[Zealo]

Zealo's PBSL2 preview:

Open only to West Australians, PBSL2 will be an 8 week, 8 round swiss tournament followed by the top 6 qualifying for a live finals event. The finals series will use a format which favours players who earn higher seeds from the regular season, so every spot (and every match) is important.

The following is purely my opinion, someone with more knowledge of the Perth players will probably tell me why I'm wrong.

To my knowledge, none of the competitors have ever competed in a league where you get a week to prepare for each opponent. Some will obviously handle it better than others and climb/drop ranks due to this factor. Some will drop ranks because they can't make it every week. i haven't taken these factors into account.

With that said, here are my predictions for the top end of the ladder come season end...

The Favourite:
1) Frustration
Representing x5, whether you love him or (more likely) can't stand him he's the outright favourite to win this league. since he entered the scene out of (seemingly) nowhere 5 months ago he has proven himself more than capable in online and off-line events, finishing 2nd to yang in his first tournament before winning a masters cup and RFlan41. While some people love to question his attitude; the level of passion, manner and ability I've seen from him at the last two RFlans greatly impresses me. Now that Perth SC2 is in the post yang era, frustration will go into every single match a red hot favourite, I see him going 8-0 for the season unless his schedule forces him to forfeit a match at some point.

The contender:
2) MrToast
Officially clan-less since the disbanding of wT (we consider him an honorary member of AsG these days), toast has been one of the top terrans in the Perth scene since I started getting involved as a low plat player. Toast has long history of finishing 2nd or 3rd in off-line events, most recently coming runner up in PBSL1 and RFlan41. If there's anyone left in Perth that can take the title from frustration, it's this guy.

Underachievers:
These guys all have reputations in Perth as good players, but don't really have the tournament results to justify those reputations. there's a high possibility I'm being biased because they're clan-mates of mine.

3) AsGNadir
One of those people who practices on the Korean server because he's too good for the rest of us. my pick for best zerg in Perth since i started paying attention to Perth SC2 tournaments, but Nadir has never really had a result that lives up to my high expectations for him. Hopefully being able to plan out every map (ie when to build a spawning pool :P ) will help him finally get that win he deserves.

4) Goosejuice
Recently recruited by pX after finally bothering to get promoted to GM. He's usually too busy to attend lans, but seems pretty keen for this league after being the dominant protoss back in SEACL tier 4. He's always willing to help people learn the game and has been my primary mentor/practice partner/2v2 crutch since I started playing. I'm expecting big things.

5) AsGCHoBo
Some say this infamous terran has gold-diamond level skills, some say low GM, he claims his current ladder rank (high GM) is legit. He managed to knock nadir out of the last RFlan. Chobo is generously donating to the prize pool, one of the BSG players will be receiving a coaching session from him. If his ladder rank is as legit as he claims, he shouldn't have any trouble reaching the off-line finals and performing well enough to silence his critics.
(Please don't derail the thread over any issues with Chobo and his past actions. All replays of this league will be made public, start a new thread if you find any evidence of wrongdoing by any player. PM me or Mooseable if you have any concerns)

Dark Horses:
Previously unknown (to me, at least) Perth GMs that have popped up recently and not really interacted with the rest of the Perth SC2 community much as far as I've noticed. if someone mentions them in Perth chat you can expect a response of "Who's that?" from most people. I haven't watched much gameplay, and nothing at all in the last 3 months, from any of them. It's entirely possible one of them has been practising hard enough to cause some upsets.

***** (see edit at bottom) *****

6) TNnomad
A protoss who I'm pretty sure beat some good players at the last two or three RFlans. I can't remember exactly and can't find the old brackets anywhere

7) Why
GM zerg who came 4th in PBSL1 iirc

8) Scalaz
GM protoss. i think he attended an RFlan or two?

9) FaDeUndoNe
A terran who i remember made a blog on Sc2sea that said he was happy about reaching GM but he would have to give up SC2 when uni resumes next year.

10) FaDeRawfish
I remember this zerg from PD clan league and SEACL tier 4. He was way better than me then, so if he's kept up his practice (i think he has, he lists his rank on the sign up as "KR Masters") he should be capable of taking down some names much higher on this list. He's never been to a LAN tournament as far as I know, so I always forget that he's actually from Perth.

Wildcards:
I would be shocked if they finished top 3, but they have the ability to cause upsets and possibly sneak a place in the finals. once again, I'm obviously highly biased here.

11) AsGSedz
The SC2 captain of AsG almost single handedly built the Perth SC2 scene around the tournaments he and Griefer used to run, and has been rewarded by having me troll him constantly ever since. From what I've seen on his stream, his ladder play isn't super impressive; but when he gets a chance to enter tournaments instead of running them, his consistently strong play style almost always snares him a result that exceed everyone's expectations. A few months on after switching to terran, i believe his skill has finally reached where he was as zerg. I know he's been training hard lately, I want to see some results.

12) AsGZealo (me)
The stereotypical random player / 2v2 player / troll. I haven't been able to play much in the last few months and I've never really taken 1v1s seriously when i do get to play. i do have a super competitive personality though, I'm hoping that playing as random will make me harder to prepare for, and when combined with my uncommon play-style I'm looking forward to causing some upsets.

Underated:
x) Paul
He only started playing this year, his 1v1 rank has improved from gold to high diamond in the 4 months since I started playing with him (I'm going to pretend my coaching played a major part in this). He would have improved a lot faster, but he mostly focuses on team games and almost never ladders 1v1. In practice games I'd rate him mid masters at least, last RFlan he got everyone's attention when he took a map off Nadir. The PBSL season is 2 months long, I'll be very interested to see if he keeps improving at such a rapid rate and where he finishes on the table.

Most of the above players will be at RFlan next week, results there will probably give a pretty good indication of how the PBSL table will actually end up looking.


ROUND 1 match to watch:
Sedz vs Liquid.
Round 1 is completely randomised, so there are a lot of mismatches. These two should produce an entertaining series though.

***** EDIT:
Mvp
Added into the bracket at the last minute, I remember not having heard of him when he was late finding the channel to the qualifier for PBSL1 and managed to take home the 3rd place prize. I'm pretty sure he's attended and RFlan or two without any outstanding results. I'm slotting him in above Nomad based on his relative success playing in front of the barcraft crowd last time