Thirty two players entered the MBC Hero Centre in order to determine who plays who in the coming MSL games. Some players entered in a somewhat shy and humble fashion while others entered in a blaze of dance moves and ceremonies to the great pleasure of the audience.
The selection process was carried out in the usual relaxed fashion, with embarrassing questions for the players and daring challenges from one player to another. MBC Hero's RuBy even won a Nintendo Wii as an award for best ceremony. After all was said and done however, the groups ended up like this.
| Group A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 fOrGG | vs | Leta | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Iris | vs |  ZerO | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Terrans are very well represented this MSL, the first group having no less than three of them. The MSL champion fOrGG gets to square off against OGN's Leta, who has been smoking hot lately. fOrGG's forte is not TvT according to his stats, but his overall play is such that this might be a close call. Leta prevailed in their last encounter in July, but this time might well be different.
The veteran Iris has cruised his way through the survivor and ends up having to face ZerO, whose achievements are far and few between. The only thing going for ZerO is the fact that he defeated Mind and Backho to get here, but it's hard to see him going much further than this. All in all the two strongest players in this group are most likely Leta and fOrGG, unless Iris pulls something really sneaky.
| Group B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Flash | vs | YellOw[ArnC] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Jangbi | vs | Bul_T | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Group B features two heavy hitters, Flash and Jangbi. Flash gets to make diced zergling out of Yarnc and Jangbi gets to handle Bul_T, a protoss with few recorded feats. Barring cheesy all-ins from Yarnc or Bul_T, the only excitement to be found here will probably be a match between Flash and Jangbi, who've squared off a few times before. These two will in all probability be the ones to leave the group as well in the end.
| Group C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jaedong | vs | go.go | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| UpMagiC | vs | FrOzean | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Another relatively uninspiring group which happens to feature Jaedong amongst a couple of lesser terrans. If there is one matchup Jaedong can be said to have some issue with it would be ZvT, but barring some major choking this won't be an issue. The remaining terrans get to battle for the second spot and it's a bit of a toss up. go.go might well advance if he's having a good day, otherwise FrOzean could end up nabbing it. UpMagiC has more experience than both, but that's pretty much all that can be said of him at this time. A difficult call.
| Group D | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Much | vs | firebathero | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bisu | vs | BackHo | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Poor firebathero. Everyone remembers the pylon heart and he probably remembers it the most. His TvP skills are shaky at best, and he's ended up in a protoss only group where the protoss players are Bisu, Much and BackHo. This might be a short run for the dancing terran. Much has, as he has for a long time now, played quite well against anyone and everyone, making him a prime candidate for advancement. Bisu has tackled both Stork and Much successfully and is another prime candidate, leaving BackHo. BackHo is constantly advancing when he really shouldn't, puzzling everyone in the process. Therefore BackHo might end up taking Bisu's spot, should he decide to continue this trend.
| Group E | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kal | vs | Stork | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| HerO | vs | Sea | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Kal and Stork is probably the most interesting matchup of the group. Stork has seemed to step up his game quite a bit lately and has been defeating everyone in sight throughout the summer. Kal conversely has been dropping some pretty awkward games against players he really shouldn't lose to, but he still remains a very skilled protoss. Against such opposition HerO will most likely struggle and flounder without too much of a fuss.
Sea is a tricky player to predict, given that he can play so solidly in the proleague yet fail to deliver in the individual leagues time and time again. His play lately has been pristine however, even defeating Stork in the All-Stars event. If he plays at the same level this time as he's done otherwise, he's bound for great things.
| Group F | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lomo | vs | type-b[s.g] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Canata | vs | Memory | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Canata must be rubbing his hands in glee, landing in a terran heavy group. Memory does strange things, like randomly defeating Bisu or fOrGG, but this is an exception rather than a rule. Lomo is solid enough to defeat an unproven newcomer such as type-b, meaning he'll probably be facing Canata in the winner's finals. Ruling out Lomo is often foolish, but Canata's TvT is on such a level that he must be considered the favorite if such a match takes place, forcing Lomo to defeat type-b once again or Memory.
Of course, there's always a chance that the unproven newcomer upsets everyone and qualifies to the Ro16, and Memory might upset as well, perhaps with a cheese. Upsets are often entertaining, so this would add some excitement to an otherwise rather dull group.
| Group G | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| free | vs | Dongrae | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| NaDa | vs | sAviOr | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Old school fans can take great delight in seeing the Tornado Terran go up against the Maestro in this group. Even better, one of them stand a decent chance at advancing, with free and Dongrae as their opponents. The group favorite would be free, although his recent performance is nothing if not lackluster. Dongrae is not a great player and should by all rights be defeated by all the other players in the group. As to who advances, it's up in the air. Might well be free and NaDa/sAviOr but who knows, we might just see both NaDa and sAviOr be heading to the Ro16 together!
| Group H | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hwasin | vs | fantasy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tempest | vs | RuBy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The final group is also a rather interesting one. Hwasin is seeded in from the last MSL and with good reason, being an established player with plenty of notches in his belt. The rest of the group consists of younger players who have shown potential throughout the tournament. Tempest defeated Luxury, fantasy trumped Nada and RuBy cruised through his group. RuBy has been showing promise for quite some time and will hopefully come into his own in this tournament. We'll have to wait and see if some new blood can make an impact on the tournament this time around.
Group A is logically enough the first group out. The games will be played on Thursday the 18th of September.
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