$67,000 prize money is the most Starcraft 2 has ever seen aside from WCS since the IEM World Championship almost a year ago. So there is a reason everybody is hyped for Starleague – and here are the first six matches of the Challenger stage.
The matches take place today and tomorrow, starting at 7 pm korean time. The winners of each match advance to the main event, losers are eliminated.
[rogue] vs [soulkey] – comparison
A few months ago this wouldn’t have been an even match. [soulkey] was one of the best players in the world until mid of 2014 while [rogue] has been a mediocre player for south-korean standards. But the momentum has shifted: [rogue] eliminated [hurricane1] and [zest] flawlessly in the qualfiers while [soulkey] struggled against [bravo] and had to go through the losers bracket.
[classic (kdw)] vs [cure] – comparison
[classic (kdw)] and [cure] share a lot of similarities: Both are on their career-highs right now, they have played the exact same amount of tournaments and are part of the World Ranking for the exact same time. And both of them surprised in GSL last year. [classic (kdw)] won Season 2, [cure] was third in Season 3 – sounds like an exciting match.
[terminator] vs [taeja] – comparison
Not much to say here: [taeja] is as much of an favourite as he could be. The terran player is far more experienced and way higher up in the World Ranking. What speaks for [terminator]? Well, [taeja] struggled a bit in the qualifiers (lost to [gumiho], didn’t win any other match 2-0) while [terminator] beat allegedly better players like [stork].
[solar] vs [dream] – comparison
The difference in the World Ranking shouldn’t bother you: [dream] is the one who knocked out [kangho] and [hyun] in the qualifiers so he sure is ready to take on [solar]. The latter has won two important tournaments this fall though – Dreamhack Stockholm and MSI Beat It – so we can expect an exciting match between two 18 year old youngsters.
[life] vs [flash] – comparison
Just by the sounds of the names, this is the highlight of the first two days of Starleague, maybe even of the Challenger stage in total. [life] is one of the most successful players in the history of Starcraft 2 (and just 17 years old) while [flash] is a living legend of Broodwar. And if that wasn’t enough both players are fit for this match: [life] is the champions of the WCS Global Finals, [flash] won IEM Toronto this summer and was runner-up at the latest HomeStory Cup.
[scarlett] vs [ty] – comparison
[scarlett] is one of two foreigners who got invited to the Challenger stage. The 21-year-old Canadian got a beatable opponent in [ty]. The Korean is mostly known as a teamleague-player with less success at individual tournaments. But he has a record of 6:0 maps from the qualifiers in which he defeated [hero2] amongst others. Still, [scarlett] should advance… just so foreigners have a reason to watch the main event.