The new year of WCS competition is upon us and with it the various regional qualifiers for challenger leagues which have just completed. The changes Blizzard made to the system this year means the flood of Korean players to both America and Europe has slowed to a trickle (only five new Koreans join the fray, with viOLet getting an asterisk as an addition because he made America last year, but was shut out due to visa issues), which will allow more space for foreigners to participate.
Just like last year, the ESL (which covers the European region) has produced a better product than its American equivalent (NASL, which took over from MLG midway through last year). Coverage of the qualifier has been expansive and comprehensive, while the first American qualifier was not covered due to studio conflicts. What little coverage there was came at the last minute via a push from the community (the other qualifiers, save the wild card snafu described momentarily, was much better). The NASL is an improvement over MLG, but that's a low bar to pass and hopefully they can start to push for ESL's level as the season progresses (the first shot at the NA ladder wildcard was a fail as it was forced to be re-schedule due to administrative and technical errors).
European Results
Up until the third qualifier there were no surprises in who made their way through to challenger. Joining former premier players Grubby, HasuObs, Strelok, KrasS, SortOf, Bly, and BabyKnight, were challenger regulars elfi, Zanster, Harstem, and Miniraser. As no surprise they are joined by newcomer jjakji (his only bump in the road was losing to Grubby), as well as EPS champ HeroMarine. Rounding out the qualifiers are challenger first-timers MorroW, Mekar, sLh, Lambo and Lilbow (a mix of new and old players).
The ladder wildcard, which was open to all, was full of surprises as no Koreans made it through; Yoda lost to DIMAGA (who then hilariously lost to Couguar), First was knocked out by Diestar, and Patience lost to MaNa (who then fell to ABomB). Snute, who struggled in the other qualifiers (losing to Romson, Harstem, and GoOdy), finally made it and was joined by Diestar, Verdi (aka Weak), hOpe, StakimaN, and Heart of the Swarm beta star ABomB. None of these players came closer than the round of sixteen in the other qualifiers (something only Snute accomplished and that only once), and neither ABomB nor StakimaN had notable runs. It's the first trip to challenger league for all six players. The retirement of LucifroN and duckdeok's means that both Revolver and StrinterN (who made the round of eight) have also made it in (neither was in challenger league last year).
A number of talented players were left on the outside looking in. Former premier players TitaN, uzer, Noname, Dayshi, Socke, SaSe, MaNa, ThorZaIN, Ret, DIMAGA, and kauP all failed to make it in (as did occasional talents like SjoW). Other players who came very close (making the round of eight) were MarineLorD (who did it twice), FRAER, and ChubZ; the aforementioned Socke consistently made the round of sixteen (four straight times!), but could not get beyond it.
In terms of the racial divide among qualifiers it's 11/9/6 (Protoss/Zerg/Terran), which seems about right for Europe's scene. The strength of the player pool is very apparent given those who failed to qualify (15/26 are new to the league, so 57%). Only one Korean was added to the mix (jjakji), putting the number at three, which is yet another sign that the local scene is in good shape.
With everything wrapped up 48 players will fight for 24 spots in the Premier division where MC, Genius, StarDust, MMA, Mvp, VortiX, Nerchio, and TargA await them. Challenger consists of 20 Protoss, 16 Zergs, and 12 Terrans. The matches begin January 21st. I like the change to best-of-five matches--the better player should always win in that scenario, which is much less dicey than a best-of-three (or the extremely unpredictable best-of-one).
American Results
There was slightly less volatility in the qualifiers than in Europe (9/17 players are new to challenger, so 53%). There was no surprise that Koreans viOLet and Bomber rolled through the qualifier. The due are joined by fellow Korean Check (who couldn't make it into Code A last year), SelecT (who still hasn't returned to the form he had in Wings of Liberty, but returns to challenger), Kane, qxc, CatZ, Illusion, Jig, desRow, and Bails. Joining them are first-time challengers MaSa, KoMa, Sonic [who subsequently withdrew and was replaced by Cowman below], Astrea, iAsonu (a Chinese player), and SaroVati (players who either did not participate in challenger or failed to make it last year). That's a 7/6/4 split (Terran/Zerg/Protoss), which does not match the current fretting about Terran (as addressed by David Kim this week). All the challenger newbies can be considered surprising other than MaSa. The only former premier players who did not make it in are hellokitty and Goswser. Players who came close are the aforementioned hellokitty along with Moosegills, Siphonn, Deemo, Xenocider, Edge, Cowman, JonSnow, and Jimmy. The few Koreans who participated did not face the same struggles that those who participated in Europe did (a better Internet connection may account for that) and all of them made it through (making the total number in challenger seventeen).
Other Qualifiers for WCS America
The Chinese qualifier yielded 3 Zergs (TooDming, Courage, and XiGua). XiGua and Courage spent all of last year stuck in the challenger division, while this is TooDming's first venture into WCS. The Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau qualifier yielded two Zergs (Ian and Slam) and one Protoss (Has). All three tried to get into Challenger last year, but only Ian actually made it previously. The Southeast Asia (SEA) qualifier added yet more Zergs (KingKong, PiG, and EnDerr--the first taste of challenger league for all three), putting the tally for these qualifiers at 8 Zergs and 1 Protoss (so added to the numbers above, 14/7/5 Zerg/Terran/Protoss).
The 48 players in challenger consist of 20 Zergs, 15 Protoss, and 14 Terrans. Their games begin January 21st (the same as Europe), with 24 qualifying to face off against Oz, HerO, MacSed, Polt, Heart, ByuL, Taeja (who was given Hack's place in premier), and Jaedong.
Korea (Code A)
The qualifiers occurred on Wednesday (the 8th), with 36 players moving forward (rather than using the entire WCS map pool, they played on only Yeonsu, Polar Night, and Heavy Rain). Rather than list the entire group (found here) here's the racial breakdown: 15/12/9 (P/Z/T). Hack, who gave up his spot in the American premier division, made it through the qualifier. Those who move up from Code A have Dear, Trap, PartinG, Rain, Maru, SoO, and Soulkey waiting for them.
Speaking of the map pool, there have been a lot of complaints about the new maps, but virtually every new map gets this treatment--only occasionally do they turn out to be as imbalanced as predicted.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
No comments:
Post a Comment