With the Qualifiers behind us, the Round of 24 is ready to begin. Join Sayle and Elegant on Saturday, Feb 09 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of Groups A and B!
Round of 24: Groups
By: Kiante
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Pro7ect
G5
dRaW
trutaCz
eonzerg
13Julia
Technics
Bakuryu
SouthPark
andreyy
Dewalt
Ramms
Liquid`Drone
iFu.TTF
Jim-RaynoR
Nemu
vOdtoasT
TerrOr
EnjoYme
INF3cted
SJ.Napoleon
ZZZero
Pike
Cosy
With the groups finally locked in, the TLS Round of 24 promises to be an exciting series of games. ZvZ haters will be pleasantly surprised to see that all groups contain only two ZvZ-pickers at most. The Terran and Protoss players in the Ro24 will most definitely have their work cut out for them facing down the Zerg menace, and if they cant stand up to the challenge there is a likelihood of the Ro16 shaping up like some MSL's of old.
All of the points qualifiers and 2nd place winners were seeded into groups A through F. The qualifier winners were then allowed to chose in an order based on who was first to qualify. In order, these players were: (i) Eonzerg, (ii) Trutacz, (iii) Draw, (iv) Julia, (v) G5 and finally (vi) Pro7ect.
EonZerg picked a fairly Protoss heavy group (vOdtoasT picks PvZ against Zerg) so he is obviously looking to exploit the innate advantage Zerg's usually have in the match-up.
TrutaCz picked next and chose a group with a nice mix of races. While the race picker Nemu may seem like a wildcard, he can often be quite risky in his builds making this group one good for a safe and standard player to expoit. Interesting to note, is that dRaW (who was next in line to pick) was hoping to take this group for his own before trutaCz took it.
dRaW, confident in his PvZ, chose a group full of zergs making Group C a practice heaven for him. It's likely we'll see some of the Zergs in Group C off-racing against their Zerg counterparts so expect this group to be full of PvZ goodness (and some long games if dRaW's form in the qualifiers is anything to go by).
Julia picked Group F, a group G5 was eyeing due to his confidence in PvT. Julia, however, obviously feels comfortable in his TvZ. Rightly so, as he demonstrated with his complete unravelling of Andreyyy in qualifier #4.
G5 then took his choice of the remaining two groups and chose Group B -- probably because of the presence of TTF, and the chance to show off his PvT prowess.
Finally Pro7ect was granted Group A (the only remaining group) and finalized the Ro24.
All in all it should be an exciting set of matches. Will the Protoss and Terran players be able to stand up against the might of the Swarm and diversify the Ro16, or will the Zergs overcome and end up in a "who is going to play PvZ this time" war in the Ro16. The balance of skill in all the groups is extremely even, so regardless of what ends up happening the Ro16 is going to be played at an incredibly high skill level
Group A Preview
By: itsjustatank
As the winner of the sixth and final qualifier for the TeamLiquid Legacy Starleague, Pro7ect was given the sixth and final pick of groups in the round of 24. 'Pick' is very much a euphemism here. None of the qualifier winners wanted to be placed into Group A and so Pro7ect was left with the Group A assignment. Group A thus consists of the following players: (1) Pro7ect, (2) TechnicS, (3) Drone, and (4) EnjoYmE.
The first match-up of this group will be Pro7ect versus EnjoYmE on Neo Ground Zero. Pro7ect is hot off a strong performance in the final qualifier where he demonstrated intelligent and consistent Terran timing play against Protoss. In addition, Pro7ect has already defeated EnjoYmE in the fifth qualifier tournament, and he looks set to repeat this performance against EnjoYmE in the round of 24.
The second match-up has Technics and Drone face off against each other on Neo Ground Zero. TechnicS made it into the Legacy Starleague in the very first qualifier, where he demonstrated very strong games against both Protoss and Zerg. Drone has had a consistent presence in the latter half of the qualifer stage, and generally picks Protoss to play against Zerg in order to avoid the mirror match. He exhibits competency in that regard but has emperically lost to strong Zerg players throughout the qualifier stage. TechnicS should take this in a close match.
Continuing with the hypotheticals, Pro7ect faces off against Technics on New Sniper Ridge in the winner's match. This match might just revolve around how much practice TechnicS has done ever since qualifying for the Legacy Starleague weeks ago. However, I believe that the strong timing play of Pro7ect should give him the advantage and win him the match, granting him passage to the next stage in the tournament. Meanwhile in the loser's match we have Drone versus EnjoYmE on Neo Sniper Ridge. Drone's practiced performance throughout the last few weeks of the qualifier stage against players who are stronger than EnjoYmE should grant him the edge against him. Finally, in the rematch game that will decide who gets second place in the group and advance, TechnicS should repeat against Drone, eliminating him from the tournament.
G5 had to choose between being put in group A or B, either facing EnjoYmE or INF3cted on Neo Ground Zero. Even though G5 2-0'd dewalt in the final of qualifier #5 he seems more confident in his PvZ. With a total score of 5-2 in PvZ vs players like Cosy, Eriador, and Zaraki, going 2-1, 2-1, and 1-0 respectively. INF3cted on the other hand has gone largely untested in the matchup during the qualifiers, only playing one PvZ against notable players where he defeated WandS 1-0. However with the map being Ground Zero which is an excellent map for Zerg and G5 still not being tested fully I'm going to have to give the edge to INF3cted, which has looked strong and has improved lately.
To be honest; Bakuryu is quite far ahead in skill of everyone else in this group, already qualifing in the second qualifier. Only edged out by both TechnicS and trutaCz in the semifinals of qualifier #1 and the final of qualifier #2. Everyone else that he has faced has been crushed, notably going 2-0 against TerrOr and 2-1 against Julia. TTF has not faced many Zergs, only facing Julia. who he lost to 0-1. With the map being Ground Zero, Bakuryu should win without breaking a sweat.
Bakuryu will go on to face INF3cted on Sniper Ridge. Even though Bakuryu lost to both TechnicS and trutaCz in ZvZ he should take it quite easy. INF3cted has yet to win a single ZvZ vs notable players, losing to both Pike and the Hungarian Ace. INF3cted does have TechnicS to practice ZvZ with so we might see something up his sleeve.
I have already mentioned that G5 has not yet been tested. This is even more true for his PvT only having played one Terran in all qualifiers, beating Moxie 1-0. TTF however has played tons of TvP against notable players going 4-5 against players like GoTunk, Djem5, EnjoYmE, dRaW, and dewalt. Only losing to dRaW and dewalt. With TTF's larger experience with the current scene and having played so many Protoss, TTF will take it.
The final game will be played between INF3cted and TTF, deciding who will move on to the round of 16. This matchup is incredibly hard to predict as it could go either way. TTF has only played against Julia where he lost and INF3cted lost to Ramms and went 1-2 vs Pro7ect. If this was one year ago having taken a game off of Pro7ect would make INF3cted the clear favorite but as it stands Pro7ect's form is arguable. I'm giving the edge to TTF based on nothing else than my Terran-bias and that we all would like to have less Zergs in the round of 16 (except for Harem).
In general; Bakuryu will be the indisputable #1 of this group but the second place could go to any of the other three in this group.
The staff picks for Group A are fairly predictable. Pro7ect and Technics both looked extremely strong in their qualifier games. With Technics off-racing in his final, there's always the question of whether he would've beaten EonZerg if he had played ZvZ. Together, they are the obvious picks for the majority of staff. With that being said, there is some limited support for the underdog veteran Drone, of whom the more intelligent writers and editors** chose for victory. The support for EnjoYmE was understandably quite limited as his name doesn't have the same notoriety but this just gives him the opportunity to come out and surprise everyone (and make BisuDagger and TheEmulator look smart).
** Editor's Note: Kiante is an extremely unbiased writer.
The picks for Group B were extremely more varied. Only one player was a clear constant: Bakuryu. The moustache Zerg impressed a lot of people in tournaments prior to the TLS as well as in his qualifiers and it's unsurprising he's garnered so much support. The votes were fairly split between the other three competitors, with the comeback-king G5 getting a surprising number of votes (perhaps from staff members band-wagoning with another writer who went out on a limb to pick him for the victory)**. TTF and INF3cted are both extremely talented players to boot and honestly this was by far the harder group to predict, and when the games actually go down anything could happen.
** Editor's Note: See the previous Editor's Note
That's all for now! Join us on Saturday, Feb 09 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) for the cast of Groups A and B! And as always a big thanks to our sponsors:
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Group A: I actually can see Eriador beating Pro7ect possibly on the final game, from what I saw it looks like eriador's strongest match-up. (Technics will 2-0 the group no problem) However, I still think EnjoyMe is probably a little better than eriador so he would have a tough time getting to the final game. + Show Spoiler +
Technics 2-0 Pro7ect 2-1 EnjoyMe 1-2 Drone 0-2
Group B: This group actually is much more difficult to predict, purely because depending on who plays I believe will advance. Even though I think Bakuryu is the favourite, it's always hard to say when you are unsure of who will have the best preparation. (i.e G5 has a really sick timing down and Bakuryu makes a mistake, it's only Bo1 after all). G5 plays Inf3cted first, now G5's style is best suited to play a zerg like Inf3cted, who always plays low tech macro into hydra/lurk mid game, because from what I saw G5 doesn't really go for air control.
If G5 wins? I think he can advance the group 2-0, if he loses I think he will exit 0-2 (probably because he doesn't know TTF's special taktix) TTF is the main wild card, he loves cheesy/all-in play which is great for bo1. If he beats Bakuryu somehow with a timing attack (Bakuryu knows his style mind you) then I could see TTF going through the group 2-0 as well.
In the end... I will just go from what I saw and the composition of the group. + Show Spoiler +
I wouldn't be surprised at all if 10 zergs advance. Kind of a sad state for terran when julia/g5 are picking all A/A- player groups over the group with 2 b-/c+ players because it doesn't have a terran player.
On February 07 2013 15:49 hacklebeast wrote: I wouldn't be surprised at all if 10 zergs advance. Kind of a sad state for terran when julia/g5 are picking all A/A- player groups over the group with 2 b-/c+ players because it doesn't have a terran player.
As long as the finals don't turn out to be a ZvZ I will be happy... ZvZ killing BW! Super hyped for this though. Long live broodwar! thanks for the writeup and all this content
On February 07 2013 15:49 hacklebeast wrote: I wouldn't be surprised at all if 10 zergs advance. Kind of a sad state for terran when julia/g5 are picking all A/A- player groups over the group with 2 b-/c+ players because it doesn't have a terran player.
G5 doesn't know any of the players besides Drone basically, so he picked purely based on matchup. Julia's choice did surprise me a bit.
My dick is hard. Group A : Technics and Pro7ect are the obvious favorite, they should advance easily. I think Technics will advance first. Group B : I wasn't impressed by G5 play in the qualifier he won, I thought it was the weakest of them all. I think Bakuryu and Infected should win this, provided they prepare for G5's oldschool builds. Both TTF and G5 could suprise us however. That being said, I'd be really surprised (and sad) not to see Baku advance.
Dont know who will win or lose, but this is a great Setup. I only hope i get to watch all the games live. Makes me very motivated to play BW again! :D.
:D!! i have waited for this for so long, it's amazing :D!
i think that staff loves too much pro7ect to see the truth, i think technnics is much stronger than anyone in his group, Pro7ect is out of shape and he can't be at 100% after just 2 week of practicing. i think it will be technnics 2-0, Pro7ect 2-1, Drone 1-2, enjoyme 0-2 (between enjoyme and eriador it could go either way).
And group B is Harder to guess who will advance, but i think bakuryu and G5 are going to advance to ro16
P>T>Z is the generally accepted "balance" of broodwar. and by msl's of old i was referring to great's msl (cant remember which sponsor so i just abbreviated)
On February 08 2013 02:50 Kiante wrote: P>T>Z is the generally accepted "balance" of broodwar. and by msl's of old i was referring to great's msl (cant remember which sponsor so i just abbreviated)
This is gonna be good =) looking forward to seeing Pro7ecT own his group through sheer awesomeness, and Bakuryu pick his opponents apart using his insane knowledge of the game.
(I also feel like I should make some joke about his mustache, but whatever. I mean, he'd probably win even if he introduced a razor to his upper lip).
On February 08 2013 02:50 Kiante wrote: P>T>Z is the generally accepted "balance" of broodwar. and by msl's of old i was referring to great's msl (cant remember which sponsor so i just abbreviated)
If you are FlasH you can defy balance...
And you know Pro7ect is called the foreign FlasH so you never know...
On February 08 2013 02:50 Kiante wrote: P>T>Z is the generally accepted "balance" of broodwar. and by msl's of old i was referring to great's msl (cant remember which sponsor so i just abbreviated)
I'm surprised everybody is counting out G5. You all need to go back and check out the WCG threads between 2004 and 2010. G5 is an amazing player and he is VERY good at flowing between build orders and capable of doing amazing things. Besides Nony, G5 was the best Protoss in America during that time frame. He was always hilarious to cast because of how unexpected his play style is. Glad to see that hasn't changed.
On February 11 2013 09:07 Psyonic_Reaver wrote: I'm surprised everybody is counting out G5. You all need to go back and check out the WCG threads between 2004 and 2010. G5 is an amazing player and he is VERY good at flowing between build orders and capable of doing amazing things. Besides Nony, G5 was the best Protoss in America during that time frame. He was always hilarious to cast because of how unexpected his play style is. Glad to see that hasn't changed.
I'm rooting G5 to win it all.
Hm, maybe he can play better but he was incredibly lucky to advance from that performance is all most people were saying. he did better in the qualifiers