ESL rammed through WCS America's round of 16 in two days, resulting in an all-Korean round of 8 that matched my predictions precisely (8-0, with Oz, HyuN, Alicia, Revival, Taeja, Arthur, Polt, and Bomber making it through), with Aligulac close behind (erroneously picking HuK instead of Revival). Although no foreigners made it through, both puCK and Neeb certainly could have which is a positive sign. Racially it's 3 Protoss, 3 Terrans, and 2 Zergs. Here's a brief look at the results of each group (the VODs can be seen here):
Group A
HyuN 1 
puCK 2
An unexpected upset (the only one of the group) that the American could not replicate later. Game one (Heavy Rain) puCK opened forge-first as HyuN built early lings that could not get through the wall; HyuN followed up with a big ling/roach push and puCK died immediately. Game two (Frost) featured the same opening from the Protoss and HyuN went up to a quick three hatches and teched to hydras; puCK went up to a third base anchored with robo tech; HyuN pressured the third without accomplishing much, but added his fourth hatch; HyuN added vipers which he used to kill off the immortals, but puCK's massive blink-stalker army pushed him back; holding the next attack and up to nearly 40 stalkers puCK overwhelmed the remaining hydra army, winning the game. In the final game (Polar Night) the American went for a gateway opening while HyuN went double hatch before pool; puCK went phoenix into robo as HyuN stuck with roach/hydra; HyuN attempted a runby on the third and lost all his units without accomplishing anything; puCK's army was anchored with colossus/void ray; HyuN sent roaches to the third again as hydras attacked the natural with the former killed the nexus while the latter resulted in a lot of dead hydras; puCK attempted a double expand (including re-expanding to his third) with HyuN pressuring the fourth and running roaches into the main and the third using burrowed play to cause additional havoc; it took a long time for the American to lock down his bases, but he was able to do so without suffering crippling damage; HyuN transitioned to mutas and triggered a base trade; puCK killed off the vipers with an archon as he killed the fifth, natural, and main, while losing his natural, third and fourth; HyuN's small muta flock to kill off the void rays, but a pair of phoenix's that were forgotten from the early game were still around to help his army and with so few units HyuN (while he dragged the game out a little longer) had no hope and had to tap out.
Oz 2 
Heart 0
Game one (Habitation Station) Oz opened with an oracle which did a lot of damage and he went up to three oracles; Oz teched up to colossus and a third base; Heart attempted a two-base all-in with a few ghosts (along with the usual bio/viking) and an SCV pull and while he killed off all the initial colossus he lost too much and died to the defencive warp-ins. In game two (Frost) Heart opened three-racks and early concussive shells as Oz went robo with double forge; Heart did not apply much early pressure and the game remained passive into the mid-game as both players settled in on three bases; Heart went for the same push as the previous game and Oz let his third base die before the armies fought and the result was very similar to the previous game except Oz was 3/3 while Heart was 1/1--Heart withdrew very far behind; Oz sent DTs into the Terran's bases which caused havoc; Heart attempted another SCV pull which Oz held off with a probe pull and win the series.
Oz 2 puCK 1
Game one (Polar Night) Oz opened stargate and puCK inexplicably flew his mothership core out to scout and died promptly to phoenix; Oz built a robo as the American went for blink stalkers; Oz built an oracle and used his phoenix to draw puCK's units out and allow it to get some kills; both players went for an immortal/archon/zealot army; puCK left his immortals alone outside his natural, lost them all and promptly the game. Game two (Frost) Oz opened with phoenix into robo again as puCK again went for blink; the American blinked into the main and did a little damage, forcing out photo overcharge at both bases and then killed the natural by forcefielding Oz's units behind the nexus; Oz went immortal crazy as he rebuilt his natural and puCK worked to defend his bases from light phoenix/oracle harass; both players went for immortal/archon/zealot, with puCK added storm to his composition; when the armies fought storm made all the difference while the American harassed the third with a zealot warp-in and Oz was forced to tap out. Game three (Habitation Station) puCK went three-gate robo while Oz went for the same; Oz forced a cancel on the natural before retreating to his own expo; puCK used a warp prism to get into the main and forcefield part of Oz's army out; puCK used a time warp rather than recall and his army got crushed and put him very hard behind; puCK managed to kill the robo using his warp prism but couldn't hold Oz army at his natural and was forced to tap out.
HyuN 2 Heart 0
Game one (Frost) Heart went for a hellion drop that HyuN deflected with roaches; Heart's Polt-viking did good work; Heart sent a double drop in the main while sending the hellions into the third, killing a bunch of workers; HyuN stuck with roach/bane and attacked the third and Heart abandoned the base while attacking HyuN's third, but got run over; HyuN harassed the third and killed off a bunch of workers; HyuN teched to mutas (for some reason he refused to build overseers for quite a long time, but the mutas brought them out) and after being repelled the first time was temporarily able to push Heart away from his third; the next fight was indecisive and HyuN's attempted harass of Heart's third was pushed back with a bunker and turret; the two then went into a base trade; both lost their thirds, but HyuN's economy remained strong (his fourth was untouched) and Heart fell way too far behind and tapped out shortly afterwards. Game two (Habitation Station) Heart was able to majorly supply block HyuN for quite some time with his viking and active marines; Heart went for a stim marine/hellion drop which did nothing; HyuN went roach-heavy again and Heart pushed out with two tanks, but got steamrolled (I have no idea why he thought he could push out against in that situation); HyuN used burrowed movement to get into Heart's main and completely wrecked and his army died outside HyuN's natural ending the game.
HyuN 2 puCK 0
The rematch lacked the drama of the first set. Game one (Heavy Rain) puCK went into upgraded air and then a robo; HyuN built a bunch of hydras and with a bigger army simply rolled over puCK's army without actually killing him; the next fight wasn't close. Game two (Frost) puCK went two-base four-gate, but couldn't get a pylon on the map so transitioned to robo; HyuN went for a proxy spire and despite puCK flying an observer over the drone he never re-scouted it; puCK attempted to deal with the mutas with blink stalkers and HyuN lost quite a few through inattentive micro; DTs didn't accomplish much as they were kept all together; HyuN sent a bazillion lings into the third which died despite DT defence; puCK did not go for a base trade which seemed like a mistake; eventually a base trade did happen, but HyuN had time to build a bank and puCK simply could not kill off the buildings in time before his own died.
Group B
Alicia 2 Neeb 0
The expected result. Game one (Heavy Rain) Alicia went robo as Neeb went for a one marauder/marine push that forced out the nexus cannon while killing a couple of stalkers before losing his units; the robo was for an early colossus push and Neeb simply died to it. Game two (Yeonsu) Alicia went for a similar push, but adding blink; Neeb attacked with a bunch of marines beforehand killing off the mothership core and a few other units; Neeb was late with his bunkers and for some reason was building a CC at his third and died promptly.
Revival 2 HuK 0
The beginning of a rough day for HuK (Aligulac favoured the Canadian here, but I did not). Game one (Frost) HuK went nexus into forge feigning a big gateway +1 push, but actually heading into a third, twilight, blink, and +2; Revival went swarm host which was a great response even if it brought tears to the eyes of all of us who hate the unit; HuK temporarily abandoned his third and went for an attack, but couldn't kill Revival's third; HuK sacrificed his third to kill the swarm hosts and Revival's third, but was so far behind on supply; HuK built colossus as Revival rebuilt his swarm hosts and while he barely survived in the next engagement he tapped out shortly afterwards. Game two (Polar Night) Revival hatch-blocked HuK's natural; HuK killed the hatch off before the queen could be built; Revival used lings to continue to block the natural which HuK pushed away with sentry/zealot; HuK forced Revival to cancel his third and went robo; Revival went swarm hosts again as HuK went for an immortal push and killed off the third and pressured the natural; an attempted attack on the third was deflected by roaches; by that time HuK had colossus and sent zealots into the main via a warp prism as he pressured the natural; for some reason HuK took the aggressive third which he had to cancel immediately; corruptors killed off the colossus leaving him nothing to deal with the swarm hosts and Revival continued to pump out a billion roaches; HuK continued to try to take the impossible base and had to cancel again, finally going for the obvious and easier third and died as Revival attacked his natural.
Alicia 2 Revival 1
The expected result. Game one (Heavy Rain) Alicia went for quick blink as Revival went for swarm hosts (echoing the matches above); Alicia attacked the third which did very little economic damage, didn't killed off the swarm hosts, or really accomplish anything, leaving Revival very far ahead and Alicia tapped out after losing his third in the counter attack. Game two (Frost) Alicia went nexus first into DTs which didn't accomplish much; Revival attacked the third with roach/ling, but good forcefields and blink defended it; Revival built swarm hosts and attacked the third again; Alicia (having added immortals) was able to hold and an inattentive Revival lost all his swarm hosts to DTs while microing his roaches against Alicia's defending army; Revival added corrupters, but Alicia still had a ton of blink stalkers; Alicia attacked the fourth which Revival pushed back; Revival rebuilt some of his swarm hosts, but fought Alicia without locust support; DTs killed the third; Revival engaged again without the locusts and lost most of his army again as he built brood lords; the swarm hosts and brood lords were left unattended and Alicia killed almost all of them for free while snipping the fourth with zealots; Alicia then attacked the third and Revival tapped out with his economy in shambles. Game three (Habitation Station) Revival went three hatch before pool as Alicia opened gateway first into robo into an immortal push which Revival tried to defend with roach/ling and ultimately failed.
Neeb 2 HuK 0
The only upset of the group. Game one (Yeonsu) HuK went for the zealot/stalker/mothership core pressure, but Neeb scouted it and pushed it back with a bunker; HuK got a robo with blink; Neeb ran stim marines into the natural to kill the first immortal; Neeb then went for a double drop into the main, which was easily pushed back, but sent marines into the natural at the same time and killed off some probes; the two went for a base trade which HuK abandoned after killing the natural when it was far too late having lost his natural and his main and tapped out moments later. In game two (Frost) HuK went for a weird pylon block to prevent an add-on to his barracks; Neeb went for a drop with marines, a mine, and hellions creating an area of pressure as HuK had to hurry and get an observer and moved to blink; HuK went for the same two-base push as the previous game and despite Neeb not building bunkers he crushed the attack; HuK then lost his stalker force out on the map; a colossus and +2 attack was not enough to make up for Neeb's tremendous advantage and after two holds HuK tapped out after losing the next fight.
Revival 2 Neeb 1
Game one (Frost) Neeb went for the usual hellion pressure (less the reapers) as Revival went roach/bane; Neeb held off the push (aided a great deal by banshees; unusually leaving his wall down and thus not losing all his depots) and continued on into mech; a hellion runby killed off a ton of workers, evening out those he lost fighting off the roaches, but then lost a bunch of his own to a baneling runby; Revival built both swarm hosts and mutas; Neeb pushed out, but fought with his hellbats too far ahead and lost most of his army; Revival forced a lift of the third with roaches; Neeb donated a pair of tanks to lings just outside his natural; Neeb pushed out again way too early and got run over and tapped out. Game two (Daedalus Point) Revival went for the same push as Neeb went bio; Neeb left the wall open again and Revival did almost no damage with the push; both players postured as Neeb worked on keeping creep at a minimum; Neeb snipped the baneling nest and without banes was able to kill the fourth; Revival was able to hold against a follow-up push on his third; the two went passive again as Neeb established his fourth and Revival attempted a double expand (the fifth died immediately); Revival attacked the fourth and wound up getting his mutas trapped between it and the main; Revival had enough army to deny Neeb's fifth so Neeb gave up the muta-contain; Revival donated a bunch of mutas by rallying them over Neeb's army; Neeb then parade-pushed the fourth and Revival fought his way to death. Game three (Habitation Station) Revival went for a huge roach attack and Neeb leaving the door open this time cost him as he had no tanks and the Korean did a ton of damage; Revival set up a contain outside the natural and built up a huge roach/hydra army and Neeb died trying to break out.
Group C
Arthur 2 TooDming 1
The result fit predictions (only one sort-of upset in the group). Game one (Frost) both players opened greedy Arthur went for an immortal all-in; TooDming responded with hydra/ling, using lings to slow down the initial push; Arthur's attack was crushed without doing any economic damage and while Arthur stayed in the game a bit longer it was all over. Game two (Habitation Station) Arthur went for a cannon rush that killed the natural and prevented mining at the third, forcing TooDming to take an awkward expansion; Arthur followed that up with a stargate and sent an oracle in the main which did good damage as he added on void rays; Arthur sent void rays and zealots into the main as TooDming attacked the third with banes and lings--each player losing their base; Arthur didn't kill the spire (he didn't see it) in the main allowing TooDming to build mutas; the armies fought and Arthur won just enough to build up a fleet of phoenix and crushed TooDming with his next attack (the game dragged on for a bit longer, but there was no way forward for the Zerg). Game three (Alterzim) TooDming knew aggression was coming, but couldn't figure out what it was and went ling/bane to stop it; Arthur went for a huge gateway attack; the attempted surround by TooDming failed, the Zerg army died, and Arthur sailed on to victory.
Taeja 2 MacSed 0
Game one (Habitation Station) MacSed opened with an oracle and flew it into a mine; Taeja landed a drop with marines and a mine, but was pushed back immediately; Taeja set up a contain outside the natural and forced a cancel on the third; attempted zealot harass of the third didn't accomplish much; Taeja went up to ghosts early while building a ton of vikings to counter MacSed's colossus focused army; Taeja attacked the third and the two players exchanged armies--without MacSed's high end units Taeja was able to rally his forces at his opponent and run the Protoss over. Game two (Yeonsu) Taeja went for a quick three racks with concussive shell as MacSed went stargate again; MacSed did a little damage with the oracle and was able to keep it alive; MacSed went phoenix/colossus; the game was very passive all the way into the late game; MacSed inexplicably took a fight up a ramp with his army partially divided and got completely crushed and tapped out shortly afterwards.
Taeja 2 Arthur 0
Game one (Polar Night) Arthur was able to do some damage with his first stalker as Taeja didn't have quite enough at his natural to let his bunker complete; the Protoss teched to blink (via a proxy twilight) and forced Taeja to pull SCVs to push away the initial attack; Arthur attacked the natural again, but couldn't kill the CC and as time went on Taeja's position got better and better; finally Arthur gave up the attack and tried to transition; Arthur got his stalkers separated from the rest of his army and Taeja, but managed to hold off the Terran with storm; without any detection Taeja's mines play wrecked Arthur's gateway army (he was able to force the third to lift) and he was forced to tap out. Game two (Habitation Station) Arthur went for early stalker/mothership core pressure, but didn't get much accomplished; Taeja attacked both bases with marines and mines, but didn't get much done; Taeja was able to force a cancel on the third twice at two different locations; Taeja maxed out, pulled SCVs and crushed Arthur.
TooDming 2 MacSed 0
The pseudo-upset of the group. Game one (Polar Night) MacSed tried to go up to a quick three bases which triggered a huge pile of roaches from TooDming and got rolled over. Game two (Habitation Station) MacSed went for a pylon block on the natural, but didn't slow TooDming down much at all; MacSed went proxy twilight/dark shrine; the DTs killed the natural and some drones; TooDming counter attacked with ling/roach which killed the third as MacSed went heavy on void rays; MacSed killed the fourth and defended his third; TooDming established a contain outside MacSed's natural and when MacSed came down the ramp a hydra flank killed his colossus and all the void rays; MacSed barely survived the next push, but he lost his third and had half the supply of his opponent and TooDming's victory was academic.
Arthur 2 TooDming 1
The previous series was of no help to the Chinese Zerg. Game one (Habitation Station) Arthur went for a fast expand at the gold, losing a stalker to slow lings at the watch tower through inattention; Arthur went for a nine-gate push; TooDming responded with roaches with burrow and held the initial push; Arthur pulled back and built a robo; TooDming went for the main and wound up getting his roaches trapped, losing the entire army; Arthur made another push, this one with immortals, as TooDming attacked the main with some of his army and killed the nexus; the Zerg killed the second nexus as well as he lost his third and natural; an attempted flank by TooDming worked and Arthur was forced to tap out. Game two (Frost) TooDming made early lings, but Arthur did not play greedy and took no damage from them; Arthur went up to eight gates which TooDming did not scout and had no idea the attack was coming; TooDming defended with roaches and while the fight was close, but Arthur eventually overwhelmed him. Game three (Polar Night) Arthur used a probe to block the natural and rather than force the probe away TooDming just took his third as his second hatch; Arthur went for an early warp prism filled with sentries and forcefielded the ramp; TooDming lost the lair, roach warren, and spawning pool, but his hydra den was in the natural so he built hydras; Arthur sent his warp prism out and zealots nearly killed off TooDming's attempted fourth--he then recalled his army from the Zerg main, returning with a pair of colossus and rolled over the army and into the round of eight.
Group D
Polt 2 XiGua 0
The entire group followed predictions. Game one (Daedalus Point) Polt played standard for him, opening with three reapers followed by hellions and marines; XiGua aimed for standard muta/ling; Polt set up a two-pronged attack, with marines on one side and reaper/hellion on the other; XiGua morphed his banes too close to the push and lost most of them immediately and tapped out. Game two (Polar Night) Polt lost one of his reapers in an over eager attempt to kill a queen, but otherwise the game played out just as the previous one; Polt pressured the third which XiGua defended with queens; Polt brought all his units (same as the previous game) and this time XiGua held (building the banes further back), but lost a lot of units; Polt then split his army in two, keeping creep at a minimum and applying pressure; Polt mixed in some hellbats and marauders and he forced a cancel on XiGua's fourth while he killed the third with another force; Polt added thors and blueflame as XiGua attempted to grow his muta flock; Polt killed the fourth again and the Chinese Zerg tapped out.
Bomber 2 Crank 0
Game one (Habitation Station) Bomber went for quick stim and medevacs along with a mine drop; Crank went for colossus/stalker and drilled the ramp at the natural for awhile before withdrawing; Crank harassed with a warp prism as he transitioned to storm; Bomber forced a cancel on the third twice; Bomber took the gold as his third and added ghosts to his army; Bomber attacked the third as Crank sent a ton of zealots into the natural; Bomber lost all but one of his SCVs, but excellent emps gave him the fight in Crank's natural and the game. Game two (Polar Night) Crank went for a one-base blink all-in which Bomber figured out and built tanks in response; Crank forced Bomber to abandon his natural, but took a lot of damage; Crank tried to get up the ramp, but gave up and attempted to transition out of it; Crank attempted to blink into the main to harass, but lost more than he gained and went for DTs; Bomber had built a turret during the initial pressure and DTs could not get into the main, but did limited harassment in the natural; after some passivity where Crank teched up to colossus, Bomber moved out and used mines to gradually push into Crank's natural and eventually force him to tap out.
Polt 2 Bomber 0
The first game of this series was among the best of the round. Game one (Yeonsu) Polt got the early scout off with a reaper causing Bomber to abandon his banshee plan to go with a raven as both players worked their way towards marine/tank; after passivity Bomber tried to take the forward third which became the obvious target for Polt who sieged it; Bomber stubbornly stuck with trying to defend the third and went for a big marine counter and forced Polt to lift his third and having forced many units to come back and defend broke the contain temporarily; Polt moved in to kill the tanks defending the third; Bomber remained far behind in the tank count making engagements incredibly difficult; despite the deficit, Bomber was able to keep things close until he ran his army through the valley besides the fourth and the tower and lost a ton of units for nothing and died to Polt's counter attack. Game two (Heavy Rain) was a complete disappointment, as Polt scouted Bomber's intended early marine/tank push, prepared two cloaked banshees that attacked once Bomber moved out and he tapped out immediately.
Crank 2 XiGua 1
Game one (Polar Night) Crank cannon rushed the natural which forced a cancel with the Protoss leaving a cannon (subsequently two) that could hit units coming out of the main; XiGua still got three bases, simply taking the normal third and fourth as expansions; Crank applied gateway and mothership core pressure on the second base; XiGua started building roaches as Crank sent zealots into the main which did nothing; roaches then attacked the natural and snipped the cybernetics core; Crank's warp prism harass did some damage; Crank then went for an immortal push as XiGua tried to squeeze out some infestors; Crank took a terrible fight getting completely surrounded by roaches despite forcefields and lost his entire army; XiGua counter attacked which was held and Crank's follow-up immortal push was a fantastic engagement that steamrolled the ling heavy Zerg army and earned a win for the Protoss. Game two (Frost) Crank opened with phoenix and transitioned into robo; XiGua responded with hydras; XiGua eventually attacked with roach/hydra which killed both of Crank's colossus, but he lost all his drones at his fourth to a zealot warp-in; Crank held the next attack as well and XiGua added vipers subsequently, but feedbacks during the next attack meant no pulls occurred and Crank held again; Crank attempted to kill off the fourth, but spines kept it alive; Crank held yet again as his colossus count continued to climb and attacked himself afterwards (now with storm) and ripped through the roach/hydra army; XiGua held and Crank retreated and built his fourth; Crank defended the new base as XiGua transitioned into ultralisks; Crank survived the next attack, but found himself far behind and tapped out moments later. Game three (Alterzim) Crank went for an oracle which did decent damage; he then built a robo and twilight at the same time as XiGua built a spire, but wound up going for roach/hydra/corrupter once he fully scouted; XiGua moved out as he maxed out and Crank defended with just stalker/sentry/immortal, hiding his colossus; Crank won the next fight outside his fourth and attacked with his stalker-heavy and XiGua had no answer for it and was forced to tap out.
Bomber 2 Crank 1
Game one (Yeonsu) Crank went for a proxy gate, sending two zealots into Bomber's main, which the Terran held with fantastic micro; Bomber had e-bay blocked Crank's natural; Crank went for oracles as the game normalised, but they did not accomplish much; Bomber lured Crank out of position with his reaper and did a ton of damage with stim marines; Bomber went for a double drop cleared out the natural and Crank tapped out. Game two (Habitation Station) Crank went for a one-base blink all-in, using the gold base to get into the main, but mines and great micro kept him alive for a long time, but ultimately Crank had too much and Bomber had to tap out. Game three (Frost) Bomber built a couple of early hellions as Crank went double forge; the hellions got a fantastic scout; Crank teched up to storm and then nabbed a robo as Bomber dropped a widow mine in his natural; Crank went harass heavy, with his zealots doing minimal damage, but his storm drops doing a ton; Bomber used widow mines as defence which worked well at the third; Crank storm dropped the main while attacking the third with his army, but had no observer and kept losing units to mines; despite a ton of storms Bomber did not take enough damage from the two-base all-in and Bomber's counter attack won the game.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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