





With eight spots open to qualified players, Iron Squid Chapter two offered a chance to everyone to compete with the world’s best. Among the eight, Mini is surely the most unexpected. Hardcore StarCraft II fans know him for his run at DreamHack Summer and his 4th place at the last insomnia in England. But the story of Mini is yet to be written. Aged only 18, the Swede has quite a cool opportunity to breakout, his first step to glory is to face the King of Terrans.The best player of StarCraft II history enters the tournament in the last group for a good reason: his condition. Admins had to wait to make sure that Mvp could play in this second chapter of Iron Squid. Health might actually be the only factor that could ever prevent Mvp from winning everything. He has indeed suffered from neck pains for more than a year, which has been affecting his plays. Just before Iron Squid, he dropped from IPL 5 and GSL World Cup to get some rest. Gladly for our tournament, the game genie Terran had to practice to secure his GSL Code S spot and was in condition when it was time to play this group. If Mvp looked quite good when he had to defeat Flying and sOs to come back in Code S, he could not even win a Bo3 in Blizzard cup. Luckily for him he does not have to face the same players a second time this week and he can use this group to build back his confidence. Mvp failed at advancing last time, it is very unlikely for him to fail twice.Even if he is not on top of his game Mvp has to win this game. Mini showed he is good at ZvZ on the way to his qualification but his recent loss to KraSs tends to show otherwise regarding his ZvT. It might not be enough facing that good of a player.His invitation might have come as a surprise for the ones who followed the first chapter where he forfeited his games against MMA. But there is no such a thing as a grudge in the great StarCraft II event that is Iron Squid. Not inviting Stephano would have been refusing to fans the opportunity to watch the most accomplished foreigners facing the best Koreans in the world. Nevertheless, Stephano knows he has to make it up for the fans by at least advancing from this group. He also has the perfect occasion to take his revenge on MaNa who took away his dream of becoming a two times ESWC champion in Paris. Stephano also lost to Mvp the only time they played each other, last year in the Blizzard Cup. If he wins the group, he can set everything right and also shush some of the curse mouths.Even if every group of Iron Squid can be considered as a group of death, MaNa might have ended up in the one which the most adapted to his skills. Unable to defeat Stephano for a long while, MaNa has broken his losing streak on his way to his two major titles of the year, DreamHack Summer and ESWC. The Polish Protoss is also really good at PvT, a match-up he trained during his stay in Korea. When he went there to play GSL Code S, MaNa had an awful luck in the group draw and got TaeJa, MMA and Mvp in his group. He did not face Mvp that time but might have to do it in Iron Squid and he will have to play better than he did in GSL, else he will have to beat Stephano again.MaNa has been doing well against Stephano but PvZ remains his worst nightmare in StarCraft II. After a really exhausting November, Stephano had a little quiet time to prepare his games for this group. The Frenchy was regarded as the best ZvP for a long time, he is still a favorite in this match.If Mini’s chances to advance seem rather slim, the other three players should be neck and neck. Stephano is the hottest of them at this moment and Mvp will probably be the most accomplished forever. But there is a history between MaNa and Stephano and the condition of Mvp leaves a window for the other two to beat him. Stephano wants to make it up for the chapter one and grabbing the first place would be nice for his fans, but he would have to beat Mvp first.by