[Dingobloo]

EB EXPO
Player Rank Preview

In under 24 hours one of the final big Starcraft 2 Australian LAN events for 2012 begins. It's going to be a bittersweet event, What should be a celebration after a great year for Australian Starcraft 2 is unfortunately one of the more intimate events with only 16 qualified players crammed into 2 days, The first place prize (An all expenses paid trip to ESWC) would be a fantastic opportunity, if it didn't also coincide with so many players heading over to MLG (itself an unthinkable idea even 12 months ago) and the fact that all but one ACL finalists will be in attendance is only marred by the fact that it was only possible after the cancellation of IEM Guangzhou.

But this is competition, and in competition there is little room for sentimentality, especially when there's no silver lining for whoever goes home in second place. So here is our modest attempt at helping your contextualize the players prior to this weekends tournament so that you have a better idea what we consider the upsets, the sure bets and the long shots. We give you the EB Expo Player Rank Preview.

Ranking

16. Syntox

Syntox is a player very much on the periphery, he has participated in a number of qualifiers and weekly tournaments but rarely survives to the later rounds. Even as a consistent Grandmaster player he's going to have a tough time going far, especially with mOOnGLaDe as a first round opponent.

15. Neko

Neko had a period of inactivity leading up to the event that was broken with his second place finish at the SpringSmash LAN last weekend in Brisbane. While the LAN did not have as deep of a player pool as this one, the experience will be invaluable going into this event.

14. Spider

A more recent signing to team Carnage, Spider, a long time clan member of Terror Australis, is dipping his toes into the more professional arena. The tournament will be a proving ground for him to really show to his team why he adds depth to their roster.

13. Bard

Bard has set himself the lofty goal of winning a single match. While that seems unambitious he will be up against 16 very tough opponents. Even still, Bard might be selling himself short, After a first round loss in the first qualifier he made a heroic run through the losers bracket including a surprise win over Legionnaire to clinch a spot in the event.

12. Azz

Azz comes off a recent string of good PvZ wins in the 2012 SC2SEA Race War beating Jazbas, Ninja and Fenner eventually falling to tgun. While he's a long time competitor in the scene he has yet to cross the threshold to be considered a potential tournament danger.

11. Frustration

After qualifying for WCS, Frustration was a bit of an unknown, but no longer. Not satisfied with his early exit from WCS Australia, he has increased his local on line tournament activity considerably and has been performing admirably in a number of them. Despite a repeat of his loss to Australian Starcraft veteran Legionnaire in the early stages of the first qualifier, he was able to fight back through the losers bracket to eventually take a decisive third place and a seed for this event.

10. HuT

HuT has the unfortunate position of being endlessly overlooked, always one or two good games away from a top 8 ACL finish, always one or two spots away from a WCS Qualifying position despite taking games or series from the eventual finalists. He was the beneficiary of a drop out from the first qualifier and I'm hopefully he can make the most of a rare piece of good luck. Other Terran's might be flashier or more well known but you can't count out HuT in a best of 3.

9. Jazbas

Jazbas is always a difficult player to place, where before he could always be considered at the top of the New Zealand pile, his iron grip has been recently loosened and his interview for WCS New Zealand seemed to indicate that he wasn't putting in as much practice as he had been in the past. Since then, he has joined the ranks of Team Nv and with it has more opportunities to travel abroad which may have bought back some of that motivation.

8. Myuu

One of the youngest competitor in the field, the Zerg player from Xeria Gaming returns from his studies to prove that he has strategic insight well in advance of his years. While his current form is difficult to determine given his break, his prior placements have him trading wins with the stronger players in the bracket.

7. Petraeus

Fresh from his foray in Japan, this New Zealander is hoping to make the most of his overseas tour. While he doesn't consider himself a danger to win the tournament outright he has his eye on a more realistic goal: Continue his globe-trotting with a trip to France. Given that a large portion of the strong players will be heading to MLG in a similar time frame as ESWC, Petraeus,is hoping that a high finish through a good bracket is all he needs to book his tickets to Paris.

6. Rossi

Rossi's recent form has been excellent with several strong wins over the best players in the scene. Unfortunately he's been unable to find the next gear that he needs to finally take a number one spot, missing out on a number of qualification spots for overseas events by a single round or sometimes even just a game. Rossi has expressed his desire to travel overseas to further his Starcraft career and he'll get that chance come MLG time, but you get the feeling that Rossi really wants to earn it.

5. iaguz

Iaguz will be looking to redeem his unfortunate performance during WCS Australia and retake his spot as one of the most consistently strong Terran's in the region. His practice schedule has been as predictable as it has been transparent leading up to the event with him streaming a good number of his games, well aware of the fact that anyone studying his play will not learn anything they don't already know: that he is a macro player with a large variety of builds.

4. Ninja

Ninja is coming into the event as a rising stock having taken first in two qualifiers leading up to the event with close wins over Poker, YoonYJ and WCS Australia Champion PiG. Despite an unfortunate number of walkovers in the qualifier that won him his spot, he proved himself to be the best of the rest by winning against Petraeus in the finals without dropping to the losers bracket. His recent team switch could be tumultuous in different circumstances, but with the majority of his team mates and management also making the move with him it's hard to see him being particularly uncomfortable in his new surroundings.

3. tgun

The ever opinionated tgun has been relatively quiet in the lead up to this event. He claims to have not lost a series to an SEA Terran in months and looked firmly in control of his ZvP during the three closing games of the SEA Race Wars, but the strongest players in the tournaments are his rival Zergs. While he can't make particularly good use of the first place prize, anything except first will still be a disappointment for tgun.

2. MaFia

Quite possibly the best player not to take a large national LAN event in 2012. MaFia brings the kind of focus and intense practice that is required to truly be the best but has been unable to overcome his fellow Zergs at large live events. Rest assured, as he continues to build up more and more experience playing the best in the world it's only a matter of time before MaFia is unstoppable.

1. mOOnGLaDe

The one, the only, the perennial favorite for any Australian Starcraft competition: mOOnGLaDe. While other Australian Zergs have been nipping at his heels as of late, mOOnGLade still seems to pull through when it counts and with multiple international competitions looming on the horizon mOOnGLaDe is sure to be in top form.

Schedule:

Friday: 10am - 10pm
Starcraft 2
Gears of War 3
FIFA 12

Saturday: 10am - 10pm
Starcraft 2
League Of Legends
CoD: Modern Warfare 3
FIFA 12

When:

Some Time between 10am and 10pm Friday and Saturday

Stream:

http://www.twitch.tv/aclprosc2

Learn More:

EB Expo Information Thread
EB Expo on Liquipedia
Official Website

Layout: Dingobloo
Words: Dingobloo & Rogue
Rankings: SEA News Team

Quick Comments

	ETL.ViTaL:	Very nice writeup and graphics!
	deL:	Wrong. Spider #1.