[TtSYF.tRoy]

After four qualifiers hosting players from Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, America, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, United Kingdom, Japan and The Philippines were left with thirty-two talented Starcraft 2 competitors.
For a brief description, we will have sixteen best of five match ups. The winner progresses to the group stage of sixteen players and the loser is eliminated from ESCL Season 1.
Below I will be doing a little preview of each matchup complemented with some in depth predictions from both myself and our streamer/observer Insano.

+ [Fenner - DarK] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
Fenner			5/3	45 (22.5)
DarK			2/0	61 (12.5)

Fenner, the lord of the lings, representing team dank, being considered one of the upcoming players in our scene since forever, only just managed to qualify. Being rather shaky in the Oceanic qualifiers losing to eCKo.RivaL 2-1 and beating ETL.iLikeTrains 2-1, both being v it would be safe to say Fenner could be a little worried about his match up against the player from Dynasty eSports, DarK. Our Dynasty Zerg defeated his team mate Cabracan 2-0 in order to qualify, meaning the qualifier doesn't really give us much to go off.
tRoy Prediction: Fenner wins 3-1
Insano Prediction: Fenner wins 3-1

+ [Chase - Spear] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
Chase			2/3	65 (10)
Spear			4/2	127 (5)

Our god, man full of all kills and SEAzergHope representing one of the homegrown community clans mGG, Chase. Realistically has bugger all chance of winning this one, maybe he could take a map or two if everything goes his way and he triggers his inner bonjwa but the Korean terran, ex-FXO member has been ripping apart SEA tournaments throughout OSC Season 2. After finishing 8th in the OSC Season 2 finals he has returned for season 3, at the moment sitting on only five points the ESCL is his first opportunity to bank some.
If Chase does somehow save SEA eSports and annihilates Spear he does also collects the cash money of $35 for hunting Koreans.
tRoy Prediction: Spear wins 3-0.
Insano Prediction: Spear wins 3-0

+ [EnDerr - MacSed] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
EnDerr			4/0	4 (325)
MacSed			4/0	28 (40)

Easily the focus match of the night, both players are extremely solid and consistent and both are complemented with majestic liquipedia pictures (see liquipedia for proof)
MacSed came onto the SEA scene throwing down proxy robo's and weird Protoss timings and EnDerr is well known for his aggressive but effective Zerg play style, including his awesome Zergling filled overlord drop into the main in WCS. If we have wacky strategies like these come out to play tonight this series is bound to be sick.
EnDerr also has that little initiative, if he defeats MacSed he scores himself the $15 bounty.
tRoy Prediction: EnDerr wins 3-2
Insano Prediction: MacSed wins 3-2

+ [Nice - SouL] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
Nice			2/2	-
SouL			2/0	40 (25)

One of only two v match ups out of 16 games, SouL who is well known for previously going Dark Templars all the bloody time has recently calmed down and started to really develop as a solid Protoss player in the scene for Frenetic Array. Nice on the other hand, threw out some incredibly cheesy Protoss builds against Zerg opponents in order to qualify, whether he does the same against Protoss will determine the outcome of this match up.
tRoy Prediction: SouL wins 3-2.
Insano Prediction: Nice wins 3-1.

+ [Armani - State] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
Armani			2/0	87 (5)
State			2/0	-

Easily one of the sickest match ups of the Up/Down stage. State, previously on Prime has been training in Korea for almost a year without many top results other than he's loss to HuK in WCS Challenger. Armani from Samsung Galaxy has never really blossomed in individual leagues, in Pro league Armani is 1-1 for the season in a struggling side. Hardly something to boast about especially since he's only win was against Prime in round 2. Could this be the first time we see State manage to get past the qualification stages of a tournament?
tRoy Prediction: State wins 3-0.
Insano Prediction: Armani wins 3-2.

+ [TeeNagerYO - Ian] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
TeeNagerYO			2/0	-
Ian			2/0	-

Considering we have sixteen different match ups, the fact that we only have two instances were both players are from the same country is pretty fascinating. This is one of two, TeeNagerYO and Ian, both from Taiwan. Ian one of the best Taiwanese Zerg players, only behind the legendary Sen. Ian having placed top 4 in the past four TeSL seasons and when thrown in against Koreans in the TeSL Open 2014 he managed to defeat DeParture and Jaedong before losing to HyuN. TeeNagerYO on the other hand hasn't reached the pinnacle of Taiwanese Starcraft, he has never qualified for TeSL and in a region completely void of Terrans there isn't many top players for TeeNagerYO to be influenced by and compete with. He's a diamond terran on Korea server and showed some pretty nice micro in the qualifiers but struggled with the macro play in long games, can't see him causing much of a upset.
tRoy Prediction: Ian wins 3-0.
Insano Prediction: Ian wins 3-1.

+ [Azure - XY] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
Azure			4/2	18 (75)
XY			5/4	-

Definitely a game to watch, Azure being one of very few GM level Terrans in the SEA scene comes up against almost the standalone Chinese Terran in XY. Could really go either way, but being a Broodwar legend and having played Starcraft 2 for years compared to Azure's recent emergence on the scene id have to give XY the slight edge.
tRoy Predication: XY wins 3-1.
Insano Prediction: XY wins 3-1.

+ [eMotion - Shana] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
eMotion			2/0	-
Shana			4/0	-

Shana is that random Chinese player that managed to qualify for WCS America Challenger Season 3, for some reason he has race switched to since then and doesn't seem to be playing anywhere near as good which is disappointing. eMotion is a really solid protoss player that pretty much everyone here would know from Samsung Galaxy, definitely the favourite.
tRoy Predictions: eMotion wins 3-0.
Insano Predictions: eMotion wins 3-1.

+ [Probe - Frustration] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
Probe			4/0	21 (62.5)
Frustration			2/0	22 (60)

The second v and one of the matches with the most character, both players are likely to really challenge the best of the best in SEA this year along with Blysk. Both these players have almost identical OSC points, being separated by just 2.5 points. Probe has more points from tournaments while Frustration has ALOT more scalp points. Probe has just returned from a overseas trip and could be a little rusty, Frustration will probably send four days straight at the club and be completely unprepared for this matchup. Due to the coin flip of PvP and the way Frustration flips the coin, I'm giving him a comfortable win.
tRoy Predictions: Frustration iSpook wins 3-0
Insano Predictions: Frustration wins 3-2.

+ [RivaL - T1Wec] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
RivaL			2/1	63 (12.5)
T1Wec			4/0	77 (10)

The other Japanese player to qualify for the round of 16 is T1Wec, pretty much unknown in the SEA community due to this being one of his only tournaments, other than often streaming he wouldn't be heard of. RivaL is the opposite, being a consistently strong Zerg player in Melbourne and having a intense rivalry with Nv.Deth at offline events during 2013 area he has proven he has what it takes to compete. With some wacky builds and good preparation T1Wec could really cause a upset, but RivaL's consistency is unmatched.
tRoy Predictions: RivaL wins 3-1.
Insano Predictions: RivaL wins 3-2.

+ [Hurricane - Crimson] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
Hurricane			2/1	-
Crimson			4/1	24 (52.5)

Hurricane.
Crimson could make as many swarm hosts as humanely possible but even the imba unit probably can't save him in this one.
Would happily be proved wrong by the Kiwi hope!
tRoy Predicitions: Hurricane wins 3-0.
Insano Predictions: Hurricane wins 3-0.

+ [Alpha - VirTues] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
Alpha			4/0	49 (20)
VirTues			0/2	-

VirTues is another mid to high diamond Terran player from Taiwan, in the qualifiers he showed some real skill but tend to slip as the game got to really pressured moments. This game could really have any outcome, but I'm going to go with the home boy Alpha to just get up.
tRoy Predictions: Alpha wins 3-2.
Insano Predictions: VirTues wins 3-2.

+ [DemiLove - PSiArc] +

IGN	Race	Origin	ESCL Win/Loss	OSC Rank (points)
DemiLove			4/1	11 (130)
PSiArc			4/0	8 (147.5)

When i drew this match up out of the hat my heart sinked while my mind went completely nuts. This is going to be one of the sickest series of the tournament, while neither of these players are internationally well known back in our community DemiLove is recognised as one of the rising talents who works extremely hard, PSiArc has caught everyones attention with a gripping WCS qualifier run and solid appearances in weekly tournaments since. Both these players from isolated lands are bound to give us some really entertaining games, I feel DemiLove's multi tasking will begin to slip when PSiArc is attacking all over the map with damaging drops and PSiArc will constantly be that little bit ahead.
tRoy Predictions: PSiArc wins 3-1.
Insano Predictions: PSiArc wins 3-2.

Day 5 to be added tomorrow.

[syfChadMann]

Originally Posted by TtSYF.tRoy

More too come.

There is more too? OMG!

[Elusory]

Originally Posted by TtSYF.tRoy

tRoy Prediction: Spear wins 3-0.
Insano Prediction: Spear wins 3-0

My most favourite part of this. Keen to see what you guys think of Lobo vs StriKE

Oh and RivaL's and DemiLove's games.

[syfRize]

Should (if possible) include aligulac rivalry records

[x5_Namakaye]

Love this write up, hopefully you keep em going don;t wanna be lazy like with HVGTL haha

Quick Comments

syfIce:

dis post :P

[syfCrimson]

Good stuff, really digging the preview/recap articles we're seeing around here atm. Looking forward to playing it of course too

[fray`Eros]

Chase wins this easily no question, I taught him my drone rush into proxy hatch so he has a 0 percent chance of losing

[TtSYF.tRoy]

All match ups updated up to round 5, enjoy fellas.

[Elusory]

State to 3-0 LOL nice

[eCKoa`ProzeR]

Goodluck to all the SEAtizens playing in ESCL!!!! Wishing you the bests of luck! Show some good games guys, can't wait to see it go down!

Thank you tRoy for helping with this ESCL thingo and for the write up!

[Eddie]

Great previews

[ROOTDemi]

I will prove you wrong!!!!

Quick Comments

TtSYF.tRoy:

I hope so <3

[Swarmstika]

Originally Posted by TtSYF.tRoy

Day 5 to be added tomorrow.

Good to see Day 5 preview has been added!

[SLCN.NXZ]

So who did PSIArc beat that made him the favourite against demilove? Doesn't demi have as good/better results?

People hype up PSIArc a lot and he's good but in my eyes Demi has got this in a clean 3-0 or 3-1

@soundwave who did he beat though? I feel like demilove is better than anyone he's beaten really.

Quick Comments

syfSoundwave:

Having played PSiArc I wasn't impressed but you can't deny his TvZ results I guess

[syfSoundwave]

Originally Posted by aLtNXZ

@soundwave who did he beat though? I feel like demilove is better than anyone he's beaten really.

Crimson 2-0
Wally 2-1
Law 2-0
Crimson 2-1
rebOrn 2-0 (The Top 16 NA GM Zerg. Dunno how active he's been lately though)
Crimson 2-0

And obviously most impressively beat me 2-1

Lost to you, PiG and EnDerr. I'd say DemiLove is pretty much the tier seperating PiG/EnDerr from Wally/Law so I think in terms of recent results they're quite evenly matched.

[SLCN.NXZ]

Originally Posted by TtSYF.Soundwave

Crimson 2-0
Wally 2-1
Law 2-0
Crimson 2-1
rebOrn 2-0 (The Top 16 NA GM Zerg. Dunno how active he's been lately though)
Crimson 2-0

And obviously most impressively beat me 2-1

Lost to you, PiG and EnDerr. I'd say DemiLove is pretty much the tier seperating PiG/EnDerr from Wally/Law so I think in terms of recent results they're quite evenly matched.

To be honest I don't really rate crimson atm. He still needs some time to get into good form. But I guess those results aren't too bad. I just feel like if I can do it, demilove should be able to as well.

We'll see I guess

[TtSYF.tRoy]

Originally Posted by aLtNXZ

To be honest I don't really rate crimson atm. He still needs some time to get into good form. But I guess those results aren't too bad. I just feel like if I can do it, demilove should be able to as well.

We'll see I guess

Definitely a fair call, DemiLove is more than capable of winning his match.
The reason I'm picking PSiArc to get the edge tho is I've watched a fair few of his games and he does a very aggressive bio composition and likes to attack multiple positions and drops heaps.
I think at first DemiLove will be able to cope but after a while he will start to slip and make mistakes and PSiArc will start to get the upper hand.
I think were gonna have some really really really entertaining games because of this play style as well.

[ROOTDemi]

Troy i practiced with him in quite a few games so i was deeply saddened that i had to play him