with a couple of strong victories over puCK and viOLet in the North American qualifier. Even though his historical struggles with the WCS system (0-6 in the Ro.32 last year) stop him from placing too highly on the list, he’s had quite a few strong sets against top-tier players in Legacy so far and even his defeats last year kept him close with some strong opposition. A strong run here is not impossible; it’s just less likely.





29. MaSa

Qualification Path: 3rd, NA Qualifiers Week 1. 1-2 HuK, 2-0 HTOMario, 2-1 viOLet, 3-2 HuK.



MaSa joins HuK, puCK and JonSnow as the four players competing for the title of ‘second best NA player’ in the absence of Scarlett as a top player. He’s slightly more proven than JonSnow is, however, and his consistency in not only the Canadian and North American scenes but as a foreign terran in general is quite admirable. He’s routinely beaten up on HuK, and even quite a lot of his peers, but where MaSa’s struggles begin is when you look outside of that bubble. He’s failed to have much of an impact on WCS, he hasn’t been to any large foreign tournaments otherwise, and his only matches in recent times against players better than the NA regulars have seen him trade sets with viOLet. It’s worth noting that he holds very strong TvT and TvZ winrates (89% and 76% respectively) while struggling with TvP, so with a good draw he could certainly make something happen (E/N: MaSa is facing Harstem in the first round, with puCK as a potential quarterfinal opponent), but he just doesn’t have the experience outside of North America quite yet.





28. HuK

Qualification Path: 4th, NA Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 MaSa, 2-3 Petraeus, 2-1 Kelazhur, 2-3 MaSa (Petraeus forfeited his seed)



Although Legacy of the Void may have provided a revival for HuK's twitter feed, his recent struggles in NA (dropping multiple sets to the likes of Kelazhur, MaSa and Drunkenboi) suggest that it hasn't provided the same revival for his competitive career. Still, he’s had enough sparks recently (taking Hydra to a close set in Ting, winning over MarineLorD in Leipzig) to make him an interesting opponent for most of the players here. Considering how strong HuK was at his peak in Wings of Liberty it’s still unfair to discount him entirely, and a strong performance here would definitely go a long way towards proving him able to be a force to be reckoned with not only as a member of the current scene but also as a foreigner with an impressive legacy. Petraeus’ unfortunate absence has given HuK another chance to show off his skill, and a run here would go a long way towards legitimizing him as a worthy follow-up to Scarlett’s impressive 2013 and 2014 runs.





27. puCK

Qualification Path: 5th-6th, NA Regional Challenger. 3-1 PandaBearMe, 0-3 viOLet, 3-2 State, 3-1 MaSa, 1-3 Polt (Neeb, Hydra, Polt, viOLet already qualified)



My pick for second-best in NA, puCK doesn’t hold much of a lead over the other two (three, counting JonSnow) in head to head. They’re all rather even in that aspect, but what puCK has is proven success. His Dreamhack Winter run—while early in LotV and thus not all that relevant or heavily weighted—proves that he has offline chops, and he’s simply had more experience on LAN (both good and bad, leading to his low placement) than most of his fellow North Americans. If he’s able to repeat his Dreamhack Winter run, puCK can dispel any fiction that he’s a one-run wonder.





26. Has

Qualification Path: 1st, Taiwan / Hong Kong / Macau Regional Challenger. 3-0 Sen, 4-1 Rex



Has is simultaneously the most predictable WCS player and the most unpredictable; we can call that he’ll do some wacky, crazy build that makes casters drop their jaws and makes players scream in agony, but it’s very hard to actually call the exact thing he’ll do. One on hand, he’s leading the Taiwanese scene for the first time ever—he’s only out-placed Sen once before in TeSL (out of almost a dozen seasons) but he managed to win a convincing 3-0 over him here during his qualifier run. However, Has’ Nation Wars performance was lacking, and his performance in WCS NA wasn’t quite as good as someone like iAsonu... which is all we’ve seen him in. So, I’m placing him this high based on his success in the Taiwanese scene alongside his track record of getting more upsets than he probably should. Expect the unexpected, and an odd, insane and likely good showcase from the most hated protoss of all time.







25. Kelazhur

Qualification Path: 1st, Latin America Regional Challenger. 3-0 ByRada, 3-0 Cham, 4-1 MajOr



Similarly to how Has currently reigns the Taiwanese scene for the first time in his career, Kelazhur’s victory over MajOr at Copa America was a landmark for the Brazilian terran who has been slowly moving up the ranks in WCS. He’s shown himself capable of making upsets in WCS, taking sets off both viOLet and Polt, and perform very admirably against North American competition, so this event serves as a testing ground to see if he can convert his offline inconsistency into an actual run. His failures against Intense in HIAT, as well as against elfi in WCS, give him as many losses to people ‘beneath’ him as he has successes against players ‘above’ him. The best player in Brazil could very easily show up and draw eyes to his tactical play, but he could just as easily disappoint, bombing out in the Ro.32.





24. MaNa

Qualification Path: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015



Oh, how sad it is to find MaNa buried so deeply in these rankings. He was close to being on top of the WCS world towards the back end of last year, taking a tremendous second place in Season 3 in an otherwise disappointing year, but LotV has not been as kind to him. He’s routinely faced struggles both online and offline, and has racked up quite a lot of questionable losses. While experience has given him a decent number of offline runs in his time—the WCS 2nd place most prominently in recent times, and also a solid HomeStory Cup run that saw him upsetting MarineLorD—he’s had enough duds offline to make me cautiously place him this far down on the list. He has shown enough to make a run a possibility, yet another failure here would add to the growing stack of disappointing events.





23. Lambo

Qualification Path: Top 2, EU Qualifiers Week 2. 2-1 uThermal, 3-0 GunGFuBanDa



It’s with a great deal of hesitation that I say Lambo has a lot of potential- it’s a word often abused and worn down by overuse, but in the case of the German zerg I believe it rings true. His failures against sub-par terrans at both Dreamhack and HomeStory Cup certainly makes one cautious, but he’s seemed to be getting better and better results as of late. He took out Elazer in TING, uThermal in the WCS qualifiers, and then PtitDrogo in the Regionals, and it’s this momentum (combined with a decent Dreamhack Winter run to ensure not all his problems are offline) which makes me place him surprisingly high on this list. It’s easy, and probably fair, to peg him as an online hero, but I have enough faith in online results to place him respectfully nonetheless.





22. SortOf

Qualification Path: Top 2, EU Qualifiers Week 2. 2-1 Zanster, 3-1 Happy



SortOf's results in LotV has been inconsistent at best, with scattered runs at Leipzig, WCS qualifiers and WCS Regionals all showing some amount of promise, while ultimately not quite fulfilling it to the extent at which we could call him great. He might’ve delivered on his promise a little early, as nothing has quite lived up to his near-upset of PartinG and actual-upset of Bly at Dreamhack Winter a few months ago, although wins against MaNa and Happy have come close. I place him this highly thanks to his success in the more important events, despite his consistency wavering in general.





21. Elazer

Qualification Path: 2nd, Polish Qualifiers. 3-0 Mazi, 3-1 souL, 0-3 Nerchio, 3-0 souL



Thanks to the unfortunate success of a certain zerg countryman, Elazer’s rise has continued to be kept thoroughly in the shadows. Despite struggling infinitely with Nerchio—a combined 2-10 record in sets over LotV thus far—the Polish zerg has not only shown online consistency against the amateur scene of Europe, but has also repeatedly perfomed above expectations offline. Whether he was pushing Hydra and Polt to the limit in WCS last year, or making a HomeStory Cup Ro4 over PtitDrogo, Elazer’s had quite a couple great runs already. It’s worth noting that both DH Winter and DH Leipzig were not as successful, thanks to resurgent performances from ShoWTimE and viOLet, respectively, which is why I chose to place him fairly low on this list. He’s also not quite played as many games against the European elite as I would’ve liked, although when he does he tends to perform quite admirably.





20. iAsonu

19. XiGua

iAsonu's Qualification Path: Top 2, NA Qualifiers Week 2. 2-1 State, 3-2 Kelazhur

XiGua's Qualification Path: 1st, China Regional Challenger. 3-1 Rushcrazy, 3-1 iAsonu, 4-2 TooDming



Both of these players are largely similar in that they’re Chinese zergs who have some history of being a part of WCS, but without ever making any real runs, and have faced little to no competition in Europe to determine where they stand. iAsonu did perform well in the NA qualifiers to get here despite the problems that playing cross-server can give, and XiGua’s regional performance is generally better, so it’s hard to say that they’ll be trash, but don’t expect too much.





--The Harstem-Dayshi Line--





18. Harstem

17. Dayshi

Harstem's Qualification Path: Top 2, EU Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 Guru, 3-0 Bly

Dayshi's Qualification Path: 7th-8th, EU Regional Challenger. 3-1 Elazer, 2-3 Nerchio, 3-2 SortOf, 1-3 Lilbow (As the only two players in EU Regional Challenger still unqualified, Dayshi and PtitDrogo were given seeds by default)



Harstem and Dayshi are both exactly average. They’re almost a perfect center-point in that Harstem manages to have enough good runs to keep himself afloat without many offline results while Dayshi seems to be slowly trending upwards but has enough questionable losses to keep him down. Together, they mark the line between players who are here to merely make up the numbers, and players who have the ability to take out anyone at the event on their day. While neither player is likely to have enough consistency to be celebrating a championship win come Saturday, they're strong enough that they could prove an unpleasant surprise for anyone in their section of the bracket.







16. TLO

Qualification Path: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015



TLO’s loss to PtitDrogo in Leipzig after playing an intense set with Snute (climaxing in a game 5 that you should probably watch!) was absolutely heartbreaking, and although there’s no German crowd this time around he’ll definitely be looking for revenge in Katowice. He’s had decent online results with a good mix of disappointment (HomeStory Cup) and surprising success (Leipzig) offline, so a good run shouldn’t be too out of the question. The quality of some players in his quarter of the bracket though (Happy, Hydra, Neeb, VortiX) will mean that progressing beyond his customary top 8 spot will prove a tough challenge though.





15. Lilbow

Qualification Path: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015



As the king of memes and ex-best-foreigner, Lilbow has had a disastrous start to LotV. Although his actual results haven’t been too bad—largely middling and inconsistent—the gamble of sacrificing BlizzCon for future gains hasn't paid off as he'd expected. Lilbow’s especially struggling to find his style, as the successful protosses in Europe move further away from cheesy gimmicks and into impressive macro play, and he will either need to adapt or pray to the stalker gods coming into Katowice.





14. FireCake

Qualification Path: 3rd-4th, EU Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 VortiX, 0-3 ShoWTimE, 3-1 Dayshi



Of all the foreigners currently around, FireCake has probably the most experience playing against Koreans in Legacy of the Void. Whether it was PartinG and Solar at DH Winter, MMA at HomeStory Cup, aLive at Cybnet or MyuNgSiK at The Gauntlet, FireCake’s actually looked fairly good against some solid Korean competition. However, when it comes to his actual results in Europe, the Frenchman's not quite lived up to those high standards. Still, with two podium placements in LotV so far, one shouldn’t be hasty to count out a third.







13. Bunny

Qualification Path: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015



Like a disturbing number of the players seeded in via last year’s WCS points, Bunny has had a slow start in LotV. He’s been crushed by uThermal in Nation Wars (0-4, ouch), swept 0-5 out of Dreamhack Winter, failed to even appear at Leipzig and has generally not done much since then. However, solid online performances (wins over Hydra, FireCake, Nerchio and Snute) alongside a 25-map winning streak against largely amateurs points to him having founding his footing, and the memory of his exploits in Summer 2014 makes it easy to be optimistic about his future.





12. Bly

Qualification Path: 5th-6th, EU Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 Dayshi, 0-3 Harstem, 1-3 VortiX (VortiX forfeited)



What even is Bly? He dumpsters viOLet and Hydra at Leipzig in the matchup that their runs relied on, and then promptly fails time and time again in WCS to Dayshi, Harstem, VortiX, GunGFuBanDa and CHUBZ?! None of those people are even in the upper half of this PR, and a couple of them didn’t even make it. Then he goes to Regionals, and promptly drops out to a more reasonable opposition of Snute, PtitDrogo and ShoWTimE, before getting in anyway when VortiX dropped out. You probably shouldn’t even bother trying to guess at how Bly will do.





11. Happy

Qualification Path: 3rd-4th, EU Qualifiers Week 2. 2-0 Serral, 1-3 SortOf, 3-1 Dayshi



Happy is weird. He tends to flourish when end-game mech terran is at its strongest, and hey—look at what LotV added! His new liberator style has attracted a good deal of controversy thanks to its success with a fiery run at WCS regionals to get him this far, although zergs such as SortOf and Nerchio have managed to stop the Russian in his vile tracks. Happy doesn’t have the offline results—and he’s had a history of underperforming offline—that a lot of the others this high on the list do, but he has a favorable meta and a series of red-hot victories on his side. Momentum is a powerful thing, and Happy is certainly one of Europe’s form players at the moment.





10. viOLet

Qualification Path: 3rd, NA Qualifiers Week 2. 2-0 PandaBearMe, 2-3 MajOr, 2-0 State, 3-1 Kelazhur



Oh, poor viOLet—you went through all that trouble to be the first korean with an esports visa, only for Polt and Hydra to steal your thunder completely! Throughout HotS viOLet was consistently outperformed by his NA-Korean brethren, and even began to struggle with regular old foreigners towards the end, so it’s not much of a surprise to see him drop a few embarrassing sets to the likes of Scarlett and MaSa. What is a surprise, however, was seeing how well he did at Leipzig—not only did he absolutely ruin Elazer’s dreams of being recognized, but he stopped the Serral hype train in its tracks with a quick 3-0. While an over-performing Bly did end his run fairly early, enough faith was harvested from Leipzig to justify a high placement from viOLet here. He’s the weakest Korean in NA, but it’s worth noting that he is still a Korean, and last time we checked they’re still pretty good at winning stuff.





9. ShoWTimE

Qualification Path: Top 2, EU Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 Namshar, 3-0 FireCake



It’s as if someone took the ethereal spirits once known as Socke and HasuObs and combined them into the ultimate macro-german-protoss, someone who could manage the consistency of his predecessors and still bring a renewed sense of potential, with top four finishes at Dreamhack and in WCS last year. ShoWTimE’s dominance has faded a bit from his 2015 peak, but he’s managed to maintain the consistency that he struggled with previously. His play retains that impressive quality to it, and he performed well at DH Winter, but a follow-up Quarterfinal run at Leipzig and a solid Ro8 at HomeStory Cup prove that he isn’t likely to drop off the map completely as he did last year. However, ShoWTimE hasn’t yet shown an ability to actually win—Katowice would be a high profile debut in a Premier final should he make it that far.





--The Contenders--





8. Neeb

Qualification Path: Top 2, NA Qualifiers Week 1. 2-0 Kelazhur, 3-1 viOLet



Neeb has held an impressively consistent record amongst other players in NA. He’s routinely beaten both Hydra and Polt (and viOLet), and in his only outing to Europe in Leipzig he ended up giving the eventual champion a run for his money. His play displays a patience unusual for foreigners, especially for ones of his caliber, and his tense sets with Polt and Hydra at Regionals helped prove that he can retain this patience even under pressure. To me, Neeb is the biggest question mark of this entire tournament. Can he redeem North American players as being worth their seeds, or will he be the linchpin of every critique of the NA scene as it stands? It’s easy to get cynical and desensitized when you see talent after talent falter, but at some point it becomes more fun to forget all the likelihoods and the chances and the problems with ‘potential’ and—for at least one tournament—fully embrace the NA mentality and believe in the wonder.



And then he’ll get 3-0’d by Hydra. It’s pretty much his destiny.





7. Serral

Qualification Path: 3rd-4th, EU Qualifiers Week 2. 0-2 Happy, 2-1 Zanster, 3-1 GunGFuBanDa



The fact that Serral is so hyped comes as a bit of a surprise when you consider that he doesn’t actually have many tournament runs in his name. A strong victory over FireCake at Leipzig provided him with a chance, only for viOLet to brutally take it away. The same story was previously echoed in Valencia (beating Bunny, losing to Curious), WCS (beating NaNiwa, losing to TLO) and even Fragbite (beating Rain, losing to Welmu), which makes any excitement come along with an unhealthy dose of cautious nervousness. Can he overcome this? Well, LotV has bestowed at least some reasons to hype him—his ridiculous performance against Korea (and everyone else) in NationWars, his destruction of ShoWTimE at WCS Regionals, and even his championship at Assembly (admittedly over a weak field). Serral should be able to deliver on his hype with a strong run here, but his biggest flaw is that uncertainty. He should be amazing, but historically, he hasn’t lived up to the hype train.





6. Snute

Qualification Path: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015



Snute is one of the few foreigners with an offline ‘clutch factor’. Said clutch factor is the bane of many foreigners, who make solid runs online and show promise only to end up choking or just playing badly against B-team koreans or fellow foreigners, but with Snute it actually seems to be the opposite. Throughout all of 2014 he struggled with WCS, losing early on in some seasons while in others making it to the Quarterfinals before disappointment caught up to him. However, he still pulled off arguably the greatest foreigner vs korean feat of the year, double-killing Rain and Classic in their primes to make an IEM Shenzhen Ro8 where he performed admirably against TY. His results in LotV? Much the same. He’s struggled online, he’s struggled at Leipzig, he’s been hit-or-miss at Regionals, but he’s also killed HyuN, MC and nearly MMA at HomeStory Cup. If we were basing this off of results and form alone Snute would likely be lower on the list, although not by much, but the question of whether this WCS format will bring out a better Snute hangs over him like a lighthouse to a sea of doubt. At the end of the day? That potential clutchness matters more than most online results ever could.



--The Big Five--





5. Polt

Qualification Path: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015



If Snute is identified by his inconsistency against foreigners and ability to upset Koreans, Polt has taken that to the next level. Once upon a time, Polt was actually quite clutch against foreigners—he’d suffer the occasional upset and often had scrappy or close sets, but at the end of the day Polt would still walk away with a championship or at least a Ro8/Ro4 appearance. In LotV, though? He’s struggled. He’s been contested by Neeb and Kelazhur multiple times, and even puCK once! Despite having more WCS championships than everyone else in this tournament combined, he’s seemed to get more impressive the further away from foreigners he gets. His Kings of the Craft run (against sOs) and delightful performance against Soulkey in Taipei both stand out as among the best things anyone here has done in LotV, but it’s a worrying trend to see him lose consistently to the top players in NA. Still. Polt is the King of WCS, and one of the greatest players of all time, and despite losses that would’ve sunk pretty much anyone else in this tournament he stays close to the top of this ranking. He wins when other people just don’t. He wins when consistency doesn’t favor him. He wins when the odds are against him, when time is against him, when trends are against him, and it’s entirely possible that Katowice is just another stepping stone in one of the greatest legacies Starcraft has ever crafted. Expect things to be close. Expect Polt to make mistakes, and for his opponents to look great, and for him to fight scrappy sets. Expect him to bleed. But, at the end of the day, expect him to win. Because that’s what he knows how to do.





4. MarineLorD

Qualification Path: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015



MarineLorD earned his place in the all-time Hall of Fame when it comes to foreigner achievements by utterly destroying EVERYTHING in NationWars. Everyone might remember the domination of Korea, but even before that MarineLorD carried his team with consecutive slaughterings of Scarlett and Serral, and strong all-kills against the easier teams. He’s backed up this monstrous reputation with one of the strongest online performances in general within Europe, routinely taking sets against top-tier competition such as Nerchio and his fellow frenchmen without many dishonorable losses. Where MarineLorD’s immense accomplishments come to a close is quite a fatal flaw—he’s messed up offline. A lot. He’s lost to HuK at Leipzig and MaNa at HomeStory Cup, which simply doesn’t match with the consistency he’s so easily shown online. While he’s shown at least some amount of offline ability in his WCS runs from last year, it’s still a bad sign of things to come. The whole thing is a story that resonates with more or less every foreigner in this event. He’s shown promise online, and promise offline in the past, but can he actually ever turn that promise into tangible results? But where MarineLorD differs is in the grandiose nature of his promise. MarineLorD isn’t just a player who could conquer the foreign scene, prove himself as the definitive best foreigner, and be named in the same breath as the Frenchman we all think of when we think of ‘good player from France’—he’s a player who could conquer the entire world, and I truly believe that stands true for him more than any other foreigner right now.





3. PtitDrogo

Qualification Path: 9th-16th, EU Regional Challenger. 1-3 MarineLorD (As the only two players in EU Regional Challenger still unqualified, Dayshi and PtitDrogo were given seeds by default)



How did this happen twice? Not only did PtitDrogo come out as the de facto king of foreigners in ASUS ROG, where every other hyped foreigner failed big in the Ro16, but he also the current reigning champ with a strong run in Leipzig. It seems that whenever the so-called best foreigners fall apart, it’s inevitable that PtitDrogo will rise to pick up their mess and make a strong run out of an otherwise failed event. While he failed in WCS all last year, a last-minute appearance in Regionals (falling out before getting an invite anyway because literally everyone else in his group had already qualified) brought things together to place PtitDrogo in Katowice at all. This showcases PtitDrogo’s weakness—he doesn’t seem to have consistency. His peers tend to win the head-to-head when they’re actually playing well, which mirrors his strength of sneaking by when everyone else crumbles either due to pressure, nerves or just foreigners being foreigners. Does PtitDrogo know how to win? More than any foreigner around. Does he know how to make runs offline? For sure. This unusual strength is what defines him, just like how his unexpected and unbelievable upsets against Snute and Rogue brought him fame when he was just rising up. This is the flight-or-fall moment for PtitDrogo. Everyone else here is trying to defy expectations and prove that they’re different in regards to consistency offline. PtitDrogo is potentially the only foreigner looking to reinforce those expectations.







2. Hydra

Qualification Path: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015



Hydra tends to act as the proverbial monster under the bed of the foreign scene, the tale told to up-and-coming foreigners about a beastly Korean who would drag them away and slaughter them the second they began to make mistakes. His record in 2015 was mythical, his victories painted him as a king with only Polt at his very best as an equal, and performances at both IEM Katowice and BlizzCon made it known that Hydra was more than just the king of the foreign circuit, but rather a worthy contender for the world as we know it. So, how did it so quickly fall apart in LotV? For the first time in NationWars, Hydra was made to look human by zerg after zerg until finally falling apart against MarineLorD, and his unforgettable failure in Leipzig made it known that it wasn’t just an online blunder. Hydra struggled against Namshar, before eventually fell to Bly—a player who wouldn’t have even made it to Katowice were it not for VortiX’s dropout. He’s only played against Europeans in tournaments too small to be important even on the online scale, and chances to come out big in OlimoLeague or against sOs in Kings of the Craft fell flat. For a creature of legend and fairytale, he’s looked pretty mortal. Katowice is a chance for Hydra to prove his superiority, to display his dominance and to remind everyone that he’s still the person you fear playing when he comes up in your bracket. He can still be king, but like so many others in LotV so far, he hasn’t done nearly enough to earn it yet.





1. Nerchio

Qualification Path: 1st, Polish Qualifiers. 3-0 Guru, 3-0 Basior, 3-0 Elazer



Nerchio is the most consistent player in Europe. Looking at the offline tournaments might get you a different view. How can that be true? He was poor in Leipzig, FireCake and Snute shone brighter than him in HomeStory Cup, and ShoWTimE and FireCake beat him out in DH Winter. But, while for most players on this list a Round of 8 loss to MMA, or a victory against Serral followed by a loss to Lilbow might actually be on their ‘pro’ list, for Nerchio they stand as his only flaws. In a land where there isn’t a single unquestionable number one, where every player who has seen success has also seen failure, Nerchio is the one who has been closest to that mythical consistency. He’s the one with the offline experience, he’s the one with the online results from Acer Pro Challenge to WCS Regionals to GPL, he’s the one who doesn’t lose.



When Blizzard set out to make this year’s WCS system that attracted so much controversy, it was with many things in mind. It might’ve been tales about Polt’s fan favorite nature, or Hydra’s performances away from WCS bringing hope to the foreign scene, or StarDust’s charming demeanor, or Snute’s inspiring victories, or Bunny’s renown effort, but to me there’s one thing that stands out beyond all of these individual storylines. WCS has put everyone’s eyes on one goal—finding the next star. Stephano already went supernova. Scarlett faded. NaNiwa went insane. Here in Katowice, everyone will end up watching with bated breath, searching for that next player. The person who puts viewers on the edge of their seats, the person who challenges korea and who subverts expectations and who rewards faith. It’s funny that Nerchio’s greatest wound was inflicted by Lilbow, considering Lilbow was put in this very position last year. At the end of the day Nerchio isn’t Stephano yet. He isn’t Scarlett. He isn’t NaNiwa, or even Lilbow. Nerchio doesn’t rule like an emperor over Europe because nobody does, because it’s a land of chaos and scrappy sets and uneven offline tournaments.



What I see in Nerchio isn’t some gospel truth that he’ll rise to win this tournament, and win the next tournament, and win BlizzCon, and become king of the universe. What I see in him is quiet consistency, where he’s been matched against his peers time and time again and has more often than not come out ahead. Every king starts with a few steps that Nerchio has walked more cleanly and decisively than anyone else, and although the crown of Katowice is entirely open it’s not up for debate that Nerchio is the one who holds it closest to his hands. He’s the one who beat Snute, Serral and MarineLorD at WCS Regionals. He’s the one who won Acer Pro Challenge. He’s the one who gave MMA a run for his money even when the Korean terran showcased better play by making things scrappy and ugly when he benefitted. He’s the one who already qualified for Shanghai by dominating in ZvZ. He’s the one who boasts a ridiculous >80% winrate in series played over the course of 2016. Nobody deserves the title of ‘king’ more than Nerchio, even if he’s still just another player waiting to face the crown’s trials.





For this Power Rank, I looked at everyone’s overall results in LotV with additional weighting given to offline events and events in 2016. Online results don’t always translate to offline success, and the early LotV meta doesn’t reflect the games we#re seeing right now. I put a lot of focus on in-region rankings, and put the regions together based on a mix of historical performance and international performance in LotV so far. I’ve also given a boost to players who have proven in the past that they can perform in such events, even if their victories aren’t in LotV—a ‘clutch factor’ of sorts. Do note that things are very close, to the extent where within the tiers I’ve defined things are incredibly close. Head to head also wasn’t considered between players, although a player’s dominance against the others in their tier is worth noting. Also, note that this list was made before the recent WCS Shanghai qualifiers, although those results would have made little difference to the overall feel of the PR.32.: 2nd, Oceania Regional Challenger. 2-0 Probe, 2-3 Petraeus, 3-1 iaguz, 2-4 Petraeus. (Petraeus already qualified)Although his presence in the community is both respected and appreciated, PiG simply hasn’t shown enough outside of Australia in Legacy to place him higher. While he might be bottom of the rankings, that's more on a sleight on his minimal exposure in the new expansion than on his proven skill. If his WCS Season 1 from last year is anything to go by, he’s certainly not to be overlooked. PiG doesn’t have much to lose—much like this time last year—and with a bit of luck could certainly roll back the clock.31.: 7th-8th, NA Regional Challenger. 3-0 State, 0-3 Neeb, 3-2 PandaBearMe, 0-3 JonSnow. (Neeb, Hydra, Polt, viOLet, puCK, MaSa already qualified; JonSnow forfeited)Oh god, PiLiPiLi is here. It’s interesting that he replaced JonSnow considering how hard the zerg beat him in their Bo69, but the protoss is certainly much stranger than the player he replaced. His general failure in NA gets him placed fairly low, but it’s not out of the realms of possibility that he comes through and takes some games with odd strategies and wild tactics. If only the brackets gave us Has vs PiLiPiLi...30.: Top 2, NA Qualifiers Week 2. 2-1 puCK, 3-2 viOLet.Fun fact - MajOr’s only series losses in Copa America (over three years) have been this season, where he lost to Cham early on and then was swept by Kelazhur in the finals. It’s yet another example of the changing winds of LotV taking away the kings and replacing them with fresh blood, although MajOr managed to qualify for WCS anyway with a couple of strong victories over puCK and viOLet in the North American qualifier. Even though his historical struggles with the WCS system (0-6 in the Ro.32 last year) stop him from placing too highly on the list, he’s had quite a few strong sets against top-tier players in Legacy so far and even his defeats last year kept him close with some strong opposition. A strong run here is not impossible; it’s just less likely.29.: 3rd, NA Qualifiers Week 1. 1-2 HuK, 2-0 HTOMario, 2-1 viOLet, 3-2 HuK.MaSa joins HuK, puCK and JonSnow as the four players competing for the title of ‘second best NA player’ in the absence of Scarlett as a top player. He’s slightly more proven than JonSnow is, however, and his consistency in not only the Canadian and North American scenes but as a foreign terran in general is quite admirable. He’s routinely beaten up on HuK, and even quite a lot of his peers, but where MaSa’s struggles begin is when you look outside of that bubble. He’s failed to have much of an impact on WCS, he hasn’t been to any large foreign tournaments otherwise, and his only matches in recent times against players better than the NA regulars have seen him trade sets with viOLet. It’s worth noting that he holds very strong TvT and TvZ winrates (89% and 76% respectively) while struggling with TvP, so with a good draw he could certainly make something happen (E/N: MaSa is facing Harstem in the first round, with puCK as a potential quarterfinal opponent), but he just doesn’t have the experience outside of North America quite yet.28.: 4th, NA Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 MaSa, 2-3 Petraeus, 2-1 Kelazhur, 2-3 MaSa (Petraeus forfeited his seed)Although Legacy of the Void may have provided a revival for HuK's twitter feed, his recent struggles in NA (dropping multiple sets to the likes of Kelazhur, MaSa and Drunkenboi) suggest that it hasn't provided the same revival for his competitive career. Still, he’s had enough sparks recently (taking Hydra to a close set in Ting, winning over MarineLorD in Leipzig) to make him an interesting opponent for most of the players here. Considering how strong HuK was at his peak in Wings of Liberty it’s still unfair to discount him entirely, and a strong performance here would definitely go a long way towards proving him able to be a force to be reckoned with not only as a member of the current scene but also as a foreigner with an impressive legacy. Petraeus’ unfortunate absence has given HuK another chance to show off his skill, and a run here would go a long way towards legitimizing him as a worthy follow-up to Scarlett’s impressive 2013 and 2014 runs.27.: 5th-6th, NA Regional Challenger. 3-1 PandaBearMe, 0-3 viOLet, 3-2 State, 3-1 MaSa, 1-3 Polt (Neeb, Hydra, Polt, viOLet already qualified)My pick for second-best in NA, puCK doesn’t hold much of a lead over the other two (three, counting JonSnow) in head to head. They’re all rather even in that aspect, but what puCK has is proven success. His Dreamhack Winter run—while early in LotV and thus not all that relevant or heavily weighted—proves that he has offline chops, and he’s simply had more experience on LAN (both good and bad, leading to his low placement) than most of his fellow North Americans. If he’s able to repeat his Dreamhack Winter run, puCK can dispel any fiction that he’s a one-run wonder.26.: 1st, Taiwan / Hong Kong / Macau Regional Challenger. 3-0 Sen, 4-1 RexHas is simultaneously the most predictable WCS player and the most unpredictable; we can call that he’ll do some wacky, crazy build that makes casters drop their jaws and makes players scream in agony, but it’s very hard to actually call the exact thing he’ll do. One on hand, he’s leading the Taiwanese scene for the first time ever—he’s only out-placed Sen once before in TeSL (out of almost a dozen seasons) but he managed to win a convincing 3-0 over him here during his qualifier run. However, Has’ Nation Wars performance was lacking, and his performance in WCS NA wasn’t quite as good as someone like iAsonu... which is all we’ve seen him in. So, I’m placing him this high based on his success in the Taiwanese scene alongside his track record of getting more upsets than he probably should. Expect the unexpected, and an odd, insane and likely good showcase from the most hated protoss of all time.25.: 1st, Latin America Regional Challenger. 3-0 ByRada, 3-0 Cham, 4-1 MajOrSimilarly to how Has currently reigns the Taiwanese scene for the first time in his career, Kelazhur’s victory over MajOr at Copa America was a landmark for the Brazilian terran who has been slowly moving up the ranks in WCS. He’s shown himself capable of making upsets in WCS, taking sets off both viOLet and Polt, and perform very admirably against North American competition, so this event serves as a testing ground to see if he can convert his offline inconsistency into an actual run. His failures against Intense in HIAT, as well as against elfi in WCS, give him as many losses to people ‘beneath’ him as he has successes against players ‘above’ him. The best player in Brazil could very easily show up and draw eyes to his tactical play, but he could just as easily disappoint, bombing out in the Ro.32.24.: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015Oh, how sad it is to find MaNa buried so deeply in these rankings. He was close to being on top of the WCS world towards the back end of last year, taking a tremendous second place in Season 3 in an otherwise disappointing year, but LotV has not been as kind to him. He’s routinely faced struggles both online and offline, and has racked up quite a lot of questionable losses. While experience has given him a decent number of offline runs in his time—the WCS 2nd place most prominently in recent times, and also a solid HomeStory Cup run that saw him upsetting MarineLorD—he’s had enough duds offline to make me cautiously place him this far down on the list. He has shown enough to make a run a possibility, yet another failure here would add to the growing stack of disappointing events.23.: Top 2, EU Qualifiers Week 2. 2-1 uThermal, 3-0 GunGFuBanDaIt’s with a great deal of hesitation that I say Lambo has a lot of potential- it’s a word often abused and worn down by overuse, but in the case of the German zerg I believe it rings true. His failures against sub-par terrans at both Dreamhack and HomeStory Cup certainly makes one cautious, but he’s seemed to be getting better and better results as of late. He took out Elazer in TING, uThermal in the WCS qualifiers, and then PtitDrogo in the Regionals, and it’s this momentum (combined with a decent Dreamhack Winter run to ensure not all his problems are offline) which makes me place him surprisingly high on this list. It’s easy, and probably fair, to peg him as an online hero, but I have enough faith in online results to place him respectfully nonetheless.22.: Top 2, EU Qualifiers Week 2. 2-1 Zanster, 3-1 HappySortOf's results in LotV has been inconsistent at best, with scattered runs at Leipzig, WCS qualifiers and WCS Regionals all showing some amount of promise, while ultimately not quite fulfilling it to the extent at which we could call him great. He might’ve delivered on his promise a little early, as nothing has quite lived up to his near-upset of PartinG and actual-upset of Bly at Dreamhack Winter a few months ago, although wins against MaNa and Happy have come close. I place him this highly thanks to his success in the more important events, despite his consistency wavering in general.21.: 2nd, Polish Qualifiers. 3-0 Mazi, 3-1 souL, 0-3 Nerchio, 3-0 souLThanks to the unfortunate success of a certain zerg countryman, Elazer’s rise has continued to be kept thoroughly in the shadows. Despite struggling infinitely with Nerchio—a combined 2-10 record in sets over LotV thus far—the Polish zerg has not only shown online consistency against the amateur scene of Europe, but has also repeatedly perfomed above expectations offline. Whether he was pushing Hydra and Polt to the limit in WCS last year, or making a HomeStory Cup Ro4 over PtitDrogo, Elazer’s had quite a couple great runs already. It’s worth noting that both DH Winter and DH Leipzig were not as successful, thanks to resurgent performances from ShoWTimE and viOLet, respectively, which is why I chose to place him fairly low on this list. He’s also not quite played as many games against the European elite as I would’ve liked, although when he does he tends to perform quite admirably.20.19.: Top 2, NA Qualifiers Week 2. 2-1 State, 3-2 Kelazhur: 1st, China Regional Challenger. 3-1 Rushcrazy, 3-1 iAsonu, 4-2 TooDmingBoth of these players are largely similar in that they’re Chinese zergs who have some history of being a part of WCS, but without ever making any real runs, and have faced little to no competition in Europe to determine where they stand. iAsonu did perform well in the NA qualifiers to get here despite the problems that playing cross-server can give, and XiGua’s regional performance is generally better, so it’s hard to say that they’ll be trash, but don’t expect too much.18.17.: Top 2, EU Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 Guru, 3-0 Bly: 7th-8th, EU Regional Challenger. 3-1 Elazer, 2-3 Nerchio, 3-2 SortOf, 1-3 Lilbow (As the only two players in EU Regional Challenger still unqualified, Dayshi and PtitDrogo were given seeds by default)Harstem and Dayshi are both exactly average. They’re almost a perfect center-point in that Harstem manages to have enough good runs to keep himself afloat without many offline results while Dayshi seems to be slowly trending upwards but has enough questionable losses to keep him down. Together, they mark the line between players who are here to merely make up the numbers, and players who have the ability to take out anyone at the event on their day. While neither player is likely to have enough consistency to be celebrating a championship win come Saturday, they're strong enough that they could prove an unpleasant surprise for anyone in their section of the bracket.16.: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015TLO’s loss to PtitDrogo in Leipzig after playing an intense set with Snute (climaxing in a game 5 that you should probably watch!) was absolutely heartbreaking, and although there’s no German crowd this time around he’ll definitely be looking for revenge in Katowice. He’s had decent online results with a good mix of disappointment (HomeStory Cup) and surprising success (Leipzig) offline, so a good run shouldn’t be too out of the question. The quality of some players in his quarter of the bracket though (Happy, Hydra, Neeb, VortiX) will mean that progressing beyond his customary top 8 spot will prove a tough challenge though.15.: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015As the king of memes and ex-best-foreigner, Lilbow has had a disastrous start to LotV. Although his actualhaven’t been too bad—largely middling and inconsistent—the gamble of sacrificing BlizzCon for future gains hasn't paid off as he'd expected. Lilbow’s especially struggling to find his style, as the successful protosses in Europe move further away from cheesy gimmicks and into impressive macro play, and he will either need to adapt or pray to the stalker gods coming into Katowice.14.: 3rd-4th, EU Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 VortiX, 0-3 ShoWTimE, 3-1 DayshiOf all the foreigners currently around, FireCake has probably the most experience playing against Koreans in Legacy of the Void. Whether it was PartinG and Solar at DH Winter, MMA at HomeStory Cup, aLive at Cybnet or MyuNgSiK at The Gauntlet, FireCake’s actually looked fairly good against some solid Korean competition. However, when it comes to his actual results in Europe, the Frenchman's not quite lived up to those high standards. Still, with two podium placements in LotV so far, one shouldn’t be hasty to count out a third.13.: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015Like a disturbing number of the players seeded in via last year’s WCS points, Bunny has had a slow start in LotV. He’s been crushed by uThermal in Nation Wars (0-4, ouch), swept 0-5 out of Dreamhack Winter, failed to even appear at Leipzig and has generally not done much since then. However, solid online performances (wins over Hydra, FireCake, Nerchio and Snute) alongside a 25-map winning streak against largely amateurs points to him having founding his footing, and the memory of his exploits in Summer 2014 makes it easy to be optimistic about his future.12.: 5th-6th, EU Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 Dayshi, 0-3 Harstem, 1-3 VortiX (VortiX forfeited)What even is Bly? He dumpsters viOLet and Hydra at Leipzig in the matchup that their runs relied on, and then promptly fails time and time again in WCS to Dayshi, Harstem, VortiX, GunGFuBanDa and CHUBZ?! None of those people are even in the upper half of this PR, and a couple of them didn’t even make it. Then he goes to Regionals, and promptly drops out to a more reasonable opposition of Snute, PtitDrogo and ShoWTimE, before getting in anyway when VortiX dropped out. You probably shouldn’t even bother trying to guess at how Bly will do.11.: 3rd-4th, EU Qualifiers Week 2. 2-0 Serral, 1-3 SortOf, 3-1 DayshiHappy is weird. He tends to flourish when end-game mech terran is at its strongest, and hey—look at what LotV added! His new liberator style has attracted a good deal of controversy thanks to its success with a fiery run at WCS regionals to get him this far, although zergs such as SortOf and Nerchio have managed to stop the Russian in his vile tracks. Happy doesn’t have the offline results—and he’s had a history of underperforming offline—that a lot of the others this high on the list do, but he has a favorable meta and a series of red-hot victories on his side. Momentum is a powerful thing, and Happy is certainly one of Europe’s form players at the moment.10.: 3rd, NA Qualifiers Week 2. 2-0 PandaBearMe, 2-3 MajOr, 2-0 State, 3-1 KelazhurOh, poor viOLet—you went through all that trouble to be the first korean with an esports visa, only for Polt and Hydra to steal your thunder completely! Throughout HotS viOLet was consistently outperformed by his NA-Korean brethren, and even began to struggle with regular old foreigners towards the end, so it’s not much of a surprise to see him drop a few embarrassing sets to the likes of Scarlett and MaSa. What is a surprise, however, was seeing how well he did at Leipzig—not only did he absolutely ruin Elazer’s dreams of being recognized, but he stopped the Serral hype train in its tracks with a quick 3-0. While an over-performing Bly did end his run fairly early, enough faith was harvested from Leipzig to justify a high placement from viOLet here. He’s the weakest Korean in NA, but it’s worth noting that he is still a Korean, and last time we checked they’re still pretty good at winning stuff.9.: Top 2, EU Qualifiers Week 1. 2-1 Namshar, 3-0 FireCakeIt’s as if someone took the ethereal spirits once known as Socke and HasuObs and combined them into the ultimate macro-german-protoss, someone who could manage the consistency of his predecessors and still bring a renewed sense of potential, with top four finishes at Dreamhack and in WCS last year. ShoWTimE’s dominance has faded a bit from his 2015 peak, but he’s managed to maintain the consistency that he struggled with previously. His play retains that impressive quality to it, and he performed well at DH Winter, but a follow-up Quarterfinal run at Leipzig and a solid Ro8 at HomeStory Cup prove that he isn’t likely to drop off the map completely as he did last year. However, ShoWTimE hasn’t yet shown an ability to actually win—Katowice would be a high profile debut in a Premier final should he make it that far.8.: Top 2, NA Qualifiers Week 1. 2-0 Kelazhur, 3-1 viOLetNeeb has held an impressively consistent record amongst other players in NA. He’s routinely beaten both Hydra and Polt (and viOLet), and in his only outing to Europe in Leipzig he ended up giving the eventual champion a run for his money. His play displays a patience unusual for foreigners, especially for ones of his caliber, and his tense sets with Polt and Hydra at Regionals helped prove that he can retain this patience even under pressure. To me, Neeb is the biggest question mark of this entire tournament. Can he redeem North American players as being worth their seeds, or will he be the linchpin of every critique of the NA scene as it stands? It’s easy to get cynical and desensitized when you see talent after talent falter, but at some point it becomes more fun to forget all the likelihoods and the chances and the problems with ‘potential’ and—for at least one tournament—fully embrace the NA mentality and believe in the wonder.And then he’ll get 3-0’d by Hydra. It’s pretty much his destiny.7.: 3rd-4th, EU Qualifiers Week 2. 0-2 Happy, 2-1 Zanster, 3-1 GunGFuBanDaThe fact that Serral is so hyped comes as a bit of a surprise when you consider that he doesn’t actually have many tournament runs in his name. A strong victory over FireCake at Leipzig provided him with a chance, only for viOLet to brutally take it away. The same story was previously echoed in Valencia (beating Bunny, losing to Curious), WCS (beating NaNiwa, losing to TLO) and even Fragbite (beating Rain, losing to Welmu), which makes any excitement come along with an unhealthy dose of cautious nervousness. Can he overcome this? Well, LotV has bestowed at least some reasons to hype him—his ridiculous performance against Korea (and everyone else) in NationWars, his destruction of ShoWTimE at WCS Regionals, and even his championship at Assembly (admittedly over a weak field). Serral should be able to deliver on his hype with a strong run here, but his biggest flaw is that uncertainty. Hebe amazing, but historically, he hasn’t lived up to the hype train.6.: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015Snute is one of the few foreigners with an offline ‘clutch factor’. Said clutch factor is the bane of many foreigners, who make solid runs online and show promise only to end up choking or just playing badly against B-team koreans or fellow foreigners, but with Snute it actually seems to be the opposite. Throughout all of 2014 he struggled with WCS, losing early on in some seasons while in others making it to the Quarterfinals before disappointment caught up to him. However, he still pulled off arguably the greatest foreigner vs korean feat of the year, double-killing Rain and Classic in their primes to make an IEM Shenzhen Ro8 where he performed admirably against TY. His results in LotV? Much the same. He’s struggled online, he’s struggled at Leipzig, he’s been hit-or-miss at Regionals, but he’s also killed HyuN, MC and nearly MMA at HomeStory Cup. If we were basing this off of results and form alone Snute would likely be lower on the list, although not by much, but the question of whether this WCS format will bring out a better Snute hangs over him like a lighthouse to a sea of doubt. At the end of the day? That potential clutchness matters more than most online results ever could.5.: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015If Snute is identified by his inconsistency against foreigners and ability to upset Koreans, Polt has taken that to the next level. Once upon a time, Polt was actually quite clutch against foreigners—he’d suffer the occasional upset and often had scrappy or close sets, but at the end of the day Polt would still walk away with a championship or at least a Ro8/Ro4 appearance. In LotV, though? He’s struggled. He’s been contested by Neeb and Kelazhur multiple times, and even puCK once! Despite having more WCS championships than everyone else in this tournament combined, he’s seemed to get more impressive the further away from foreigners he gets. His Kings of the Craft run (against sOs) and delightful performance against Soulkey in Taipei both stand out as among the best things anyone here has done in LotV, but it’s a worrying trend to see him lose consistently to the top players in NA. Still. Polt is the King of WCS, and one of the greatest players of all time, and despite losses that would’ve sunk pretty much anyone else in this tournament he stays close to the top of this ranking. He wins when other people just don’t. He wins when consistency doesn’t favor him. He wins when the odds are against him, when time is against him, when trends are against him, and it’s entirely possible that Katowice is just another stepping stone in one of the greatest legacies Starcraft has ever crafted. Expect things to be close. Expect Polt to make mistakes, and for his opponents to look great, and for him to fight scrappy sets. Expect him to bleed. But, at the end of the day, expect him to win. Because that’s what he knows how to do.4.: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015MarineLorD earned his place in the all-time Hall of Fame when it comes to foreigner achievements by utterly destroying EVERYTHING in NationWars. Everyone might remember the domination of Korea, but even before that MarineLorD carried his team with consecutive slaughterings of Scarlett and Serral, and strong all-kills against the easier teams. He’s backed up this monstrous reputation with one of the strongest online performances in general within Europe, routinely taking sets against top-tier competition such as Nerchio and his fellow frenchmen without many dishonorable losses. Where MarineLorD’s immense accomplishments come to a close is quite a fatal flaw—he’s messed up offline. A lot. He’s lost to HuK at Leipzig and MaNa at HomeStory Cup, which simply doesn’t match with the consistency he’s so easily shown online. While he’s shown at least some amount of offline ability in his WCS runs from last year, it’s still a bad sign of things to come. The whole thing is a story that resonates with more or less every foreigner in this event. He’s shown promise online, and promise offline in the past, but can he actually ever turn that promise into tangible results? But where MarineLorD differs is in the grandiose nature of his promise. MarineLorD isn’t just a player who could conquer the foreign scene, prove himself as the definitive best foreigner, and be named in the same breath as the Frenchman we all think of when we think of ‘good player from France’—he’s a player who could conquer the entire world, and I truly believe that stands true for him more than any other foreigner right now.3.: 9th-16th, EU Regional Challenger. 1-3 MarineLorD (As the only two players in EU Regional Challenger still unqualified, Dayshi and PtitDrogo were given seeds by default)How did this happen twice? Not only did PtitDrogo come out as the de facto king of foreigners in ASUS ROG, where every other hyped foreigner failed big in the Ro16, but he also the current reigning champ with a strong run in Leipzig. It seems that whenever the so-called best foreigners fall apart, it’s inevitable that PtitDrogo will rise to pick up their mess and make a strong run out of an otherwise failed event. While he failed in WCS all last year, a last-minute appearance in Regionals (falling out before getting an invite anyway because literally everyone else in his group had already qualified) brought things together to place PtitDrogo in Katowice at all. This showcases PtitDrogo’s weakness—he doesn’t seem to have consistency. His peers tend to win the head-to-head when they’re actually playing well, which mirrors his strength of sneaking by when everyone else crumbles either due to pressure, nerves or just foreigners being foreigners. Does PtitDrogo know how to win? More than any foreigner around. Does he know how to make runs offline? For sure. This unusual strength is what defines him, just like how his unexpected and unbelievable upsets against Snute and Rogue brought him fame when he was just rising up. This is the flight-or-fall moment for PtitDrogo. Everyone else here is trying to defy expectations and prove that they’re different in regards to consistency offline. PtitDrogo is potentially the only foreigner looking to reinforce those expectations.2.: Invite - Top 8 WCS-eligible players from WCS 2015Hydra tends to act as the proverbial monster under the bed of the foreign scene, the tale told to up-and-coming foreigners about a beastly Korean who would drag them away and slaughter them the second they began to make mistakes. His record in 2015 was mythical, his victories painted him as a king with only Polt at his very best as an equal, and performances at both IEM Katowice and BlizzCon made it known that Hydra was more than just the king of the foreign circuit, but rather a worthy contender for the world as we know it. So, how did it so quickly fall apart in LotV? For the first time in NationWars, Hydra was made to look human by zerg after zerg until finally falling apart against MarineLorD, and his unforgettable failure in Leipzig made it known that it wasn’t just an online blunder. Hydra struggled against Namshar, before eventually fell to Bly—a player who wouldn’t have even made it to Katowice were it not for VortiX’s dropout. He’s only played against Europeans in tournaments too small to be important even on the online scale, and chances to come out big in OlimoLeague or against sOs in Kings of the Craft fell flat. For a creature of legend and fairytale, he’s looked pretty mortal. Katowice is a chance for Hydra to prove his superiority, to display his dominance and to remind everyone that he’s still the person you fear playing when he comes up in your bracket. He can still be king, but like so many others in LotV so far, he hasn’t done nearly enough to earn it yet.1.: 1st, Polish Qualifiers. 3-0 Guru, 3-0 Basior, 3-0 ElazerNerchio is the most consistent player in Europe. Looking at the offline tournaments might get you a different view. How can that be true? He was poor in Leipzig, FireCake and Snute shone brighter than him in HomeStory Cup, and ShoWTimE and FireCake beat him out in DH Winter. But, while for most players on this list a Round of 8 loss to MMA, or a victory against Serral followed by a loss to Lilbow might actually be on their ‘pro’ list, for Nerchio they stand as his only flaws. In a land where there isn’t a single unquestionable number one, where every player who has seen success has also seen failure, Nerchio is the one who has been closest to that mythical consistency. He’s the one with the offline experience, he’s the one with the online results from Acer Pro Challenge to WCS Regionals to GPL, he’s the one who doesn’t lose.When Blizzard set out to make this year’s WCS system that attracted so much controversy, it was with many things in mind. It might’ve been tales about Polt’s fan favorite nature, or Hydra’s performances away from WCS bringing hope to the foreign scene, or StarDust’s charming demeanor, or Snute’s inspiring victories, or Bunny’s renown effort, but to me there’s one thing that stands out beyond all of these individual storylines. WCS has put everyone’s eyes on one goal—finding the next star. Stephano already went supernova. Scarlett faded. NaNiwa went insane. Here in Katowice, everyone will end up watching with bated breath, searching for that next player. The person who puts viewers on the edge of their seats, the person who challenges korea and who subverts expectations and who rewards faith. It’s funny that Nerchio’s greatest wound was inflicted by Lilbow, considering Lilbow was put in this very position last year. At the end of the day Nerchio isn’t Stephano yet. He isn’t Scarlett. He isn’t NaNiwa, or even Lilbow. Nerchio doesn’t rule like an emperor over Europe because nobody does, because it’s a land of chaos and scrappy sets and uneven offline tournaments.What I see in Nerchio isn’t some gospel truth that he’ll rise to win this tournament, and win the next tournament, and win BlizzCon, and become king of the universe. What I see in him is quiet consistency, where he’s been matched against his peers time and time again and has more often than not come out ahead. Every king starts with a few steps that Nerchio has walked more cleanly and decisively than anyone else, and although the crown of Katowice is entirely open it’s not up for debate that Nerchio is the one who holds it closest to his hands. He’s the one who beat Snute, Serral and MarineLorD at WCS Regionals. He’s the one who won Acer Pro Challenge. He’s the one who gave MMA a run for his money even when the Korean terran showcased better play by making things scrappy and ugly when he benefitted. He’s the one who already qualified for Shanghai by dominating in ZvZ. He’s the one who boasts a ridiculous >80% winrate in series played over the course of 2016. Nobody deserves the title of ‘king’ more than Nerchio, even if he’s still just another player waiting to face the crown’s trials. Credits:

Writers: , Soularion, munch

Editors: munch

Graphics: shiroiusagi.

Photos: Dreamhack, Helena Kristiansson

Stats: Aligulac



After a lengthy wait for the first true WCS event of the year, the Winter Championships are finally upon us. It’s been a long time since last year’s highly praised Season 3 Finals in Poland, and it’s finally time to return for the sequel. We’ve had many changes over the Winter break, most obviously of all to the tournament format, which has been changed to a 32 man, single elimination bracket. Understandable, perhaps, given the time constraints of fitting what used to be a multi-month competition into a single four day period, and with such a cut-throat format it’s uncertain how the matches play out. Gone will be the buffer of the group stages, and one mistake could mean elimination from the competition. Will aggression be the name of the game for the underdogs, in an effort to cheese their way into the next round? Or will defensive safety be the general trend? Whatever the case, even with matches extended to Best of 5s throughout the competition until the Best of 7 Final, the slim margin for error almost guarantees that we’ll see upsets galore during the week.But what would even be considered an upset nowadays? If the past few months have shown anything, it’s that Legacy has taken the natural order of things and shuffled the pack. While certain players in Korea have maintained their status at the top of the scene, the new expansion has definitely proved to be more of a gamechanger in the WCS system. In the first WCS Seasonal event of the year, this is a chance for players to come and stake their claim to sit on top of the pile.It will certainly be interesting to see where the eight invitees stand once the dust settles on Saturday night. The decision to grant invites to the top eight WCS-eligible players from the WCS 2015 standings is a thoroughly confusing one. How it’s been decided that performancesshould affect seedings in the 2016 season is a mystery. Nevertheless, those eight will be keen to show that the administrators’ faith in their abilities is justified. It shouldn’t be forgotten, after all, that the winner here is granted a seed to the newly-christened Global Playoffs at the pre-BlizzCon event in Anaheim, and even a high finish will contribute heavily towards earning enough points to qualify.Whoever ends up on top come Saturday, we will finish this event knowing a lot more about where players stand in this new-look scene. It’s been just over a month since Leipzig, and in the meantime we’ve been limited to online competition. We’ve seen throughout Starcraft 2’s lifespan that online wins do not necessarily translate to offline success, and this event will prove to be the first major test for several attendees. There’s a sense that there’s not a whole lot of difference between most of the qualified players, with no one truly consistent across the few events we’ve had so far, and it may well be that it's the players most suited to the pressure-cooker environment that the weekender format brings who end up succeeding.Despite those difficulties, making sense of the jumble of results that we've been give so far isn't a task that one of us has shied away from. Normally when we produce a Power Rank as the TL Writing group, we issue a disclaimer stating that the final ranking produced was some Frankenstein’s monster created from trying to make a final list out of all our individual opinions. However, this time, Soularion has taken it upon himself to produce a list by himself. Please note that this is wholly his opinion (and thus please direct all complaints to him rather than the rest of us). It's also pretty damn long, so settle in and enjoy.