Red Bull’s Battlegrounds series takes its cue from MLG’s Arenas to form small, tightly focused tournaments that put just a couple of players into the spotlight. Although far less star studded than a WCS event, it’s also less exhausting to watch. In a sense, it’s cutting through the chaff, bringing together players who go to the finals, and those the fans most want to succeed. Battle Grounds New York brings together grand champions like sOs, an absentee in PartinG, and the cream of foreigner play: Scarlett and Snute. This is a mix worth talking about, and it’s one that Red Bull is wise to invest in.
Group A
For a brief time PartinG enjoyed the honor of being the world’s number one Protoss, but was soon supplanted by players like Rain, who were themselves lost in the shadow of 2012’s dominant Zergs. Now after spending most of 2013 outside the major tournament circuits, PartinG has swore to make a comeback. We’ll have to wait and see if, like MC, he clings to his old bravado, or decides to take a meeker path. A sweeping performance in StarsWar Season 3 notwithstanding, he probably won’t be crushing potato chips in his booth.
Bomber is PartinG’s main competition for Group A. While the fan favorite Scarlett and the average-as-can-be Korean Golden have a reasonable shot of defeating both of these players, we shouldn’t kid ourselves. Bomber has been one of 2013’s top players, coming away with the Season 2 Championship Trophy, and dealing another crushing blow to Jaedong no less. The BlizzCon finals then saw him drop out in the semifinals to the eventual winner, sOs, hardly a diminishing performance.
Group B
Speaking of sOs, it’s somewhat unfair but also quite interesting to see the BlizzCon champion taking a seat next to the rest of these players. True, we might see another sweep from him, but getting another demonstration of his style would be worth it. What’s more, send him against PartinG’s formidable PvP, and we have a bout worth waiting for. But PartinG won’t be sOs’s starting match. He’ll be dealing with the likes of MC and HyuN first. Snute will also be waiting, but his job, like all non-koreans these days, will be to surprise.
To say that Snute’s job will be to surprise, however, is to misrepresent first and foremost sOs himself. Coming off his BlizzCon victory, sOs will take the role of the big bad boss, and it will be everybody’s challenge and ambition to take him down. The onus of exceeding expectations falls heavily to MC and HyuN as well, who transitioned in their own time to the mid tier of today’s Koreans. Yes, they are strong, and we will not do Snute the disservice of saying he isn’t, but sOs is better. That just might be our chorus.
