WCG 2007 Group Prediction

The top two of each group will advance to the single elimination brackets, where the winners will be determined.

As usual, there are some players who will advance in their group pretty sure while others have to be afraid to not be able to do so. Let's have a look at the groups.

Group A

This group does not seem to be the hardest one, although one of the players who can go very far in the tournament is in it - HoT. It looks like the Ukrainian superstar from SK Gaming will make it to the first place in his group for sure, the more interesting question is: Who will make it to the second place?
XyLigan might be the favorite here, with a good day he would maybe also be able to beat HoT and make it to the first place. But also LongWalk is doing very good lately and might be the one to beat if one wants to become first or second. The others seem not to be able to make it into the top two rankings of Group A.

Prediction:

1st:	HoT
2nd:	XyLigan / LongWalk

Group B

The outcome in this group is quite sure as there are two of the biggest candidates for the overall final competing. Moon and ToD - it does not look like any of the others can overcome these two powerhouses and finish first or second, although TeRRoR, DNA and Ghost are quite known to the community as well.
But who will finish first, the Korean 'fifth race' or the French superstar? They both can beat each other and have showed so several times, but it looks more like Moon will be able to finish first, since he is playing Nightelf and ToD is complaining about the Human vs. Elf matchup quite often. Nonetheless ToD will give him a tough battle and can finish first as well, it's going to be interesting who will make it in the end.

Prediction:

1st:	Moon
2nd:	ToD

Group C

Maybe the easiest group this year. XlorD will finish first and the others battle for the second rank. The prediction for the group winner seems quite easy, but the prediction for the second place is much harder. HasuHasi is quite known in the German community but isn't a world class player. The others are, like HasuHasi, most likely only known in national communities and no one had his breakthrough in the international scene. Although it is very hard to predict the second place finisher, it is easy to predict their further way in the single elimination tournament: Whoever qualifies will be out in the first round, everything else would be one of the biggest surprises in WC3's WCG history.

Prediction:

1st:

XlorD

Group D

After the group that's considered as the weakest this year, let's come to the group of death! Two Koreans, one Chinese - Lyn, SoJu and Sky. This would almost be enough to say Group D is the group of death, but next to these world class players there are some more! ZeuS for example. Although he doesn't seem to be in his best shape - what's the case almost every time - he showed the WarCraft 3 world that he can surprise very much. At ESWC 2006 he finished second, something nobody would have expected before the tournament, next to this he showed his real strength at some WC3L finals, scoring the important and deciding points for his team - although he was considered to not be in shape. Next to this, Lose from Lithuania and for sure Ciara are players who can beat the so called top players at a good day as well.
Nonetheless it looks like Lyn and Sky will be the ones to beat if the others want to make it into the top two. The best chances next to them has got SoJu if he trained enough the last weeks.

Prediction:

1st:	Lyn
2nd:	Sky / Soju

Group E

Group E could be called average. The first place will most likely go to SaSe, being followed by either Protois or Konna. SaSe can be beaten by those two aswell though, since he seems to be no too stable. One day he beats almost everyone and another he loses to players being seen as far worse than him. Protois and Konna are good players but will have to overcome their nerves, since they don't have that much experience with such a big event. The other players are only underdogs, if everything comes as expected they won't play such a big role in this group, although Firestrike for example has got some experience as welll.

Prediction:

1st:	SaSe
2nd:	Protois / Konna

Group F

Once again the first place finisher seems to be quite clear. Fly100% has showed that he is able to beat almost every world class player at the last NGL-One finals and therefore is the big favorite to end on top of this group. The second place will most likely go to TiTaN, who might not be on the very top of his game but still is doing very good. He could also be able to beat Fly100% on a good day, but it more looks like he should keep an eye on MysT, who might surprise by becoming second instead of TiTaN.

Prediction:

1st:	Fly100%
2nd:	TiTaN

Group G

Two month ago the winner of Group G would have been a clear guess: Creolophus. But nowadays his name is some kind of question mark. How good is he after officially quitting his career as a professional player and starting to study again? He was 2007's best and most successful player until he quit gaming, being top three in almost every big tournament he participated in. Now he might lack training, but how fast does someone become worse? The biggest competitors of Creolophus seem to be the Canadian APM, Swift from Russia and sLh from Poland and therefore Creo should still be able to win the group, although he might not be in best shape.

Prediction:

1st:	Creolophus
2nd:	APM

Group H

The last group but for sure not only favorites for the last places! Grubby and xiaOt will battle out the first two places, if Giacomo can't surprise and win the Undead vs Orc matchup - which is considered to favor Orc players - against one of them. DeMuslim seems not to be able to beat the two Orcs, but who knows, maybe WCG2007 is the tournament where he shows that he's a real 'King'?
The battle for the first place is something that isn't too easy to predict. Grubby seems to be the better player than xiaOt overall, but as almost everyone knows the mirror matches aren't his strength at all. But since almost everyone knows so, Grubby will know best and might train it a lot.

Prediction:

1st:	Grubby / xiaOt
2nd:	Grubby / xiaOt