Do NOT let this thread derail into a Maru vs Serral discussion. Serral is not even in this tournament. There is no reason to be discussing Maru vs Serral right now.
Looking at the names of the players, these groups seem stronger than recent ro32's in the GSL. But that does depend a lot on how well these former stars perform.
Note the odd broadcast days. Groups are played on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in a very compressed schedule.
On January 29 2019 01:58 chipmonklord17 wrote: Dear joining Newbee is cool but can we talk about Afreeca having players again? That makes the second Kespa team to have an SC2 roster.
EDIT: I should say I know Afreeca.TW has players
This is the first time I'm seeing this since it hasn't been updated on Liquipedia, this is so sick
On January 29 2019 01:58 chipmonklord17 wrote: Dear joining Newbee is cool but can we talk about Afreeca having players again? That makes the second Kespa team to have an SC2 roster.
EDIT: I should say I know Afreeca.TW has players
This is the first time I'm seeing this since it hasn't been updated on Liquipedia, this is so sick
They signed teamless players that did well in the team league. KeeN, aLive and DRG I think.
E: Also, unlike previous seasons, the runner-up and champion didn't get to choose their first opponent in the Ro32.
These groups are actually all so good it's insane, cannot wait for this season to start!
Obligatory predictions: Group A: Probably going to be Dark and Dear getting out, but KeeN can be super clutch so you can't really count him out. It would be devastating for Dear to be stuck in ro32 2 seasons in a row though...
Group B: Classic has improved his PvZ to the such a level that I really can't see him not getting out. Second pick would be Trap probably.
Group C: Oh man what a group! Brain says Stats and Gumiho, heart says MC and Cure
Group D: This is a group where I normally would say sOs and Solar 100% but Bunny has looked insane for the last couple of months (HSC etc. etc.) and PartinG has had countless deep runs in online cups. Honestly can't say, maybe sOs and Bunny?
Group E: The good ol' fight for the second place scenario. For now I will go with Maru and herO, but I'm waiting for Scarlett to prove me wrong
Grop F: 2 clear favorites in soO and INno who have played each other in a best of series more times than I have lived days, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of them drop to Creator, his series vs TY can't not be taken into account.
Group G: Probably my favorite group, mainly because there's an extremely high chance that either FanTaSy (accompanied with again, insane online results+ST2 appearance) or Leenocktopus himself advance.
Group H: Underwhelming prediction saved for last, but I really can't see Patience or aLive advancing over Zest and Rogue. (inb4 Patience wins group)
Is WhyManMC Kim min chul ? I thought it was MC's name. 'cause i read it Jang min chul. I'm confused (but i haven't read korean in a long time and it's pretty small)
EDIT : ah my memory is bad. MC's is JANG min chul and not kim. I'm getting old
On January 29 2019 05:28 FFW_Rude wrote: Is WhyManMC Kim min chul ? I thought it was MC's name. 'cause i read it Jang min chul. I'm confused (but i haven't read korean in a long time and it's pretty small)
It's a mocking nickname he picked up during his brief and disastrous stint casting LoL. He decided to own it and make it his own.
On January 29 2019 05:28 FFW_Rude wrote: Is WhyManMC Kim min chul ? I thought it was MC's name. 'cause i read it Jang min chul. I'm confused (but i haven't read korean in a long time and it's pretty small)
It's a mocking nickname he picked up during his brief and disastrous stint casting LoL. He decided to own it and make it his own.
I was more confused by the name. Not the alias. But i remembered it wrong. I thought he had the same name as Soulkey for some reason. But they only share the first name
On January 29 2019 05:28 FFW_Rude wrote: Is WhyManMC Kim min chul ? I thought it was MC's name. 'cause i read it Jang min chul. I'm confused (but i haven't read korean in a long time and it's pretty small)
It's a mocking nickname he picked up during his brief and disastrous stint casting LoL. He decided to own it and make it his own.
Didn't he do the throat slashing taunt at his opponent and then losing in bw? MC has always owned up to his failures, that's why he's a boss.
On January 29 2019 05:28 FFW_Rude wrote: Is WhyManMC Kim min chul ? I thought it was MC's name. 'cause i read it Jang min chul. I'm confused (but i haven't read korean in a long time and it's pretty small)
EDIT : ah my memory is bad. MC's is JANG min chul and not kim. I'm getting old
Kim Min Chul is Soulkey btw, who is playing BW now
On January 29 2019 00:09 Elmonti wrote: Group D is gonna be fun!... Group E is hard to predict: Scarlett, HerO and Ragnarok are kinda on the same level...
When in doubt, vote for the Protoss player...
These groups are obviously fake though, Scarlett isn't in Classic's group (or TYs)? Come on. Getting Maru is pretty rough though but the other players in her group are fairly beatable and sometimes Maru outplays himself.
MC is back and his first match is a PvP with Stats?! Hot damn.
If all of the players in Group G were to play near their peak potential, I would argue this might be the strongest group. There could be a case of course for Groups C, D or H being top picks as well for the most stacked groups, but only time will tell which groups and players actually deliver.
I honestly think from the outset this is looking like the best GSL ro32 in years.
On January 29 2019 01:58 chipmonklord17 wrote: Dear joining Newbee is cool but can we talk about Afreeca having players again? That makes the second Kespa team to have an SC2 roster.
EDIT: I should say I know Afreeca.TW has players
AfreecaTV sponsored BJ Destruction Match S1 winners. But INno and soO rejected, they sponsored KeeN, aLive, DRG. (Not official team contract, just a sponsor.)
Group A: Most likely Dear and Dark. KeeN could surprise but I don't think so. Trust is....well he can be good but doesn't seem up to the top tier here.
Group B: Classic and Trap. TRUE probably isn't up to it. Losira could sneak 2nd but I think the 2 Protosses have enough here
Group C: My head says Stats and Gumiho. I'm not sure where MC lies in the grand scheme of things and Cure....well he can shock for sure but I think having to probably have to play Gumi in a TvT kills him off. My heart wants MC to get through though
Group D: Might be the toughest group to predict. I'm pretty sure $o$ will get through 1st. 2nd is a complete toss up. Bunny can be great but hasn't shown it on stage. Solar is Solar but has an ability for choking on stage and PartinG is PartinG but who knows where he is at the moment. My head says Solar gets out second. Heart of course wants the Big Boi to get through.
Group E: Maru and herO. Scarlett could get though but it's going to be a tough climb for her. Ragnarok has surprised as well of late. But I still think Maru and herO are too strong here.
Group F: I take it back, this is the toughest group. Who the fuck knows who out of these 4 will get through. It all depends what Innovation shows up. The Machine or the Man. I'll go with soO and Hurricane for now. But realistically any of the 4 could get out.
Group G: TY gets out easily. 2nd is a complete toss up. I'll go Fantasy for now, based on his Olimoleague Winter showing. But given the draw and the habit he has of showing up when you least expect it it'll probably be Impact.
Group H:.My head says Zest and Sexy Boi Rogue get through. Now watch aLive find his inner Maru.
I'm not aware of him beating the GSL winner. The only reliable way to beat any GSL winner is to come to Korea and do the GSL.
Anyway, enjoy w/e reply you have, I'm not gonna support this trolling/OT anymore.
as I am aware, the GSL winner entered 2 tournaments this year where he and Serral could meet and proved to be of inferior quality to reach the finals, whereas Serral not only got to the finals but also won. On one of those occasions (GSL vs The World) they did play 1 best of 1 where the GSL winner lost. Also, they both took 3rd-4th place at IEM Katowice in 2018. So explain to me your fixation on Serral coming to the GSL? Its an awkward type of tournament that requires months in a foreign country to participate and also an environment with an inferior Zerg meta
I'm not aware of him beating the GSL winner. The only reliable way to beat any GSL winner is to come to Korea and do the GSL.
Anyway, enjoy w/e reply you have, I'm not gonna support this trolling/OT anymore.
as I am aware, the GSL winner entered 2 tournaments this year where he and Serral could meet and proved to be of inferior quality to reach the finals, whereas Serral not only got to the finals but also won. On one of those occasions (GSL vs The World) they did play 1 best of 1 where the GSL winner lost. Also, they both took 3rd-4th place at IEM Katowice in 2018. So explain to me your fixation on Serral coming to the GSL? Its an awkward type of tournament that requires months in a foreign country to participate and also an environment with an inferior Zerg meta
Well they did also play a bo5 where the GSL winner took a very one-sided 3-0.
That being said, it's debatable whether Maru losing in the ro4/8 at GSLvsTW/Blizzcon is better or worse than Serral not actually entering GSL. Had Stats been the one to win GSLvsTW and blizzcon, people would have still put him below Maru because of GSL performance.
I'm not aware of him beating the GSL winner. The only reliable way to beat any GSL winner is to come to Korea and do the GSL.
Anyway, enjoy w/e reply you have, I'm not gonna support this trolling/OT anymore.
as I am aware, the GSL winner entered 2 tournaments this year where he and Serral could meet and proved to be of inferior quality to reach the finals, whereas Serral not only got to the finals but also won. On one of those occasions (GSL vs The World) they did play 1 best of 1 where the GSL winner lost. Also, they both took 3rd-4th place at IEM Katowice in 2018. So explain to me your fixation on Serral coming to the GSL? Its an awkward type of tournament that requires months in a foreign country to participate and also an environment with an inferior Zerg meta
You're mistaken.They have played one match this year at WESG and Maru won. Anyway, this will be my only comment on the topic.
On January 29 2019 02:40 Elentos wrote: I think H and D are clearly the strongest and B clearly the weakest.
C looks stronger than D.
MC and Cure should be on par with Parting Bunny
Stats is better than sOs and Gumi is better than Solar.
I'd go with D being stronger, too. Cure is on par with Bunny but PartinG is way better than MC; you can never know how good sOs is even if Stats is more reliable and Solar has been better than Gumiho on average lately.
On January 29 2019 12:26 batatm wrote: GSL is simply on another lvl compared to any other tournament: every single group is so damn exciting!
Until Serral demolishes them Time to start the ol' discussion again XD
Can't wait for pro SC2 to go in full gear again. It's been too long since Blizzcon
Go MC!
I didn't notice Serral in the groups, in which group is he precisely or has he chicken out again and not tried the GSL?
Chicken out, really? Especially now that there is some kind of conflict between GSL and WCS participation? I'd have loved to see Serral here as well, but he rightfully decided not to spend months in Korea.
The rightful way for Serral to face the GSL winner would be in a final if that certain guy wouldn't lose to Protoss every time; Maru-Serral was 1-2(3-3 in maps) in 2018: two online games in a qualifier on EU, one showmatch(worth more than that) at GSL vs the World and the 3-0 at WSG, the only 'canonic' one but happened months before Serral truly become the unbeatable #1 Sc2 player. We already discussed it more than once...
On January 29 2019 12:26 batatm wrote: GSL is simply on another lvl compared to any other tournament: every single group is so damn exciting!
Until Serral demolishes them Time to start the ol' discussion again XD
Can't wait for pro SC2 to go in full gear again. It's been too long since Blizzcon
Go MC!
I didn't notice Serral in the groups, in which group is he precisely or has he chicken out again and not tried the GSL?
Chicken out, really? Especially now that there is some kind of conflict between GSL and WCS participation? I'd have loved to see Serral here as well, but he rightfully decided not to spend months in Korea.
The rightful way for Serral to face the GSL winner would be in a final if that certain guy wouldn't lose to Protoss every time; Maru-Serral was 1-2(3-3 in maps) in 2018: two online games in a qualifier on EU, one showmatch(worth more than that) at GSL vs the World and the 3-0 at WSG, the only 'canonic' one but happened months before Serral truly become the unbeatable #1 Sc2 player. We already discussed it more than once...
you do know that when someone uses this, they are joking right?
On January 29 2019 12:26 batatm wrote: GSL is simply on another lvl compared to any other tournament: every single group is so damn exciting!
Until Serral demolishes them Time to start the ol' discussion again XD
Can't wait for pro SC2 to go in full gear again. It's been too long since Blizzcon
Go MC!
I didn't notice Serral in the groups, in which group is he precisely or has he chicken out again and not tried the GSL?
Chicken out, really? Especially now that there is some kind of conflict between GSL and WCS participation? I'd have loved to see Serral here as well, but he rightfully decided not to spend months in Korea.
The rightful way for Serral to face the GSL winner would be in a final if that certain guy wouldn't lose to Protoss every time; Maru-Serral was 1-2(3-3 in maps) in 2018: two online games in a qualifier on EU, one showmatch(worth more than that) at GSL vs the World and the 3-0 at WSG, the only 'canonic' one but happened months before Serral truly become the unbeatable #1 Sc2 player. We already discussed it more than once...
We have to wait till March for some more games. Both are in WESG and IEM. Until then this discussion is circling out of control
Hey does anyone know what the GSL map pool will be? I keep checking the site page but nothing yet. Same as WCS Winter or are they gonna be one step behind like Season 1 last year?
On February 01 2019 11:30 StarcraftSquall wrote: Hey does anyone know what the GSL map pool will be? I keep checking the site page but nothing yet. Same as WCS Winter or are they gonna be one step behind like Season 1 last year?
Probably the same as ladder with some of the stupider or imbalanced maps swapped out for older maps or a map made for GSL.
On February 01 2019 11:30 StarcraftSquall wrote: Hey does anyone know what the GSL map pool will be? I keep checking the site page but nothing yet. Same as WCS Winter or are they gonna be one step behind like Season 1 last year?
Probably the same as ladder with some of the stupider or imbalanced maps swapped out for older maps or a map made for GSL.
None of the new maps seem imbalanced so it’d be nice to see both tourneys using the same pool at the same time.
However if there’s one thing I really wish they’d change about the GSL format it’s the order of the matches. It seems like it’s better to me to to let the losers match play before the winners like WCS Challenger format does: think about it. If you drop the first match you don’t have to sit on it as long and the winners actually get time to reset / breathe themselves before playing their second match. If you win you get a break if you lose you mostly don’t.