WCS Season Three Qualifiers

In what must be the fastest turn around between seasons, less than 48-hours after Hydra won season two the WCS qualifiers for season three began (the first without any Koreans participating).

NA Qualifier
Day One (99 players, virtually the same as season two)
Bails - reaches Challenger for the fourth time in his career (his biggest hurdle was puCK in the qualifying match)
JonSnow - enters the WCS system for the first time (beating PiLiPiLi among others) [correction: he was in the system in season three 2013]
The day was notable in that two cheesy Protoss players (Larry and printf) made it extremely deep in their brackets, as did RuFF (Tilea and HuK were the other players in the top-eight).  Notables who fell out early: intense lost to puCK; State lost to Neeb (who lost to puCK); Guitarcheese lost to Zeal (who lost to printf); Drunkenboi lost to PLZLEAVEDUCK; Catz lost to RuFF; PiLiPiLi lost to JonSnow; Semper lost to Tilea (who lost to Larry); and qxc lost to Mcanning (!).  There were a ton of fun games, with a mix of ridiculous strategies, incredible holds, and what not.

Day Two (110 players--the most for a NA qualifier since season one)
Neeb - returns to Challenger for the first time since he was a terran in season three in 2014 (beating PiLiPiLi)
qxc -  returns to Challenger, knocking off puCK (who lost in his second straight qualifying match)
Highlights: Catz lost his grudge match against desRow; Scarlett participated for the only time, losing early to Drunkenboi; HuK, Semper, and Pengwin (!) made solid runs again.

Day Three (106 players)
Semper - returns to Challenger (he made it in season one), beating Gayguy (aka Melancholy and many other names) in the final, along with Drunkenboi on the way
Hitman - the notorious NA Protoss had his most notable result since ShoutCraft in 2013, taking out puCK, State, and Larry on the way
A couple of the accounts might have been smurfs, particularly the Zerg player blu who went quite far (losing to Hitman eventually, but taking out NoRegreT, PLZLEAVEDUCK, and Suppy).  Other well- known players who lost in the brackets: Catz, HuK, and desRow.  Scarlett didn't participate and Tweeted that she wouldn't attempt WCS again this year.

Day Four (101 players)
HuK - returns to Challenger at last, beating Catz, Believe, RuFF, and intense on the way.
Other notables who fell on the way: puCK, Guitarcheese, Suppy, PiLiPiLi, and State.

With the NA qualifiers complete, 4 Protoss, 2 Terrans, and a Zerg were added to the system.  Two players made it into Challenger for the first time, while a number of former WCS participants failed to qualify.  The best performer who didn't make it was puCK, who lost three straight qualifying matches before getting knocked out in the quarterfinals on day four (it's the first time he hasn't made it to at least Challenger since HOTS came out)--I know on the third day he was struggling with Internet issues and that might have impacted all the qualifiers for him.

There were a number of things that struck me about the NA qualifier.  Last season's qualifier Zeal only participated once; Gayguy didn't participate in the final qualifier after nearly making it through in the third; according to his stream State was playing from California so he has to be disappointed that all his practice in Korea did not see him through; intense, who usually does very well in qualifiers, struggled throughout; RuFF had by far his best run at Challenger and probably should have won his match against HuK on the final day;  Larry did well throughout the qualifier; it's incredible to think that not only did Catz not qualify, but he didn't make it to a qualifying match--I have to wonder if he'll return to Copa America next year, or if he see's it as simply a bad week.  A number of notable players from last season didn't participate at all, including Astrea, Illusion, NonY, Goswser, and ViBE.

The Challenger selections followed and they were a bit less intuitive than last season:
Polt > JonSnow
Jaedong > Semper
StarDust > Neeb
viOLet > qxc
MaSa > Bails
Xenocider > Hitman
HuK > Kane
The first two picks make a lot of sense and while I won't do the odds this early there's little reason to doubt the two Koreans are perfectly safe with those matchups.  I am a bit surprised that Neeb was the next choice--StarDust could have gone with a different Protoss (why not the least accomplished in Hitman?), or why not aim for a PvZ against a guy who has largely checked out of SC2 in Kane?  The next choice makes a lot of sense (no offense to qxc, but clearly viOLet wanted to avoid both Protoss and the mirror matchup), and the logic of those that follows is pretty clear.  Still, it's funny to me how many players steered clear of Hitman--as notorious as he might be on ladder, he's had no significant results in a tournament since the NA-only ShoutCraft two years ago.

EU Qualifier
Day One (275 players, the most participants in 2015)
ShoWTimE - no surprise he made it through, with a fairly easy bracket other than Zanster (who also had an easy bracket)
Welmu - a bit of a tougher road for the Finn, beating Beastyqt and PtitDrogo
Bly - went through a tough bracket (DIMAGA, Majestic, and uThermal), facing Starbuck at the end
SortOf - back from the dead (he was last in Challenger in season three in 2014), beating Happy at the end
A number of luminaries fell in the bracket--beyond the aforementioned: TargA, Nerchio, HeRoMaRinE, MorroW, and others.  It was also the return of Adelscott to WCS.  Incidentally, Madels had been casting these in the previous seasons, but that no longer seems to be the case, so Wardi had the predominant English cast (I find he's very much like Madels; rather bland and could use a passionate co-caster).

Day Two (242 players)
Nerchio - returns to Challenger, defeating Zanster and PsiOniC on the way
Happy - also returns, ripping through an easy bracket
NaNiwa - yet another returnee, with Lambo and TargA the biggest challenges
uThermal - the Dutch player who prefers TvP instead of TvZ; beat PtitDrogo and Kas

Day Three (215 players; the last open qualifier)
Zanster - returns to Challenger through a pretty easy bracket (DeMuslim was his best known opponent)
HeRoMaRinE - also returns to Challenger, beating MorroW and Verdi in the process
Serral - another returnee, he took out DIMAGA, Dayshi, and PsiOniC
DMC - a first-time qualifier, he had a fairly easy bracket, beating Starbuck and Jona

Day Four (Last Chance qualifier; 16 invited players)
Tarrantius and MorroW had to forfeit their places (allowing Funk and Beastyqt to play); other players narrowly left off the dance floor: Optimus, Miniraser, and ZhuGeLiang.
Starbuck - one of the only players to return to the scene and resume a place immediately in Challenger; he beat DeMuslim, Beastyqt, and Jona to qualify
DnS - the French Protoss arrives in Challenger for the first time in his career (beating Miszu, Basior, and Dayshi)
Dayshi - returns to the WCS system for the first time since season three in 2014; he still doesn't look like he's recovered his form, but managed to beat Denver, Strange, PsiOniC, and PtitDrogo to make it through

In the end 6 Zergs, 5 Protoss, and 4 Terrans make it through to Challenger (and like NA, with two first-time participants).  PtitDrogo and MorroW are the players who performed the best who did not qualify.

In terms of the picks for Challenger, I have a few thoughts:
Lilbow > SortOf
Bunny > Starbuck
TLO > Bly
MarineLorD > DMC
FireCake > Zanster
GunGFuBanDa > DnS
ForGG > Dayshi
Harstem > Nerchio
Ret > HeRoMaRinE
elfi > uThermal
Elazer > Welmu
Snute > Serral
MaNa > Happy
ShoWTimE > NaNiwa

Everyone steered clear of NaNiwa, despite his struggles in PvP since returning; the first two picks are interesting, since there was a preference for Zerg over Protoss (given that two largely unknown Protoss players are in the bracket, normally I would have expected them to go before players like Starbuck, although Lilbow may have simply wanted to avoid the unpredictability of the mirror matchup); apparently there were people upset that ForGG picked Dayshi, but I'm surprised he wasn't chosen earlier; I'm not sure what Harstem was thinking in picking Nerchio, although perhaps he doesn't like PvT (HeRoMaRinE was the weakest player still on the board); otherwise the selections all make sense on paper.

Once again Copa America qualifiers were crushed by Kelazhur (who beat ReasoN 3-1) and MajOr (who beat JimRising 3-0).  Will either perform better in Premier?  Time will tell.  The results certainly illustrate why Catz made the switch to NA (not that it turned out the way he hoped, clearly).

The SEA qualifiers have come and gone (sign-ups for the qualifier were slightly higher than season two (64 from 61), but lower than season one (77)), with Petraeus (back home from Europe) and Blysk making it through to Challenger.  This was a return trip for the Protoss player (who got wrecked by iaguz last time around), but he had the exact same result against the Gimli-Terran last night (3-0).  Petraeus dispatched NXZ in similar fashion (3-0), which isn't a surprise, although the latter struggled through lag, making it seem a bit more lopsided than it could have been.  Despite the small player base, the SEA scene seems pretty healthy--there isn't the same sense that the same two players will automatically make it to Premier every time (unlike Copa America above).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)