The day after WCS Oceania has wrapped up, our very own Tt.PiG & Nv.mOOnGLaDe will be boarding a 28 hour flight to Germany, where they'll be making their way from Frankfurt to Cologne to represent Australia and South East Asia at Gamescom. The groups were revealed earlier this morning on TeamLiquid, with both of our players finding themselves in a challenging, but favourable position.
With 3 players from each group advancing to the final bracket and Zerg players already outnumbering the combined Terran/Protoss roster 2:1, our SEA champions are going to find themselves in very familiar territory. It looks like no matter where they go, they can't escape the ZvZzzZzz..!
But don't count out the open bracket participants - there are opportunities for seasoned veterans and unknown players alike to break through into the group stages and cause some considerable upsets.
The path of PiG will be a tricky one, having to prepare for all three matchups if he wants to advance from his group. I'm sure GLaDe will be doing everything he can to help PiG succeed in his match against viOlet, after having been defeated by him during his last Code A qualifier attempt. Last time PiG competed at IEM in Guangzhou, he was grouped with PuMa and HasuObs - both of them being no strangers to championships - who eventually ended up taking 3rd and 4th respectively. This time, he finds himself facing yet another strong Terran and Protoss duo in Kas & Feast. But are they strong enough to take down Tt eSports' Notorious Aussie ambassador?
As for mOOnGLaDe, there's no denying that his strongest opponent is going to be the Guangzhou runner-up: Elfi. However, we've seen in the past that when it comes to IEM, our SEA King has a habit of pulling out tremendous ZvP victories over players such as Socke, Squirtle & HuK. Those in-the-know over at TeamLiquid are dubbing Minigun as a strong contender for this group, with a strong reputation when it comes to PvZ. Whilst sLivko hasn't showcased the most prominent appearance on the global stage, his results make it abundantly clear that he's not an opponent to be taken lightly. Having taken maps and series from notable Zerg players such as Stephano, HyuN, Snute & Nerchio, Nv's mOOnGLaDe is really going to have to showcase the value of playing ZvZ almost exclusively in SEA.
Please wish the best of luck to both of our players as they go head-to-head in the WCS Australia finals next week, and side-by-side in Germany a few days later. You can send your cheers to them via Twitter at: @TtPiG_SC2 & @mOOnGLaDeau
Schedule
PiG will begin his group matches at 10:30PM AEST on Thursday night. mOOnGLaDe will begin his group matches at 5:00PM AEST on Friday afternoon.
Group Stage: (Top 3 Qualify) Group A (Nerchio, ForGG, SortOf) | Group B (Mvp, viOLet, Kas) PiG's Group Group C (Bomber, sLivko, elfi) GLaDe's Group | Group D (SuperNova, MC, VortiX)
Hope the flights aren't too painful, there have been some horror stories about Gamescom accommodation and it'll take it's toll immediately after WCS GL!
The guys will be arriving the afternoon before the open bracket, so they'll have a day to unwind and spectate/practice while they wait for the actual Group Stages to begin. Also, since mOOnGLaDe is in Group C, he probably has an additional day on top of that. (A+B Day 1, C+D Day 2)
i have seen slivko play dimaga a lot and his ZvZ is very strong and minigun doesn't seem like much of a threat from what I have seen recently. Elfi obviously is a strong protoss but can't recall any of his games.
PiG's group is just full of scary guys 0.o
Best of luck to them both and look forward to seeing a Glade v PiG finals
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