Iarna WTL 2021 - Nivelurile echipei și previzualizarea săptămânii 1

de: TheOneAboveU

După ce a oferit un sezon inaugural de succes al Liga echipelor mondiale (WTL) over the summer months, the SCBOYs deliver on their promise of two seasons of the globe’s premier team league being held this year. Brace yourselves, for Winter is coming!

Prinde WTL 2021 de iarnă în fiecare vineri, sâmbătă și duminică la ora 14:00 CEST Canalul lui Wardi!

O actualizare a formatului

Previous followers of the WTL or the previous iterations of the competition won’t have to learn any new rules as the Winter Season will continue with the same format as the previous season. Here’s a summary for anyone looking to follow the league for the first time.

During the first phase of the tournament, the Regular Season, teams will battle in a Proleague-style round-robin league over eleven rounds. The WTL’s unique trait is that each match is made up of three cel mai bun din doi series, with draws being possible. If the three BO2 series end in a tied map score, a best-of-one ace match breaks the tie and decides the outcome of the match. A clean, ‘regular’ victory without needing an ace match nets the winning team three points, while the losers get zero points. An ace-match victory provides two points for the winners, while the losing team is awarded one point.

Hărțile de pornire pentru fiecare BO2 sunt predeterminate, iar echipele își aleg în orb jucătorul pentru fiecare serie. Apropo de hărți: cu actualizările pentru grupul de hărți rămânând absente, SCBOY-ii au luat problemele în propriile mâini și au parcurs unele clasice—Îngheţ și suprainfectia will be making their return to competitive play, and GSL’s Uitare va apărea și în pool-ul de hărți.

The top seven teams at the end of the Regular Season will advance into the Playoffs. The playoffs are gauntlet/king of the hill style. The seventh and sixth place teams from the regular season play each other in round one of the playoffs, with the winner advancing to face the fifth place in round two. The round two winner advances to play the fourth place team in round three, and so forth. The match format for the playoffs is a hybrid all-kill format—it’s a bit complicated so we’ll explain it when we get there.

Clasamentul nivelului echipei

Korean Team NV participated in the WTL for the first time in the latest season and was able to walk the ‘Royal Road’ to victory—NV will be back as campionii apărării in the Winter Season and in many ways the number of their rivals has shrunk over the break: Afreeca Freecs lost strong players to military service over the course of last season, which already weakened their performance towards the tail end of summer, a trend that is likely to hold on. KaiZi Gaming also took a massive hit in their power level with INnoVation leaving to fulfil his military service. Dragon Phoenix Gaming remain as the only team with a roster of juggernauts, though it’s uncertain as to how long Zest will be on the roster.

Overall, two changes have occurred during the break in terms of participating teams. PSISTORM Gaming has taken over Team eXoN and retained their spot in WTL. Chinese Team LP unfortunately did not survive to see another season, the former runner-ups being replaced by new Korean team PREP eSPORTS, which has won a qualifier to this end. Once again, twelve teams will enter the season, but only five can lock in a spot in the Playoffs—with $46,000 USD on the line, which are spread over all the placements, there’s plenty of reason to fight for every rank over the next eleven weeks. To give you a rough outline of the ‘power levels’ of each team, we’ve ranked them into a tier list with three categories (order in the categories has no further meaning), so you can pick your favourite juggernaut or underdog to cheer for.

Nivelul S

Echipa NV
Vara WTL 2021: Locul 1

Bunny, HHQuanTa, Maru
DongRaeGu
Creator, Coşmar

Maru și-a dovedit reputația de unul dintre cei mai ucigași jucători ai ligii de echipă din istoria StarCraft 2 în cea mai recentă ediție a WTL, strângând un record de 17-3 în timpul sezonului regulat și ducând Team NV în playoff, unde a jucat un rol decisiv în asigurarea titlu pentru echipa din Coreea. Deși cu siguranță va continua să fie un atu vital pentru NV, acesta retragerea bruscă a sOs le-a furat a doua cea mai fiabilă opțiune, ceea ce îi slăbește grav în comparație cu sezonul trecut.

Bunny will have to step up and fulfil this role now, while DRG must fix his consistency issues (though he stepped up big in last season’s playoffs). Creator will be a big question mark going into the season: His form has trended upwards recently with several ESL Open Cup victories, but can the often-disappointing Protoss really translate these successes elsewhere and provide stability for his team? As it stands, Team NV are still able to field a very strong roster but may have to rely on more ace matches this season to secure wins.

Jocuri Dragon Phoenix
GTC 2020 de primăvară: Locul 1 | GTC 2020 toamna: Locul 3 | Vara WTL 2021: Locul 2

Vindeca
Întuneric, Pungaș, F91
erou, Vervă

Dragon Phoenix Gaming were able to steal first place during the Regular Season from Team NV in the summer but lost the revenge match in the Grand Finals. Silver is not an acceptable result for the superteam, and they’ll be aiming for the title once more.

Sezonul trecut, s-ar putea să fi fost discutabil cine ar putea prezenta cea mai puternică listă. În acest sezon, nu trebuie să aibă loc o astfel de discuție: jucătorii DPG au câștigat ultimele două sezoane ale GSL Code S și s-au blocat în trei dintre primele patru poziții în al treilea sezon. DPG conduce, de asemenea, clasamentul medaliilor ESL Open Cup cu 85 de medalii câștigate.

The main complication for DPG is the availability of Zest. He’s been omitted from the week 1 line-up—likely due to his GSL finals preparation—and it’s uncertain how his conscription situation could change over the last three months of the year. Also, could winning Code S finally cause him to take it easy after one of the most active years of his career?

If Cure and Zest can give anywhere near the same contributions as last season, DPG should be able to crush any opposition during the Regular Season—and the beautiful thing is: If they aren’t capable of doing that, Rogue and Dark stand ready to do their part. DPG also took a leap of faith by signing herO directly after his military service ended and WTL might just be the weekly proving ground for the Protoss to regain more of his old form. With more military returnees participating this season, it’s going to be very interesting to follow their development in particular. Once again, the Chinese team enters a team league season as the favorite to take it all.

A-Tier

Afreea Freecs
Vara WTL 2021: Locul 5

KeeN
Armani
Capcană

Echipele adverse vor ști cu siguranță la ce să se aștepte de la Freecs în fiecare săptămână în acest sezon, deoarece formația lor de trei jucători nu lasă loc pentru surprize reale. În ciuda formei sale strălucitoare, Trap nu l-a putut duce pe Afreeca în felul în care Maru a purtat Team NV și a suferit el însuși unele pierderi mari, pur și simplu mergând cu 13-8 pe parcursul sezonului. Cu toate acestea, Armani a dat echipei sale un impuls neașteptat, ajungând cu 13-7, în timp ce KeeN a făcut un debut puternic, târziu, în Playoff-urile de vară, în timpul cărora l-a învins pe ByuN. Deși nu mai sunt clasați printre adevărații juggernauts în acest sezon, fanii Afreeca pot spera că Armani și KeeN își vor menține performanțele bune și îi vor ajuta pe Freecs să revină în playoff.

Alpha X
GTC 2020 de primăvară: Locul 4 | GTC 2020 toamna: Locul 2 | Vara WTL 2021: 7

Ragnarok
Astrea, Clasic, TriGGer, Zoun

Dragonii de Aur au crescut peste clasa lor de greutate în 2020, dar s-au izbit de muntele realității dure în 2021. Acum, Alpha X s-a întors cu o întărire cheie: Classic a înlocuit Nisa și pare a fi destul de promițător după ce s-a întors din armată. În afara lui RagnaroK, Alpha X nu a avut o consecvență valoroasă în sezonul precedent, ceea ce ia făcut să rateze un loc în Playoff în cele din urmă - în ciuda unor greșeli cu adevărat norocoase ale celorlalți concurenți. A avea un alt veteran Proleague pe lista lor ar trebui să se dovedească a fi un atu vital pentru Golden Dragons, care ar trebui să aibă așteptări mai mari în sezonul de iarnă. Dubland puterea Protoss, Alpha X a semnat și TriGGer în timpul pauzei – canadianul a făcut câteva valuri în ESL Open Cups și DHM NA, dar este pregătit pentru ligile mari?

Joc de joc bun
Vara WTL 2021: 9

Vis
Vania
Cyan, NICE

The youngest of the Chinese teams participating in the WTL has invested quite a bit in reinforcements to gear up for this upcoming season, with workhorse Patience departing for military service. Bringing in Nice certainly makes sense in this regard: The Taiwanese Protoss brings Patience’s cheesy X-factor alongside some solid macro play, even though he may not be as consistent as GGG would want him to be. Vanya is a bit of an odd choice. Having a Zerg does provide some more flexibility and the Russian has been a solid DHM EU competitor, but it’s not a huge power spike for GGG. Dream will remain their ace and core of the team: Without him doing well, GGG won’t do well. What Cyan and the newcomers must do is provide support to the Terran and hope he can win some ace matches.

KaiZi Gaming
GTC 2020 de primăvară: Locul 3 | GTC 2020 toamna: Locul 1 | Vara WTL 2021: Locul 3

Spirit, TIMP
Curaj, Solar, Xiaose

How the mighty have fallen. KaiZi Gaming were one of the title contenders in every season so far but losing INnoVation can only be considered a critical blow for them. The Machine went 19-5 during the Regular Season (and 13-3 in the season before that)—can his replacement Spirit (aka souL), as good as he is, be realistically expected to even come close to matching this consistent success? On the positive side: Solar went 19-4 last season and historically is one of the greatest and most consistent players in this team league, meaning that KaiZi have one super-ace left to invest their hopes in. If Spirit and TIME, who himself was quite disappointing last season, can provide some support to the Zerg, KaiZi Gaming have some fight left in them. They’ll depend more on ace matches than in the past, but they can make a push for the Playoffs all the same if Solar can carry such a burden.

PSISTORM Gaming
CTC 2019 S1: Locul 5-7 | CTC 2019 S2: Locul 9-10 | Vara WTL 2021 (ca eXoN): Locul 8

Epic, GuMiho, MaSa, Special
Namshar, SouLeer
Adonminus, Gerald, MaxPax, Nina

In terms of sheer quantity, no one can easily compete with PSISTORM Gaming this season. Quantity, however, is not a quality of its own in this format. The US-based team sure possess some flexibility with their extensive roster, but the individual strength of their players is dubious. GuMiho must still get back to his old form and will have to prove his worth, SpeCial has repeatedly underperformed in the WTL, while MaxPax failed to live up to the hype in the previous season. Outside of this trio, things become more questionable: MaSa, Gerald and Nina can work some magic and punch above their weight class, though that’s not a reliable factor. Using Epic, the Zergs and Adonminus against strong Korean opponents would be wishful thinking at best. Still, the young MaxPax has continued to make strides in individual competitions since the end of his first WTL season, and he could very well end up being a difference maker in his second campaign.

Shopify Rebellion
Vara WTL 2021: Locul 4

ByuN
Lambo, Scarlett, TLO

Going into their second season, the Rebels will be in high spirits. After their surprisingly strong run during their debut, there’s no real need to prove anything anymore—they’ve shown they can compete with the best. The big question, which remains, is: Can they do it again?

It feels like Lambo’s exceptional performances last season in and outside this league may have been an outlier, especially considering his rise and fall in individual competitions. However, the tactically astute German might return to great form in this preparation-based format and repeat his strong summer performance. ByuN’s form is the other major question for Shopify, as he seems to be in the middle of a lengthy slump. And, of course, there are the ever-present concerns about Scarlett’s motivation as well.

Captain TLO has a chance to steer the Rebellion ship to another playoff appearance, but it’s clear that he has an unpredictable crew.

echipa Liquid
Vara WTL 2021: 6

Clem, Kelazhur, uThermal
Harstem, MANA

Liquid is in a similar position to Shopify in that there were no roster changes. However, TL lacks the Rebels’ confidence gained from a successful run into the Playoffs and will be under pressure to make things work this time around. Once again, a lot will hinge on how well Clem can perform. The Terran undeniably carried Liquid’s efforts last season, but losing critical maps to underdogs like Nice and Coffee also throws some blame on the young Frenchman for his team missing the Playoffs. Of course, his teammates must do a better support job this season, if Liquid wants to finally break into the top five—relying on ace matches alone is a dangerous strategy, so scoring a couple of clean wins will be necessary.

Nivelul B

Invictus Gaming
GTC 2020 de primăvară: locul 6 | GTC 2020 toamna: locul 8 | Vara WTL 2021: 11

Cafea, XY
Jim, MacSed

What is there to say about Invictus Gaming after seeing them in every iteration of this league? You can’t help but root for these Chinese underdogs of the old guard, who may suffer losses week after week but are still always good for one or two huge upsets each season. Last season, forcing an ace match against Team Liquid had massive implications on the Playoffs race, for example. Once again, Invictus won’t compete with the top teams for a spot in the final five. Instead, they’ll compete for each and every map win, upsetting some favoured teams on the way and being an annoying hindrance you can never underestimate. Their name says it all, though perhaps not in the way you’d think: Invictus means ‘undefeated’ and that’s certainly not the case with them. ‘Unbeaten’ is, however, a very good description for them, as they come back with an unbroken spirit each week.

PREP eSPORTURI
Nouă intrare în ligă

Bly, Byul
YB, Are, Puzzle

The new Korean team around town has won a hard-fought qualifying battle to feature in WTL Winter as replacement for Team LP and their roster at least promises that they’ll do better than their rather unfortunate predecessors. With Bly and Has on your roster, you just know you’ll get some crazy wins on the board at some point. The team also has some Proleague experience in the form of the prior CJ Entus duo of ByuL, who is nowhere near his old form yet, and YB, who was formerly known as Hush. We can’t expect too much from this newly formed squad in terms of overall success. What PREP brings to the table, however, is the weekly possibility of a favoured team getting blindsided by whatever insanity Bly and Has can cook up in the few days of preparation time they are given—no one will be safe against PREP eSPORTS and we might see some hilarious map drops against them.

GP de echipă
GTC 2020 de primăvară: locul 7 | GTC 2020 toamna: locul 7 | Vara WTL 2021: 10

Percival, Ryung
Cham, Gamja
Dandy, LunaSea, Prinț, Încredere

Team GP returns for another season with an intriguing reinforcement in the person of Percival. The Terran debuted in the WTL for Team NV last season and scored a clean victory on that occasion, his repeated forays into Code A at least mean that he can compete with many of the present opponents on equal terms. Together with Ryung, who’s shown a knack for stealing maps, Percival could pose a danger to many teams. The Terran duo certainly is the strongest contingent of Team GP and the rest of the line-up won’t be half as reliable to score maps. However, competition at the bottom of the table should be fiercer this season overall as no one can rely on the ‘free-win’ that was Team LP anymore.

Săptămână 1 Previzualizare

Vineri, 01 octombrie 12:00 GMT (GMT+00:00) Meciuri

Will Team Liquid be able to become a delivery service for ace matches again? It’s definitely a possibility in Week 1: With Liquid'Clem și NV.Maru ambii cauta sa obtina victorii curate asupra adversarilor lor, multe vor depinde de Liquid'Harstem‘s performance against NV.Iepuras on Frost—their last competitive matches on that map should date back quite a while, so whoever can adapt the best will have a marked advantage in this duel. Overall Team NV should be able to secure the season’s first win, a potential TvT between ace players Maru and Clem favouring the four-time Code S champion.

Pronostic: Team NV 4-2 Team Liquid

Este posibil ca KaiZi Gaming să fi fost retrogradat în clasamentul nostru în comparație cu sezonul precedent, dar unele meciuri favorabile împotriva Good Game Gaming îi lasă într-un loc favorabil în săptămâna 1. KZ.Spiritul se bucură de un avantaj statistic sănătos faţă de GGG.Cyan și ar trebui să reușească un debut de succes pentru noua sa echipă, deși adversarul său chinez nu este în niciun caz un walkover. Ne găsim următorii doi jucători într-o situație puțin amuzantă: ambii GGG.Vise și KZ.TIME seem to live in a deep black pit of misery when it comes to TvT at the moment, their recent records being disastrous—we’ll have to wait and see who can make the best out of this scenario, but TIME would already score a huge win for his team by merely stealing a map off his Korean opponent. While GGG.Vanya, al doilea debutant din această serie, este pe hârtie capabil să facă același lucru împotriva KZ.Solar, KaiZi’s ace player is backed by dominant numbers when it comes to duels with the Russian: the Korean leads 11-1 in maps and 5-0 in series this year. If the Russian winter can’t help Vanya out on Frost, Solar should have no problems closing this series out.

Predictii: Joc bun Jocuri 2-4 jocuri KaiZi

Sâmbătă, 02 octombrie 12:00 GMT (GMT+00:00) Meciuri

Saturday starts off with a banger of a series and a blast to the glorious past of Proleague—at least that’s what the names of αX.Clasic și AF. Capcană being pitted against each other reminds me of. The Golden Dragon’s new star player will go into the match as an underdog, but having recently beaten his opponent 3-1 in a Bo5 series does show that even a not yet fully powered up Classic can be a dangerous foe for the best. In return, αX.Zoun ar trebui considerat favorit peste AF.Armani, care nu au putut câștiga o singură hartă împotriva lui Protoss în ultimele trei serii Bo3. Această confruntare ar trebui să fie incitantă până la sfârșit și probabil mai departe, așa cum αX.RagnaroK și AF.KeeN should be quite evenly matched and may well delay a decision into the ace match. In this case, the Freecs should be slightly favoured with Trap at their disposal, but we’ve seen Alpha X pull off crazy ace snipes before.

Predictii: Alpha X 3-4 Afreeca Freecs

This one is really going to depend on which Invictus Gaming is going to show up: If the Chinese veterans can continue their relatively solid form from last season, we’re in for a good match-up here as PREP eSPORTS may be greeted into the WTL with a little more resistance than they’d like. iG.MacSed a existat de mult timp – cu siguranță suficient de mult pentru a ști cine exact PREP.Bly este și ce face cel mai bine. Fie că este vorba de contra-brânză sau de apărare solidă, Protoss-ul chinezesc ar trebui, în orice caz, să fie pregătit pentru orice a gătit ucraineanul. PREP.Puzzle scoate o hartă de pe nume mari ici și colo, dar în general, recordul său PvT pare destul de neimpresionant în acest moment. iG.XY pe de altă parte este un zeu literal quite a cunning opponent to face, despite the statistics clearly favouring the Korean. Certainly, he can be hit or miss with his strategy calls, but this won’t be an easy ride for the former KeSPA draftee. Likewise, PREP.Are, care pe parcursul calificarilor WTL sa dovedit clar a fi asul echipei sale, are avantajul iG.Cafe, dar se poate găsi în fața unui atac neașteptat de proxy înainte de a-și putea iniția propriile planuri.

Predictii: Invictus Gaming 3-4 PREP eSPORTURI

Duminică, 03 octombrie 12:00 GMT (GMT+00:00) Meciuri

Team GP have not exactly won the lottery by getting Dragon Phoenix Gaming in Week 1 and starting into the season with a devastating loss, but on the positive side they’ll have that particular massacre behind them. Okay, it may actually not be that bad, but chances for it are pretty high: All of DPG’s players enjoy heavy statistical advantages, which GP’s roster will have a very hard time overcoming. One player might beat those odds, but all three of them at the same time? Unlikely.

Predictii: Echipa GP 1-5 Dragon Phoenix Gaming

PSISTORM Gaming aduce aproape cea mai bună echipă a lor împotriva Shopify Rebellion, făcând din acest duel nord-american unul interesant. PSISTORM.MaxPax și SR.ByuN both had rather underwhelming summer seasons with their inconsistency being the big issue for their teams. Head-to-head the Korean should hold the slight advantage, on any server other than Europe he still hasn’t lost a series to the young Dane—a map-split is certainly in the cards, though. In their long match history, SR.Scarlett are PSISTORM.SpeCial bătut îngust. Înregistrările recente ale meciurilor indică totuși o pereche ușor favorabilă pentru mexican - dacă Terranul joacă într-adevăr la nivelul său, adică.

Incertitudinea este numele jocului pentru ultimul nostru meci: PSISTORM.GuMiho, who’s probably been one of the quieter military returnees in terms of results, faces off against SR.Lambo, last season’s great hero of the Rebellion. How are we to estimate those two facing each other? Lambo seemed very comfortable in the preparation based format of the league, though ZvT has not been his strong point in ages. The Korean even beat the German in a tournament in August, their first ever clash. But will it tell the tale for the team league match? Things don’t actually look that great for Shopify in this series, but a lot of factors aren’t exactly determinable before we see the games and get a feel for the dynamics of this season: Does SpeCial show some fighting spirit this time? Is Lambo back to super saiyan form in this format? How good is GuMiho right now, actually? Based on last season’s performances, the Rebels seem like the much more motivated and invested force, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for Week 1.

Predictii: PSISTORM Gaming 3-4 Rebeliunea Shopify

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Sursa: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/578754-wtl-2021-winter-team-tiers-and-week-1-preview