This weekend, the Swedish city of Jonkoping will host DreamHack, StarCraft’s next premier tournament where the majority of Europe’s elite shall test their strength against a few chosen Korean StarCraft II powerhouses.
We have a new expansion on our hands, Legacy of the Void, and this time the game has taken a new course, undergoing significant changes in the process. The macro will not play such a significant role anymore and the game has been designed in such a way as to reward smart decision making. Moreover, games will develop and finish much faster than in Heart of the Swarm, with the tournament being played in the new ladder maps created by Blizzard.
The tournament runs from Thursday to Sunday, when the BO7 final will take place, with the last player standing securing the title of the first champion in a LotV premier tournament as well as bagging $20,000.
In order to do that, the 24 participants will have to progress past the group stages by finishing either first, second or third in their six-man pool. The group winners will advance to the Winners’ bracket, while the second and third placed players will have to battle through the longer path of the Losers’ bracket to reach the final.
The main favourites for the tournament are the Koreans, who usually meet little resistance on European soil. However, there could be several potential upsets on the cards caused by an improvement in the standard of global players.
One of them is Lilbow, who is currently considered by many to be the best non-Korean StarCraft II player. He has a lot to prove though as he was stomped in a humiliating way at Blizzcon at the hands of the 2013 Blizzcon champion Life, despite going into the game with high hopes. According to rumours, his poor performance was due to his intensive training for Legacy of the Void.
Playing Terran is a hard job nowadays, but the Korean TY is more than capable of causing a stir in the zerg-protoss dominion. His solid play and utilization of the new Liberator unit during the online SanDisk Invitational II tournament, which was played in Legacy of the Void, helped him to reach the final. TY also landed two top four rankings in Star League Season 3 and IEM Season X in Shenzhen and has the potential to reach the top four at DreamHack.
Solar aced his way to the win at the SanDisk Invitational II. His roaches/ravagers combo made short work of Bomber and TY, who were overcome rather easily by him (4-1 in both games). He also crushed Stork in the opening round of the same tournament with a flawless 3-0 scoreline. Consequently, he is rightfully considered a serious contender for winning the tournament in Sweden.
PartinG needs no introduction as he holds something of a legendary status. 2015 has been a decent year by his standards, despite not being involved in many tournaments. Among his successes on the domestic scene of the GSL, he won this year’s DreamHack Open Tours, finished second in GSL Season 1 and second at the IEM Season X in Shenzhen, as well as securing top four rankings at IEM Season IX in Taipei and 2015 MSI Masters Gaming Arena in Seattle. Never boring, PartinG is one of the top players in this tournament.
While not in his best form, Bomber has been in the pro scene long enough to have the experience to succeed here. He set the bar for himself quite high in 2014, winning the Red Bull Battle Grounds in Washington and Atlanta, as well as WCS Season 3. He also finished second in WCS Season 2 and landed a top four spot in IEM Season IX at San Jose. His usual trouble is his lack of consistency and while he is known for his jaw-dropping moves, he is equally known for his bad decisions. He hasn’t managed to repeat his successes in 2015, but he did reach the top four in the SanDisk Invitational II (played in Legacy of the Void), demonstrating that the old dog still has it. He will most certainly be in the fight for the top places here.
