The WCS Challenger League is the time to shine for a lot of new players: On the first day of the third season this year we will see Drew ‚Phog‘ Roberts (16 years), Bailey ‚Bails‘ Thomas (18), Alex ‚Guitarcheese‘ Tarkoff (19) and chinese rookie Shana debuting. And some of them might be able to advance even further. Stats and trivia of Challenger League Day 1.

[match_huk_phog_4:3_11:9_3:1]

Though [huk] is the huge favourite in this game when it comes to former WCS-experience and prestige, [phog] may suprise: The American won the past three games against Huk. Both met in the Midwest Pro Am 1 Qualifier in April and twice in Copa America in June. Phog won 2:1 in each of these games. It would be game-changer in WCS America: Huk played in each season of Premier League so far while Phog plays his first WCS season ever.

[match_crank_shana_0:0_0:0_1:3]

[crank] has played in every season of WCS America to date and he has always been part of the Premier League. So you wouldn’t guess that just [shana] could break this series. The Chinese enters his first WCS-season ever, so far he has only played in a few asian tournaments. The chinese qualifier wasn’t that hard either: With the top players [toodming], [jim], [top1] and [macsed] already qualified, Shana didn’t have to beat any supposedly stronger players.

[match_hendralisk_vibe_2:1_4:2_3:0]

We got an balanced match here by all numbers imagineable: Both are almost tied in matches, they are very near in terms of World Rank, they don’t even distinguish themselves that much experience-wise. While [hendralisk] played his first WCS last season and made it to the Premier League in his first attempt, it’s the first WCS for [vibe] this year. In 2013 he was consistently in Premier League Ro32 though. Least, hendralisk and Vibe both play Zerg. So maybe it will come down to the mental state of both opponents tonight: Lately Vibe is 4:1 in ZvZ while hendralisk is 2:3.

[match_suppy_guitarcheese_0:0_0:0_1:3]

It’s the second attempt of [guitarcheese] to make it into WCS Premier League. And while you may easily underestimate him, let it be said that he almost beat [sen] last season but lost 2:3 in the end. Nevertheless, [suppy] is the clear favourite of this match: He played in each Premier League season since the beginning of WCS with one exception and he is clearly ahead in terms of tournament success and experience. But both players never met in official matches before so we might be surprised.

[match_neeb_bails_0:0_0:0_3:1]

Two seasons ago [bails] was stopped in Challenger League by [huk] easily but this time might be different. The young Protoss was the best player of the all-american Deimos Team League in April, made his first trip to MLG this summer and is currently on a 7:0-streak against Terran. So in a duel of two newcomers, Bails might not be the underdog. However, [neeb] goes into the match with the experience of three Premier League attendances and the training of the Fnatic.Academy.