StarCraft II - IPTL - NsHoSeo needs a good showing vs Karont3 to advance to Up and Downs

Contender Division Group B has the most difficult situation to asses. Why? Currently, there are 3 teams with similar score: Team Empire 1-2 (10-13 in small points), Team Dignitas 1-2 (10-11) in small points and New Star HoSeo 1-1 (6-7) with one game left. Who’s going to join Karont3 e-Sports Club in the Up and Down Matches?

The game between the Spanish organization and Koreans is going to be the decisive factor in establishing the final result in their group.

Karont3 e-Sports Club line-up: LoLvsxD (Z), LucifroN (T), Ryo (P), VortiX (Z), AlaStOr (Z), MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

New Star HoSeo line-up: Tassadar (P), jjakji (T), Seal (Z), Sculp (T), SalvatioN (T), Brave (P)

Potential starters

Karont3 e-Sports Club: AlaStOr (Z), MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

Three players that I’ve put above are the ones loaned from other teams purely for the “Team Games:” AlastOr is playing for French organization, Team LDLC.com, MikOeL represents another Spanish team, Aprender, and Verdi wears Vega Squadron tag together with DaNa, Polish player who will probably represent his country in the upcoming WCG 2012 Finals.

So far, both Spaniards have opened a game for Karont3 with Zerg falling to BlinG and MikOeL defeating Beastyqt, but later losing to Brat_OK. Now it’s time for Verdi to open the most important match for the Spanish team thus far.

New Star HoSeo: Tassadar (P), Sculp (T), Seal (Z)

New Star HoSeo went from being one of the best teams in Korea to a mediocre organization with one star player on the roster and average key players. They’ve lost four players over the last 3 months and their IPTL performance wasn’t as good as people would expect especially in one of the weakest groups in Season 1.

So far, both Brave and SalvatioN opened a game, so now it’s time for one of the core NSH players to be the lucky participant in the opening game against Karont3. Just like with the Spanish, NSH starters represent all three races available in Starcraft 2. Should be interesting.

Key players

Karont3 e-Sports Club: MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

Both have decent results in IPTL and look strong against New Star HoSeo. I can see Verdi taking even a double-kill if Karont3 decide to use him in this match. As for MikOeL, he should be able to win at least one match just like he did against Team Empire, but will probably lose the next one. One should bear in mind that mediocre Korean player is still a level above decent European. We will see if that’s true in this case as well.

New Star HoSeo: Tassadar (P), SalvatioN (T)

So far besides jjakji they are the only players to grab a win in IPTL Season 1, thus it is safe to assume that they might be able to do it again especially against core Karont3 players. However, even when most of Karont3 roster is out there are always LucifroN and Vortix left who might be more than enough for NSH this time.

Ace players

Karont3 e-Sports Club: LucifroN (T), Vortix (Z)

Duran brothers are currently considered top Europeans with a huge potential that they’ve been showing for the past few months. IEM and DreamHacks were perfect tournaments for them to shine and make room for themselves among the best of the best in the world.

Both had a huge experience with Warcraft 3, but back then it was LucifroN who managed to achieve some international recognition. This time it is Vortix leading the family with impressive results lately.

But, are they going to fall in a slump as always? LucifroN was a one game wonder back in W3 era and after three / four good tournaments he quickly became another pray among beasts like Grubby, Moon or Sky. Is the same thing going to happen to Vortix? Let’s hope not.

New Star HoSeo: jjakji (T)

Although he failed to stay in GSL Code A jjakji is the best player on NSH, but despite his unstable play he managed to grab a victory for NSH in their match against Team Empire. However, in NSH match against Team Dignitas he wasn’t able to defeat Bischu.

Prediction

New Star HoSeo 1 > 5 Karont3 e-Sports Club

At this point Karont3 is just too much for NSH. If Team Dignitas was able to defeat NSH 5 – 1 then Karont3 will crush them even harder. I expect to see one game won by jjakji  and that’s it. In that case, Karont3, Team Dignitas and Team Empire will have 1-2 score so their small points will count when deciding who’s going Karont3 in the Up and Down Matches. However, if NSH win then both them and Karont3 are the undisputed winners of Contender Division Group B.

Tune in on October 19th to our stream to watch Karont3 e-Sports Club against New Star HoSeo live!

Source : ign[dot]com

Alphas: "When Push Comes to Shove" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

No, the fact that Nina and Rachel had a go-for-broke make out session in this episode isn't the reason the score's higher, although it certainly didn't hurt matters. "When Push Comes to Shove" took a break from the Stanton Parish storyline and had Dr. Rosen and his team focus solely on helping one of their own: Nina. And it did a great job of illustrating one of the most interesting aspects of this series - the fact that each member of the team is broken in their own way. Some more than others. And with Nina, the greater the power, the stronger the spiral.

Nina, who was the one member of the team whose powers didn't quite fully mesh with the case-of-the-week mission format, has always been the most dangerous of Rosen's crew. Her mind-control abilities might not be suited for battle, but this episode showed us just how dangerous they are and exactly why, as Rosen states, the government fears her. Plus, the fact that she was growing more powerful gave the whole story a whole "Dark Phoenix" twinge. By the end of the episode, it looked like she was even pushing her own mind in order to continue along her self-destructive path.

The flashbacks featuring Nina and Tommy growing up in the Bronx were sublimely tragic and did a lot to color in Nina's character, which didn't really exist in Season 1. In fact, last year, the way the writers mostly made her relevant was by putting her in a relationship with Cameron. There were a couple of cool little tricks along the way here too, with Rosen discovering that he had been Nina-pushed and didn't know it, and the reveal that Nina had pushed Tommy, who had wound up rejecting her back when they were still kids. Those elements, the team's basic helplessness when it comes to Nina and Yes' "I've Seen All good People" at the end all made for a mighty strong episode.

Yes, the team can pretty much be dismantled by Nina if she puts her mind to it. Which made Rosen all the more important in this episode. Because the way to take down Nina isn't with tactics or force, it's with reasoning. And Nina will only stop when she determines that it's time to stop. For a little while, at the rate Nina was going, I wondered if this episode was going to be it for her character. And that Kat might take her place on the team. In fact, at the end when it looked like Cameron's hand might slip off the cable hook, I thought Nina might push him and have him let her fall. To save him.

Rachel and John's relationship business got solved too, with John revealing that he's a recovering burn victim who's also not too crazy about all the touching. He wasn't much match for Cameron in the "guns drawn" department, but since this mission was off-the-books, we can let it slide. So far this season, the character work has been much stronger than the actual case work. Which is good. Especially for an episode like this that involves an in-house case.

Now get out of here before I take off my towel and show you my fruit.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!

Source : ign[dot]com