[IEM] Singapore - Group Stage Preview

Photo Credit - Header: jjcb via flickr, Front page: kewl via flickr.

The Open Bracket has been played, the spots for absent players have been filled, and now we head into the group stages of IEM Singapore where the competition really begins. Like the parallel DreamHack tournament going on in Sweden, 24 players are split into four groups of six, with the top three players moving onto the elimination tournament phase.

mouz.HasuObs, SK_MC, K3.VortiX, Tt.PiG, iM.MaFia, Yekke

Group A divides pretty easily into a top and bottom half, though there happens to be a tiny bit of room for class mobility. Obviously, you'd have to pick all-time foreign prize money winner SK_MC to make it through in first, though it's not a 100% lock like it may have been before.

With MC playing poorly in and outside in Korea for the past few months, the door seems wide open for K3.VortiX to slip in and cause an upset. VortiX is coming off a quietly good WCS Global Finals performance where he finished top eight (the best among European players), and played the fearsome CreatorPrime very evenly in a 2 – 3 quarter-final loss. While he has to be worried about ZvZ, he could definitely make first place.

And then there's mouz.HasuObs, who came in as a caster but ended up filling in as a player due to d.Killer's cancellation (hopefully that means a double paycheck for the unflappably consistent German). While he's in for a hard time against VortiX, he should beat the other foreign Zergs in the group, and his good PvP means 1st place isn't out of the picture if he beats MC and gets a good enough overall map differential.

After that there's the three SEA region Zergs who will probably get destroyed, but it's not as hopeless for them as for their compadres in the other groups. Tt.PiG in particular, is no stranger to upsets via ZvZ, having won WCS Australia playing only that match-up. Sadly, he couldn't continue his hot streak in the immediately following Oceania qualifiers, thus missing out on the world finals, and proving that ZvZ is a fickle mistress. There's also iM.MaFia, who did manage to get 2nd place at aforementioned WCS Oceania, though he got 0 – 2'd out of the world finals. Finally there's Yekke, who was actually pretty close to beating Zenio 2 – 1 in the open bracket.

It will be tough, but the SEA/Oceania players do have a chance if things go their way, and they manage to take advantage of ZvZ to the fullest. Perhaps HasuObs only came prepared to cast, and will be forced to use a trackball and a Wii keyboard to play due to having left his regular gear at home.

StarDustLight, d.Tefel, YugiOh, Xeria.KingKong, WW.Sting, EnDerr

Group B is the cruelest group seen in a tournament this year. It's packed with skilled but low-profile players who would really love to make their splash on the the international scene, but they happen to be facing the triple-misfortune of 1) Having to eliminate one another in a first round group of death, 2) Playing at a horrible timezone where few people will see them, 3) Being buried totally by whatever popular players are at DreamHack.

EnDerr (aka Stellar), the WCS South East Asia champion, probably has it the worst. This was a rare chance for him to shine in an international tournament held in his region of the world, but he's been thrown to the wolves in the toughest group.

The other foreigner is d.Tefel, who raised some eyebrows as Dignitas' newest signing. However, it's a signing that makes sense as Tefel has done pretty well in online cups and qualifiers, beating out more famous players to make it to MLG Arena and this current IEM. This could have been a great debut for him on his new team, but unfortuantely he's stuck in a rough group.

Of course, there's the trio of Code B Koreans in the group as well. The former Startale player Xeria.KingKong we barely know anything about, save that our experience with Korean benchwarmers like Sleep and Daisy suggest that he's probably better than most of the foreigners at this event without ever having seen him play. WW.Sting, we already know to be an excellent player, as he came in fourth place at TSL4. Sting's a pretty interesting character in that he's a fearless cheeser and a pretty good series preparer, meaning he's a championship candidate if he can make it through the group. Then there's StarDustLight, a popular streamer and former KeSPA player, but not a player who's shown us anything in tournaments so far.

The King of Code A

There's one player who really stands above the rest in this group, and the King of Code A, YugiOh. While there is a 'Nestea Award' for players who have played in ten consecutive Code S seasons, true GSL fans know there really should be a 'YuGiOh Award' on top of that: awarded to players who have been in ten consecutive Code A's.

Indeed, the ex-SlayeRS player holds the dubious honor of having qualified for thirteen consecutive Code A tourneys. He's affectionately called the King of Code A, and has become something of a cult hero for being so consistently decent. YuGiOh has shown the strange quality of looking stronger whenever he's in his realm, and he even defeated MKP in Code A to show that he's the one true king of that domain. YuGiOh has actually been to Code S a few times, but each time he failed to show the kind of play let him rule Code A with an iron fist.

To the woe of many, YuGiOh had the misfortune to meet Bogus in the Ro48 last season, and was sent out of Code A for the first time in over a year. But there may be a silver lining yet as YuGiOh heads to Singapore. Having conquered one realm and ruled over it for so long, the King might be in need of a new challenge, and new subjects to subdue.

Ai.Tarrantius, Tt.White-Ra, TSL_Revival, Liquid`Zenio, Ninja, Jabito

Group C is the one group that looks mostly 'normal,' with players evenly distributed across the skill spectrum, and the races being relatively balanced compared to the other groups.

TSL_Revival is the obvious favorite to top this group. He might be the fourth string Zerg on TSL, but he's a Code A regular and was good enough to play his way into multiple MLG events these season. At a softer event like IEM Singapore, he's an instant title contender, especially considering his excellent ZvZ skill.

The other Korean Zerg, Liquid`Zenio, comes in with a more impressive resume including multiple seasons in Code S, but he's been on a months long slide in 2012. Even though he's one of the weaker Koreans in the tournament, he is a Korean Zerg after all, which means you still have to rate him higher than the others in this group.

Ninja and Jabito come in as the underdogs, with Jabito winning our early support just because he's Terran. At the same time we're fearful for what might happen to Jabito, as he just barely made it into the groups through the open bracket qualifiers. We saw the more established pros mangle the local heroes in some pretty ugly ways during the open, and it might be best to avert your eyes.

Rounding out the group are the two European Protosses. Along with Tefel, Ai.Tarrantius is the mostly unheard of European who could break out at this tournament, except that he actually gets a reasonable group unlike Tefel. And of course, there's Tt.White-Ra, the benevolent deity of esports. We've mentioned this in the past, but winning and losing don't actually matter for White-Ra – it's enough that he exists. Interestingly enough, he actually has a pretty good chance to make it out of this group. While it's been a while since White-Ra fell out of the very top tier, he's still quite a good player, and a second or third place finish is very possible.

Grubby, Virtus.sLivko, FnaticRC Oz, K3.LucifroN, Blysk, ProAnnn

While Group B is the group of death, few of the viewers will really miss the players that are eliminated. Group D also has quite a few skilled players, but in contrast to Group B, there would be a lot of tears shed depending on who manages to get out, and who gets eliminated.

It all starts with Grubby, one of the most popular players in StarCraft who is beginning to rival White-Ra in his capacity to be unanimously loved. Similar to his Ukrainian counterpart, he's typically one level down from being a serious title contender at most major tournaments, but the soft pool in Singapore means he has a real chance of doing well. Grubby is in a particularly interesting situation where he has a great chance of upsetting two of the biggest favorites, Oz and MC, with his good PvP, but is in danger of being upset himself in a PvZ.

Of almost equal importance to IEM from a viewership standpoint is K3.LucifroN, the lone Terran player who has a credible shot at winning the championship. Alongside Grubby and White-Ra, Lucifron is the player with the most "f*** this I'm not watching anymore" potential for viewers should he drop out, thus IEM must be praying for his success. To a lesser extent you could say that about FnaticRC Oz, one of the more popular and well established Korean players in the foreign scene. However, there's a near 0% chance he doesn't make it out of this group, so there's nothing to worry about.

The player who is likely to be the cause of aforementioned tears is Virtus.sLivko, an excellent Russian Zerg who has gone surprisingly unnoticed as he consistently performs well in major tournaments. An Oz, Lucifron, Slivko top-three is very much in play here, with Grubby being the odd man out. Still, getting to hear Grubby's world-class casting in the proceeding days would be a pretty good consolation...

Finally there's ProAnnn and Blysk, who don't seem any less dead than their fellow SEA players in other groups. I feel like WCS should have taught us something about tournament structures that promote even play across all regions at the cost of pure competitiveness, but I'm not entirely sure what it was.