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
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