Championship Sunday approaches and with it the most exciting moments of every MLG. The Championship Bracket Semifinals are ready to be played, and blood has already been spilt in the Losers Bracket. The final reckoning is at hand.
Pool A: South Korea Unchallenged
Our predictions held true. MarineKing, GanZi and MC remained the sting of Pool A even after it saw new blood in CrazyMoving and ThorZaiN.
The reigning champion MKP lived up to expectations and ended up being the best player in the entire group stage, not dropping a single map in the second day and ending with a 10-1 in score. Unlike some of the other groups, MKP's leadership was never challenged as both GanZi and MC could not take enough wins to come close to the top position. Although GanZi went undefeated in day 2, his losses against MKP and Sase kept him far beneath an undefeated MKP. MC, on the other hand, had a shaky performance overall, trading wins for losses until eventually finishing 2-3.
Photo by: Zemotion
The unsung hero of Pool A was another Korean, however, by the name of CrazyMoving. His rare GSL appearances led to my full and honest surprise of seeing him so high in the standings, but there he was, having crushed his way through the open bracket, beating players of the calibre of Illusion, Attero and Select to make it to pool play. There, he beat Sase and Thorzain (the latter also a seed from the open bracket after defeating Nony and Bling) to finish with a better score than MC but placing behind him due to an earlier direct loss to him.
The Korean hegemony left the two Swedes at the bottom of the pool. Thorzain would finish with just one victory against MC and would later fall to Golden 1-2 in the champion's losers bracket to be eliminated from the tournament. 5th place finisher Sase is playing Select today and should he win he will be facing Haypro.
Pool B: The usual suspects
Remember how I said it would be just like DongRaeGu to go to an MLG and completely crush his group? Well, he did it again. DRG built upon his earlier 3-0 score, adding two more wins and finishing undefeated with 10:2 in maps. As was the case with MKP, DRG's leadership went completely uncontested, DeMuslim and JYP being the only ones that could take a map off the zerg beast and thus were the closest to ever defeating him.
By the time the pool was finished, Naniwa and JYP were tied in maps and score for the second place. JYP shared CrazyMoving's experience, starting at the bottom of the open winners bracket and climbing all the way to the pools, trampling over players such as HasuObs, State and his team-mate Idra, dropping only a single map overall. After losing the series against Naniwa 0-2, the EG protoss quickly recovered to score three in a row against Haypro, Ostojiy and Demuslim until finally being defeated by the group leader DRG. However, his final placement would go all the way back to that first match against Naniwa. With both of them tied 7-4, it was all about their direct clash from earlier and thus the Swede took second.
Photo by: GosuGamers
Pool C: Ten in a row
Ten in a row, indeed, or the four words that best describe Heart's ascent from the open bracket to being the winner of Pool C. Morrow, Ddoro and Inori all fell victim to Complexity's new Korean terran acquisition and Heart comfortably settled in the higher floors of MLG. There, he continued his impressive run as both the foreign elite and his Korean compatriot proved no match for his skill.
Pool C was also the one with the most contrasting difference between the top and the bottom three. Ret, KawaiiRice (from the open bracket) and Socke all managed to score but just one victory against one of the other two, thus being as far from the leading trio as possible.
Aside from his loss to Heart, HuK had, as he often does at MLG events, an excellent run. His 4-1 score put him one series ahead of the third place finisher Violet, who will be sharing a championshop bracket lane with Alive, Haypro, Sase and Select.
Photo by: WellPlayed.org
Pool D: Champions in the Brewing
When we did our preview look onto MLG, I was convinced that such a congregation of still not fully untapped talent can bring nothing short of overflowing excitement. I was not wrong. Although Grubby had the misfortune to end up with five Koreans in his group and thus placing last with 0-5, the rest of the pool was a blast from the beginning till the end. The first day ended with Oz, TheSTC and Parting all tied up 2-1 while no other group was at a similar position at that point. As day two unfolded, Pool D welcomed Rain and Alive who would bring further disturbance within the sextet.
Parting was the first to break the three-way tie as he walked out victorious against Alive 2-1, only to see his opponent score three in a row to be tied with him a couple of matches before the completion of the tournament. The question of who is going to be the Pool D leader was answered by Parting as the ST protoss triumphed over Rain, knowing that even if Alive won his last series (which he didn't), he would still have the direct win advantage at his side. Eventually, Alive would come second before TheSTC, leaving Oz, Rain and Grubby behind. The Dutch protoss is now eliminated from MLG after losing to Select 0-2 and Rain is playing Golden in CLB round 3.
Photo source: Gamezone.com
| MLG Winter Championship Day 1 Standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Group A | Group B | |||||||||||||||||||||||
  MarineKing | 5-0 | 10:1 |  DongRaeGu | 5-0 | 10:2 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ganzi | 3-2 | 8:5 |   Naniwa | 3-2 | 7:4 | |||||||||||||||||||
| MC | 2-3 | 5:8 | JYP | 3-2 | 7:4 | |||||||||||||||||||
| CrazyMoviNG | 2-3 | 5:6 | Haypro | 2-3 | 4:8 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sase | 2-3 | 5:7 |  DeMuslim | 1-4 | 5:9 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Thorzain | 1-4 | 2:8 |  Ostojiy | 1-4 | 3:8 | |||||||||||||||||||
| MarineKing 2-0 MC GanZi 1-2 SaSe MarineKing 2-1 GanZi MC 2-1 SaSe MarineKing 2-0 SaSe GanZi 2-1 MC Ganzi 2-0 Thorzain Thorzain 2-0 MC CrazyMoving 2-0 Sase MarineKing 2-0 CrazyMoving CrazyMoving 2-0 Thorzain MarineKing 2-0 Thorzain Mc 2-1 CrazyMoving Sase 2-0 Thorzain Ganzi 2-0 CrazyMoving | DongRaeGu 2-0 NaNiwa DeMusliM 1-2 HayprO DongRaeGu 2-1 DeMusliM NaNiwa 1-2 HayprO DongRaeGu 2-0 HayprO NaNiwa 2-0 DeMusliM Demuslim 2-1 ostojiy Naniwa 2-0 JYP DongRaeGu 2-0 Ostojiy JYP 2-0 Haypro JYP 2-0 Ostojiy JYP 2-1 DeMuslim Naniwa 2-0 Ostojiy DongRaeGu 2-1 JYP Ostojiy 2-0 Haypro | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Group C | Group D | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Heart | 5-0 | 10:4 | PartinG | 4-1 | 9:4 | |||||||||||||||||||
| HuK | 4-1 | 9:4 | Alive | 3-2 | 8:4 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Violet | 3-2 | 8:5 | TheSTC | 3-2 | 6:5 | |||||||||||||||||||
 Ret | 1-4 | 5:8 | Oz | 3-2 | 6:7 | |||||||||||||||||||
 KawaiiRice | 1-4 | 3:8 | Rain | 2-3 | 7:7 | |||||||||||||||||||
 Socke | 1-4 | 2:9 | Grubby | 0-2 | 2:10 | |||||||||||||||||||
| HuK 2-0 Socke viOLet 2-1 Ret Ret 1-2 Socke HuK 2-1 viOLet viOLet 2-0 Socke HuK 2-0 Ret Heart 2-1 HuK KawiiRice 2-0 Socke Ret 2-0 KawaiiRice Violet 2-0 KawaiiRice Heart 2-1 KawaiiRice HuK 2-0 KawaiiRice Heart 2-1 Violet Heart 2-1 Ret Heart 2-0 Socke | Oz 2-1 PartinG Grubby 0-2 TheStC Oz 2-1 Grubby PartinG 2-0 TheStC Oz 0-2 TheStC PartinG 2-0 Grubby Rain 2-1 Grubby Parting 2-1 Alive Alive 2-0 TheSTC Oz 2-1 Rain Alive 2-0 Oz Alive 2-0 Grubby Parting 2-1 Rain TheSTC 2-1 Rain Rain 2-1 Alive | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Day 3 Preview: The Heavy Hitters
The reigning MLG goliath versus the overly ambitious Parting is the first CWB semi-final. The seasoned veteran that graduated from a group of more seasoned veterans against the rising star that survived the best of the Korean new school.
Although both are so far undefeated in PvT, the odds heavily favor MKP. The Silver-king-no-more made a clear enough statement in the opening day when he crushed both and MC and Sase. Parting, on the other hand, had an easier group (if such a thing is even possible) but it is widely known that neither TheSTC, Alive or Rain are slouches to any extent so the ST protoss' feat should not be taken lightly.
Prediction: MarineKing 2-1 Alive
We have a similar situation in the second semi-final. DongRaeGu is by now so imprinted onto the MLG brand that you can hardly articulate one of the three-letter abbreviations without thinking of the other one. DRG's future is looking sweeter by the minute as he is playing a terran in the Ro4 - the match-up that he is most known for - and may well face another one in the WB final.
Thus far, Heart's only TvZ win that really counts is against Violet in the pool stage. It is true that he also played - and beat - Morrow and Ret but neither of those foreigners is doing particularly well this tournament and as such it is only logical for them to be no obstacle in Heart's crusade.
Inertia is on Heart's side, however. He is the only open bracket player that finished first in his pool and is still undefeated in the tournament. The question is how good a support will that factor be.
Answer: not a huge lot.
Prediction: DongRaeGu 2-0 Heart
Day 3 preview: The lanes of the losers bracket
Lane one: Rain, Golden, Ret, JYP, Ganzi
Day three will most likely begin with Rain versus Golden, a series that is impossible to predict as the two are equally matched. Whoever wins this, however, will most likely prevail over Ret as the Dutch is having a hell of a bad run in this MLG to then face JYP. If it's Rain we'll have a very balanced series as JYP's PvT is still very weak, despite improving a lot in recent times. If it's Golden, that I predict a win for JYP, followed by a loss against Ganzi.
Lane two: Sase, Select, Haypro, Violet, Alive
Round six will most surely see a Violet-Alive face-off as none of the other three are currently strong enough to make it that deep. Violet's worst match-up is ZvZ and Haypro, despite his past triumph over NesTea is still the lesser player. Violet vs Alive can go either way but I will still put my money on the terran, simply because with just one GSL top four, he has achieved more than each of his potential opponents.
Lane three: DeMuslim, Socke, CrazymoviNG, TheSTC, HuK
Expect something big to come from CrazymoviNG as I have the strong feeling that the Korean zerg is not yet finished. His match against either Socke or DeMuslim should be relatively easy to overcome but then comes TheSTC who is, more or less, a monster unleashed. TheSTC is yet to play his first TvZ in the tournament but when you are in possession of a 70%+ win rate on international ground there really aren't many reasons to be afraid. If everything goes normal, we'll get a battle between HuK and TheSTC, which I feel the Canadian has very strong chances of winning. After all, MLG is very much the stage that he performs best on.
Lane four: KawaiiRice, Polt, Oz, MC, Naniwa
It is just unfair to have all the great names on the same path to the top! The first match will most surely go into Polt's favor but from that point on every match-up is as unpredictable as a drunk uncle on a merry-go-round. This is amplified by the fact that should Oz win against Polt/KawaiiRice, it will be a PvP slaughterfest all the way till the end, which makes the lane all the more volatile.
