WCS Predictions: Updated

It was a fun round of 32 and here's a quick look along with updated predictions (where needed).  Much like DreamHack earlier in the year, the gaps between series were much too long, but otherwise the production was excellent.  As for predictions, as great as it is to be right, I do love upsets and I was happy that not everything fell into place as expected.  Overall Aligulac was 8-8 and I was 9-7.  A few notes: Dayshi steamrolled PtitDrogo (whose struggles post-patch continue), FireCake wrecked Serral (iNcontroL's one upset coming to fruition), Bunny wasn't able to handle Has, Nerchio-ShoWTimE was as good as expected (I thought Valdes made a good point that Protoss player would have benefited from adding some disruptors into his army), and TLO killed himself through risky strategies (games 2-3).  Looking forward to the R16, you can see previous notes etc from my original post here:

Polt vs Dayshi - as expected the Korean is a heavy favourite (86%); the last time the French Terran beat a Korean was sOs in a showmatch in 2014 and there's really nothing in his match history to suggest an upset here--I'll stick with Polt

FireCake vs Has - the French player is favoured (75%); the Taiwanese Protoss has never gone beyond the R16 in a WCS event and I don't see that changing here

MaNa vs HuK - this is the match I expected and my views haven't changed (taking MaNa)

Nerchio vs SortOf - the Polish player is an overwhelming favourite (86%), and is much better in ZvZ, so I'll stick with him here

MarineLorD vs viOLet - the expected match; I want the French Terran to win here, but I'll stick to my initial prediction with the Zerg player

MaSa vs Snute - Aligulac only gives the Norwegian a slight edge (52%), but given the pedigree the outcome seems pretty straight forward to me

Hydra vs Neeb - this went as expected and I haven't changed my pick from the Korean

Elazer vs iAsonu - the Polish player is heavily favoured (74%) and I take the odds

The only changes going forward from my original post would be FireCake facing Polt in the R8, with Aligulac giving the Korean a huge edge (78%), with a 7-0 lifetime record against the French Zerg and I see no reason to argue (I covered Elazer vs Hydra in my original post).

[Late add: I never did run the numbers for a possible HuK vs Nerchio match, but Aligulac gives it to the Polish player (71%).]

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)