WTL 2023 Summer - Vecka 4 Recap/Vecka 5 Preview

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av: Nakajin

WTL Summer kept bringing on the surprises in Week 3—or at least, the Starving Camels did. The underdog squad forced BASILISK all the way to an ace match, further establishing their wild card credentials. The other surprise of the week was PSISTORM's 2-4 loss to Platinum Heroes, which may have started a crisis for last season's 3rd place team. PSISTORM owner KJ twittrade att rosterändringar kommer, vilket gör oss ganska nyfikna på vilka förstärkningarna kommer att bli.

Inför vecka 5 ser tältmatchen ut att vara Shopify vs Team Liquid. TL har presterat bra sedan han lade till SKillous, men förlorade rejält i sin mest utmanande match mot ONSYDE. En vinst mot Shopify skulle visa oss att den här TL-truppen verkligen har nått en nivå från tidigare säsonger och kan hänga med i playoff-lagen.

Also, the Starving Camels are on upset watch again as they go up against ABYDOS. Perhaps ABYDOS didn't get the memo that SSLT are the most dangerous team in the league at the moment, deploying Mondo over NightMare or DRG. This gives the Camels a chance to force another ace match against a stronger opponent, or even get the win.

Veck 4 Sammanfattning

Topp 7-lag kvalificerar sig till slutspelet.
De två nedersta lagen måste kvalificera sig om.
Poäng tilldelas enligt följande:
3 poäng för en seger i en serie som inte kräver en essmatch
2 poäng för en seger i en serie som kräver ess-match
1 poäng för en förlust i en serie som kräver ess-match
0 poäng för en förlust i en serie som inte kräver ess-match
瘦死骆驼 (Svältande kameler) 3 - 4 BASILISK
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After some scheduling confusion, TooDming and Trigger opened the 4th week of WTL Summer (the Liquipedia graphic above lists the 'official' match order, but the actual match order was TooDming vs Firefly, Silky vs Serral, and then Firefly vs Reynor).

Things were seemingly benign for the Protoss player going through his build progression in game one, but only because he didn't realize the impending danger. Trigger only found out about TooDming's Roach-Bane all-in when it already reached the middle point of the map, and he ended up losing his vulnerable third base after panic-warping units behind some defensive sim city. Despite this, Trigger still had a card to play by hunkering down on defense and playing for a longer game, but he misread ToodMing's intentions once again. Trigger stepped out onto the map just as TooDming was getting ready for a second wave of attacks, which meant he ended up walking headfirst to his doom.

Looking to keep up his momentum, TooDming followed with a good old Queen-Nydus all-in on Altitude. Had his Nydus Worm been spotted a second earlier, his initial attempt in the main may not have worked, but luckily for him, hypotheticals don't go on the scorecard. TooDming took the 2-0 and put the Camels in a fantastic starting position. (By the way, just so everyone remembers they’re old, Trigger said in a post-match interview that he didn’t even know who TooDming was. Still, you figure SOMEONE who watches the WTL should have told him TooDming is one of the cheesier players.)

After stunning Shopify's ByuN with a 1-1 last week, Silky didn’t come close to delivering SSLT the needed upset this week against Serral (although we did get to see a pretty quirky Muta-into-Lurker build). Serral took the 2-0, leaving it to Reynor and Firefly to break the tie.

If one could frame a game of StarCraft and hang it like a painting, Firefly's game one against Reynor deserves a prime spot on his wall. After showing air-tight defense against Reynor's infamously slippery Lings, Firefly also pulled off a near-perfect hold against the committed Roach-Ravager-Bane-Queen attack off of cour bases. That left Firefly with four Colossus and a huge army, which he used to shove the Zerg's head under water and keep it there. For the second week in a row, Firefly had the opportunity to close a match with PvZ on Dragon scales. He chose a similar idea as last week's match versus Lambo, going for a Stargate into a greedy quick fourth with double-robo Colossus behind it. Despite his build being a bit safer than last week, Firefly could not psych out Reynor the same way he did to Lambo. Reynor's mass Roach hit while Firefly was still weak, cutting through him like a hot knife through butter.

Eftersom Serral inte var en som står mellan en man och hans ego, såg vi Reynor ställa upp för essmatchen för att avgöra hans BO3 mot Firefly. Reynor valde återigen aggression med Roach-Ravager-Queen drop-trakasserier som återigen försvarades av Firefly – den här gången genom nagelbitande Blink-Stalker-kontroll. Kamelerna kunde förmodligen smaka seger för en sekund, men Firefly rycktes med i jakten, vilket ledde till att han förlorade många av sina Stalkers för ingenting. När spelet saktade ner visade Reynor sin kusliga förmåga att spela bakifrån, och skapade en öppning för sig själv med ett Ling-fall i Protoss-huvudet medan han sköt den fjärde med sin Roach-Ravager-armé. Det draget orsakade stor ekonomisk skada, vilket gjorde att han säkert kunde tech upp till Vipers och vinna spelet rent.

Overall, SSLT followed their eye-opening performance versus Shopify last week with another surprising showing, highlighted by Firefly's performance. The #7 seed and a playoff berth seems very much in play for SSLT, and taking a single point against Basilisk may end up being hugely valuable. As for Basilisk, dropping a point is far from the end of the world, but the #1 seed might become an unrealistic goal if ONSYDE continues to dominate and collect full points.

Berserker eSports 1 - 5 ABYDOS
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Två bekanta ansikten ledde anfallet för Berserker, även om det i slutändan var en laddning till nederlag. Först spelade Spatz en respektabelt nära PvP mot Creator innan han böjde sig med 0-2. #3 Finske Zerg Mixu stal nästan oavgjort mot Cure, när hans Queen-Ling-Nydus bashandlade mot en Hellbat-Marauder-timing i spel två. Cure hanterade dock den kaotiska situationen mycket bättre och knep 2-0.

Continuing their rather endearing commitment to giving everyone a chance to play in the WTL, Berserker sent out their 8th different player of the season in TeebuL in the final match. The former DHM Oceania champion salvaged a point for Berserker in the very last game, thanks to every Plat-2 player's favorite build ‘’nothing into DT’’.

Team Liquid 5 - 1 Starlight Twinkle
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Spirit and SKillous clashed in their 63rd match against each other, this time with their teams' success in the balance as well. SKillous took game one, absorbing a lot of damage and surviving some scary moments before prevailing with his Colossus-Gateway army. Looking to get the 2-0, SKillous went for a two-base Blink attack in game two. However, a bit of anti-micro saw him lose his Prism during his first attack, and he had to content himself with a 1-1 tie.

Clem did not give an inch to Nice in our second BO2 of the night. On Gresvan, Clem denied any scouting by the Protoss and surprised him with a three-rax attack for the win. Things were looking more promising for Nice on Royal Blood, with his good defense against a Mine drop giving him a shot at winning with Glaive Adept + Phoenix all-in. However, Clem seemed to sense something and stayed on mass Widow Mines, and blasted Nice's army to smithereens.

The final match opened with Cham trying to be the aggressor in the Ling-Bane phase, but he couldn’t find any holes in Elazer defense. That strong initial Ling-Bane control proved decisive as Cham's follow-up Roach attack off of 45 Drones fell just short of breaking his opponent. It was then Elazer's turn to go on the offensive in game two, and he found much more success with a similar Roach-Ling attack on 45 Drones.

Overall, it was a strong showing for TL, who are looking more and more like a safe pick to make the playoffs. As for SLT, they're running out of 'winnable' matches, and a playoff spot could be out of their grasp unless they activate SSLT mode.

ONSYDE Gaming 6 - 0 Shopify Rebellion
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ONSYDE behöll sitt perfekta rekord för säsongen och tog ned Shopify 6-0 för att förbättras till en monster +20 kartskillnad.

Maru improved to 8-0 on the season with a 2-0 against Scarlett in the opener. Taking advantage of Altitude in game one, Maru busted out a battlemech composition to start. While Scarlett didn't get totally bullied, she wasn't able to impede Maru's ghost-mech transition at all, and eventually tapped out to a pre-Brood Lord timing. Game 2 was a weirdly impressive display from Scarlett, where she managed to keep things close for a while despite two absolutely boneheaded moments: losing a full hatch to three Reapers, and trading about 30 Banes for two tanks. Could she have stolen the tie otherwise? Perhaps—but as mentioned above, WTL doesn't deal in hypotheticals.

Solar and Lambo played a gentlemanly match on Gresvan to start, mirroring builds for much of the early/mid-game. Both players went for Overlord drop harass as well, but Lambo added Tunneling Claws on top of that. It seemed like the German Zerg got the better of the exchange by taking out 15 Drones, but Solar's decisiveness on the counterattack paid off. Possessing a temporarily higher Roach count, he secured a great fighting position outside of Lambo's fourth base and forced a fight that was enough to win him the game. In game two, Lambo once again found himself in an advantageous position, this time sniping Solar's third base with his early Ling pressure. But despite being a base down and on the same Drone count, Solar somehow not only kept up with Lambo's economy but actually overtook it. He expertly slipped in just a few more Drones into his army mix without exposing himself on defense. Solar then went on to defend Lambo’s Roach-Ling push, and from there rode his advantage to victory.

Ryung has yet to play a match that actually affects the outcome for ONSYDE, but he continued his quietly excellent campaign with a 2-0 over ByuN. The old fox out-positioned ByuN in two back-to-back marine-tank TvT's, completing the sweep for ONSYDE.

Invictus Gaming 1 - 5 Dragon KaiZi Gaming
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Det var ännu en förutsägbar utblåsningsförlust för iG, som är extra ansträngda av ett brutalt tidigt schema. herO gjorde en ganska intressant konstruktion i spel 1 vs Macsed, och gick för en timing mitt i spelet med sena Glaives efter en DT-öppning. Det var i stort sett lika intressant som det blev – BreakingGG vs Oliveira gick långt men var aldrig särskilt nära, och XY vs Dark var också ensidigt som förväntat.Platinum Heroes 4 - 2 PSISTORM Gaming
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Efter en hård rad av matcher under de första tre veckorna, var PSISTORM ute efter att ta sina första poäng för säsongen mot Platinum Heroes.

DnS’s faked an Oracle against SpeCial's Reaper scout in game one, and the mind game was perhaps the reason why SpeCial marched a Cyclone, four naked Marines, and a Medivac across the map. There, he was welcomed by a couple of Stalkers and Phoenix that cleaned up the push. SpeCial doubled down on aggression, but that only deepened the hole he had dug for himself, and the game ended in a loss. DnS's early game success continued in game two, getting the build order-win with a proxy-Gate opening versus a Reaper-expand. After dealing disastrous early damage to the Terran, DnS held off a one-base all-in from SpeCial (which did look threatening at moments), to give his team an unexpected 2-0 lead.

That gave Goblin an opportunity to close out the series with a good PvP performance against Gerald. It started well for Goblin, as Gerald panicked when he couldn’t find his opponent's hidden second Pylon and played overly defensive in game one. After figuring out he was safe Gerald tried to move out with Immortals, but Goblin chose that moment to Blink into the main, forcing a frustrated Gerald to turn back after losing a bunch of Probes. The PSISTORM Protoss tried to go for some sort of last-ditch Disruptor play, but Goblin finished the game before they could reach critical mass.

A visibly distraught Gerald had the weight of his team on his shoulders and opened game two very safely against any possible threats from his opponent. The game progressed into a similar Robo vs Blink scenario as game 1, with Goblin gearing up for a two-base killing blow while Gerald transitioned to Disruptors. Gerald put up a valiant effort on defense, but he couldn't stop Goblin's all-in attack and had to sign off on another loss for PSISTORM with his GG.

MaxPax's 2-0 over ShaDoWn came too late to change the result. All in all, it was a great result for PH and a ponderous loss for PSISTORM.

I said after last week's 2-4 defeat at the hands of ABYDOS that it was not yet time for PSISTORM to press the panic button. However, we have passed that threshold and the button has been vigorously pressed.

While we wait to see what roster changes are coming, it should be noted that there's a waiting period for new signees to become eligible to play in the WTL. The current roster needs to hold the fort until the reinforcements are allowed to play, so there should be plenty of more stressful matches ahead for PSISTORM.

Veckovis MVP: PH.DnS

In a week full of one-sided matches, it was hard to pinpoint our ace. Reynor did manage an ace win, but considering he was a heavy favorite going into his match, it would be wrong to crown him. Conversely, Firefly did steal the best 1-1 tie of the week against Reynor, but he can't be MVP with an overall negative 1-2 record.

Elazer and Goblin put in valuable 2-0 performances for their teams, but I think another 2-0 winner had the bigger impact: Platinum Heroes' DnS. The Frenchman's 2-0 victory over SpeCial, who is ostensibly PSISTORM's second best player, was the main reason PH managed to prevail. While PSISTORM's losing streak might be what stands out first, it was also a crucial win for the Heroes that put them a step ahead of Berserker and IG in avoiding relegation.

Veckans MVP:s:

Vecka 4. PH.DnS
Vecka 3: Alla på SSLT/瘦死骆驼/Starving Camels
Vecka 2: ABYDOS.Cure
Vecka 1: BASILISK.Serral

Förhandsvisning: ordinarie säsong vecka 5

Fredag 19 maj 12:00 GMT (GMT + 00:00) Matcher

ONSYDE Gaming vs Starlight Twinkle

ONSYDE ser sannolikt att fortsätta sin perfekta säsong mot ett Starlight Twinkle-lag som har en tuff väg framför sig.

Maru will be headed into his match with Nice just two days after the GSL RO4/Finals—Nice's only chance is if Maru is afflicted by a celebratory hangover or is in a catatonic despair state.

Spirit har en mycket bättre match-up mot Solar. De två spelarna är 50/50 mot varandra sedan början av året, och Spirit spelar sin karriärs bästa SC2. Spirit har ännu inte gett upp en 0-2 den här säsongen, medan Solar inte ens har tappat en karta. Med en av dessa streak tvingad att sluta på fredag, lutar jag åt Spirit som tar 1-1, men det skulle vara ett starkt uttalande om Solar kunde förbli fläckfri.

If Spirit does in fact take a map (or two), Ryung will have to play his first consequential match of the season against Cham. It's not the best match-up for him to draw, as TvZ has been his weakest match-up since his return from military service. Also, with the GOMTvT going on at the AfreecaTV studio, we can bet that he has probably spent the last week practicing the match-up with Maru rather than preparing for the WTL.

Blir de få antydan om en upprörd förening till något verkligt? Tveksamt – ONSYDE har varit fantastiska på att stänga av underdogs.

Förutsägelse: ONSYDE Gaming 5 - 1 Starlight Twinkle

Invictus Gaming vs PSISTORM Gaming

En obehaglig känsla av skräck kommer att finnas kring vår andra match. Den här matchen mot IG borde vara där PSISTORM stoppar sin nedåtgående spiral. De är favoriserade i alla tre matcherna och har en nästan garanterad essvinst om det på något sätt kommer dit, men det finns en kvardröjande oro för att saker och ting skulle kunna gå fruktansvärt fel om de låter pressen komma till dem. Om PSISTORM kan undertrycka nerverna de visade förra veckan och spela sitt eget spel borde de kunna börja sin comeback.

Prognos: Invictus Gaming 1 - 5 PSISTORM Gaming

Lördag 20 maj 12:00 GMT (GMT + 00:00) Matcher

瘦死骆驼 (Svältande kameler) vs ABYDOS

Vi får det allra första framträdandet av Mondo i Code S! Överraskande nog blir det inte Cure som får en ledig dag efter Code S final four, utan snarare Nightmare/DRG som sitter på bänken.

Ironiskt nog, efter rygg mot rygg överprestationer av kamelerna, tror jag att de inte kommer att kunna dra fördel av denna lyckoträff. Missförstå mig rätt, det finns fortfarande en hygglig chans att Silky eller Cyan glider något förbi sina motståndare. Men med Creator som spelar en jäkla bra PvZ för tillfället och Cure är kanske den bästa TVP-spelaren i världen, borde ABYDOS kunna tåla att ha en svag länk denna vecka.

En essmatch mellan Cure och Firefly skulle dock vara en njutning...

Prognos: Starving Camels 2 - 4 Abydos

Platinum Heroes vs Dragon KaiZi Gaming

Platinum Heroes' bottomless roster strikes again, this time with HateMe and ArT making their season debut (they were mainstays in previous Heroes campaigns in the WTL). There probably won't be any fanfare for their arrival, considering DKZ are 5 to 1 favorites or better in all three matches according to Aligulac, but it’s still nice seeing the team's veterans getting a chance to play again.

Prognos: Platinum Heroes 0 - 6 DKZ Gaming

Söndag 21 maj 12:00 GMT (GMT + 00:00) Matcher

Berserker eSports vs BASILISK

Ett topp 2-lag i ligan mot ett botten-2-lag i ligan i matchen borde vara en klar uppgörelse, men vi skulle kunna få sevärd underhållning. Det kommer uppenbarligen inte från Serral som lätt kommer att flytta till ett rekord på 11-0, men Spatz kan se på Trigger som någon han kan störa en bra dag.

If Spatz gets the 1-1, that could raise Rotti's stress level going into Reynor's match. Since the last WTL season, Reynor has won only two out of his fifteen regular season matches (the same as MacSed). Now I’m not saying the youngest player with $500,000 in career earnings is cursed in the WTL… …but I’m also not saying he’s NOT cursed. So, here’s to hoping he somehow breaks his 1-1 streak with a LOSS to PAPI to make this narrative as funny as possible.

Prognos: Berserker eSport 1 - 5 BASILISK

TeamLiquid vs Shopify Rebellion

Medan TL och Shopify ofta har sett lika starka ut på pappret, har Rebellion ständigt överpresterat i WTL medan pojkarna i blått ofta har blivit besvikna. TL kan dock vända på steken den här säsongen, speciellt om de kan slå Shopify direkt.

SKillous opens the match against the opposing team's ace Terran once more, and will again be looking to get a 1-1 for his team. However, ByuN is even scarier than Spirit, and the maybe-new-GSL-champion should be a favorite to get the 2-0 victory.

Clem's reputation as an unbeatable TvZ player has taken some hits over the years, especially when he's played against Korea's best players. However, a closer examination of the match-up shows that in the last year, he has lost exactly one TvZ against foreigners not named Serral or Reynor. Amusingly enough, Lambo is the foreign Zerg who managed to snatch that one win, but it's buried under a mountain of many more losses to the Liquid ace. I’m ready to give this match to Clem.

Elazer and Harstem have played 40 matches and 104 games against each other in their careers, and in that span, Elazer leads by a 2:1 ratio in games (76-38). Incidentally, that's the chance Aligulac gives Elazer to win a BO3, with the statistics website predicting a 2-1 as the most likely outcome. A 2-1 needs to be a 1-1 before that, so by that logic, I’ll say Harstem manages to take the tie and force the ace match.

If that scenario comes to pass, it will be interesting to see who gets TL's vote of confidence to face Shopify's likely ace in ByuN. Clem has lost to ByuN in previous ace matches, but Elazer and SKillous aren't exactly great alternatives against a player of ByuN's caliber. Whatever choice Liquid makes, ByuN is the favorite to close it out.

Prognos: Team Liquid 3 - 4 Shopify Rebellion