Group C

Time for a Terran to move into the ro8? Every group this season has been close and difficult to be able to predict who will advance through easily, especially because the World Championship Series in Europe so far has been full of upsets and surprising results but ill give it a go!

I look at todays group with one clear favourite in mind, ForGG. I feel the 2nd place might go over to Nerchio who has really been putting results back out there again, which then leaves us with Showtime and Genius. I think Genius is a complete wildcard wildman, I have no idea what to expect from him tonight lol - I don’t think you can argue that Showtime is the underdog in this group, the 19year old from Germany has a some big shoes to fill - TLO from Season 1 and Hasuobs in Season 2.

ForGG

Its ForGGeddon time. He is back in the offline section of the WCS EU Premier league! Lets just remind our-selves how good he was in Season 1 finishing top 4 losing out to Stephano in the semi finals. On top of that he smashed his group in the Season 1 finals, wooo weeee! 2-0 Her0 and 2-1 sOs before losing in the quarter finals to Mvp (Who almost beat Innovation who won it all!!!).

Unfortunately he had delays on his visa arriving in time to make it back to France to play in Europe for Season 2 and he got latency busted and couldn’t make it into the round of 16. Anyway he is back playing tonight and I feel he is definitely the favourite to move on unless something is terribly wrong with his condition. Nobody is invulnerable in the WCS though, maybe Genius surprises us with something crazy? Maybe Showtime beats another top tier Korean Terran or does the rivalry and history between ForGG and Nerchio come to shine tonight and something wild happens?

No matter what, if ForGG doesn’t advance - I can’t help but feel something is wrong.

Genius

Genius…. Blizzcon champion 2010, one of the most consistent Protoss in the GSL during 2011, GSL finalist in 2012, a nobody in 2013..

We saw him briefly a couple of months back in GSTL where he just randomly came out and starting beating StarTale with his insane builds. Honestly though what has he done this year? Nothing yet. He worked his way though challenger league qualifier and challenger league itself and then found his way advancing through the Premier League ro32, he worked with the latency issue and finds himself in prime position to show us what he has to show. Remember duckdeok last season? Only just advanced through the ro32 and managed to win the entire thing??

His first game this evening will be against Nerchio, I don't know what to think, I have no expectations from Genius either and am eager to see what he is going to show us and how he will attempt to topple the Polish Zerg.

Nerchio

The guy that basically won everything a part from the title as #1 Zerg outside Korea. Nerchio has had a quiet year compared to his 2011/2012 but he is finally giving us performances that, well for me, push right back up top 3 Zerg EU again. With a strong performance this season, maybe he can finally take what was never his with Stephano retiring?

Even though he got stung by Titans confusing playstyle in the ro32 he made a swift turn around by beating Shuttle and Hasuobs 2-0 2-0. I think Nerchio is going to show some very good games tonight and I promise you we will see mutaliks ^^ His first game this evening is against Genius, I think this can be a little difficult simply because nobody knows what to expect from Genius and he can certainly confuse Nerchio like Titan seemed to do previously.

Even though I think Nerchio should advance from his group, crazy things can happen in this group, what happens if Nerchio messes up against Genius and somehow, Showtime beats ForGG? Nerchio would need to play against his rival in the lower bracket ahhhhh.

Showtime

Its no longer Sjowtime, its Showtime!!!!

Lets talk a little bit about Showtime first, he’s has basically been a top GM player for a long time, every single professional player knows this and respects his play. Its just that he has never been in the public spotlight which gives him such the unknown underdog image.

He enters the Ro16 as the only German representative left, as mentioned in the opening paragraph he has some rather large German shoes to fill. TLO made it to the Season 1 Finals and Hasuobs finished Top 8 last Season. With being handle to last longer than 15minutes against Mvp who was struggling with latency issues, he has already started his season strong!!

He needs to repeat that success tonight because his first game is going to be against ForGG and its not going to be easy at all. I feel this group is going to be very hard for him to advance from simply because if he doesn’t beat ForGG he would play for this tournament life against Nerchio which is going to be very hard, or Genius an unpredictable Korean in a Protoss mirror, THE GAME VS FORGG IS SO IMPORTANT!!!

Tonight really is the time to shine, if he advances from this group, then lets all go out and get drunk and celebrate Germanys success in the beautiful city of Cologne!