The Finals of WCS Europe: Season 1 are upon us, 5 Koreans, 1 Spanish, 1 Finnish and 1 Norwegian will battle it out a little over a week from now to determine who among them is the best player in Europe.
Games begin April 10 20:00 CEST *Note 20:00 CEST is 5:00 AEST the following day (i.e 20:00 CEST April 10th is 05:00 AEST April 11th)
The first match of the blocks is MC vs StarDust, two Koreans who have left their homeland and joined European teams. MC in my opinion is the clear favorite (both in popularity and in likelihood of advancing). MC has placed 2nd in the last 2 WCS Europe Finals, can he go one better this time or will he become the new King of Kongs?
Prediction: MC 3-2 StarDust
Snute vs MMA will be play simultaneously with the first match. This will be a far more interesting match in my mind. On the one hand we have MMA the Champion of last season on the other we have Snute who is playing in his first season of WCS Europe after leaving the Korean dominated America Circuit with some fairly poor results in WCS Season 2 and 3. My heart says Snute and his performance in the Round of 16 against Terrans gives me hope, MMA also got absolutely creamed by VortiX in the Round of 16, I dont see MMA allowing a Zerg to dismantle him so easily again in this tournament.
Prediction: MMA 3 -1 Snute
Vortix vs jjakji is next up. VortiX was the stand out performer in the Round of 16 crushing MMA and MVP with relative ease, jjakji is an extremely talented Terran, but I feel the moumentum is very much in favor of VortiX and jjakji is going to have to bring his A Game to take down the Spanish hope. Its also interesting to take a look at VortiX's results in WCS over 2013: Season 1: Round of 16, Season 2: Round of 8, Season 3: Round of 4. Lets hope this means a Grand Final spot for Juan this time round!
Prediction: VortiX 3-1 jjakji
The final match (also simultaneous played alongside match 3) is San vs Welmu. Welmu is something of an enigma, he has quietly built together a reputation of being a bit of a giant slayer. Just as quietly he has marked himself as the best Finnish player (with elfi struggling in Challenger league the last couple of seasons) and if ThorZaIN isnt careful the title of King of the North . Unfortunately for him San is an utter beast of the PvP match. Earlier this year San absolutely dominated the ASUS ROG Winter event in Finland defeating StarDust 3-0 in the Semi Finals and Dear 4-0 in the finals.
Prediction: San 3-0 Welmu
The Final 8, for WCS Europe 2014: Season 1 will run from April 10 - April 14.
Obviously really want the foreigners to do well here, I feel Welmu has a good chance with his PvP stats but San's is godlike so will be a tough ask. Heart wants him to go through but my head agrees with Arnor's prediction of San 3-0.
I believe Vortix actually has the best chance. He can beat jjakji as he has before and I believe he can beat MC or Stardust as well. The finals will probably involve MMA / San, and like Erasmus said Vortix has beaten MMA recently. If somehow he meets San in the final I feel San will win it unfortunately as his PvZ is even more disgustingly good than his PvP lol
VortiX was the stand out performer in the Round of 16 crushing MMA and Bunny with relative ease
VortiX played MMA and MVP, his ZvT is really strong, taking those two 2-0. I can't see this not being super close 3-2 either way.
from the round of 8, I'll take a punt at MC, VortiX, MMA & San.. But I think all of the match ups will be super close. One thing to remember tho, the Koreans are much better at specifically preparing for a player, Foreigners do better in group stages. Still, I think these will be close. Some awesome games ahead, WCS EU is best WCS atm.
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