WCS Europe Premier Round of 32 Predictions (Group B)

Aligulac was perfect in its predictions for Group A, so it's time to look at Group B, one which ESL did its best to make easy for Snute (he only has one match-up to prepare for, no Koreans, and faces middling Protoss competitors):

 Snute
 BlinG
 MaNa
 Krr

As expected, Snute is a strong favourite and I see no reason to argue (he's 18-0 in the relevant matchup, last losing to Romson in early January); interestingly it has BlinG coming in second and all three Protoss have similar records in the equivalent match-up: BlinG is 9-2 (losing to Krr), MaNa is 9-1, and Krr is 7-2.  For Krr it's an achievement just to be here and I don't think he'll break through, so the question is what kind of PvP form is MaNa in?  Despite the record above most of his wins are against mediocre players; at the same time BlinG's results are largely dated and against the same kind of competition.  I'll take MaNa in the "upset"--he has a lot more tournament competition and I don't think BlinG can be considered a true favourite.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)