You might be wondering why have some of the European LAN regulars been missing from the Assembly. Surely there must be a good reason why such grands of the industry as Mr. Speshal Taktiks or even those from Scandinavia such as Naniwa or Thorzain have chosen not to attend. And there is.
It's the European Battle.net Invitational, the reason, we suspect Assembly had to move over and give up the weekend time slot, hosting the event on the less popular choice of weekdays.
The stakes are high- with a 24 and a half thousand dollars on the line for an 8 player event, this quickly took priority over Assembly for those invited, and even forced Nerchio out of hiding, marking the Pole's debut on the international offline circuit.
Naniwa vs Strelok, Saturday 12:00 CET, STREAM(CLICKABLE)
The money might be a tempting reward but the competition is no less then adequate. And the first match is there to prove it. The TSL 3 Runner up, the MLG Dallas winner, the guy who will make his GSL debut just 4 days from now is taking on one of the most experienced, solid, and pioneering terrans in the business.
And surely Strelok has been nothing but impressive lately. Most notably came his 1st place in his NASL group, taking the set from, amongst other, the StarTale PvT sniper Squirtle. And being close friends with White-Ra, and teammates with the great Terran mastermind BratOK and the up and coming Russian protoss star Roll it seems that Strelok is posing a great threat to Naniwa.
We do however have our doubts. You see, Naniwa has a 15 to 5 personal record against Strelok. This is not only physical sign that Naniwa got the Ukrainian's number but also a sign of a great psychological advantage over the latter. Not to mention that Strelok's TvP has took some tumbles in the recent days- his losses against the lesser known Serashin and Monchi stick out like a sore thumb.
Round of 8GGDBTLPD vP/TMoney Lines 02:48 PST
Naniwa181-71 (72%) 147-66 (69.01%) [email protected]
Strelok211-101 (68%) 122-83 (59.51%) [email protected]
Ret vs Tarson, Saturday 12:00 CET, STREAM(CLICKABLE)
If you've been following Ret lately you would notice that he had his share of troubles and early exits - out of tournaments as a whole as well as out of the matches themselves. But you would also notice his amazing ability to macro.
It's been said by many very important people in the past that if you leave Ret alone his macro will outshine anybody else in the world. And it was never more obvious that in his IPL game against Socke where he had a maxed out army with drop and dropspeed at around 13 minute mark. There is no doubt then that if that guy is left alone he will not lose. But that one condition, that's a big problem.
His IGN winnerbracket exit by the hands of Select, his MLG exit by the hands of MMA and Rain, they all have the same thing in common - an early Terran aggression leading to the Dutchman's demise.
And his opponent- Tarson - is the master of that. A master of anything really. The versatility and stability of the Polish terran was evident since the very early days of beta. While he might not quiet been able to make it to the very top he was always a contender. And even those being written off by many after encountering a bit of a slump he has managed to prove everyone wrong when taking out Ret's close friend and practice partner - yet another Zerg macro king - Idra in the HomeStory cup and placing fourth behind the 3 best protoss from each continent.
This then, despite quiet large following in favor of Ret, the Pole's match to lose.
Round of 8GGDBTLPD vZ/TMoney Lines 02:48 PST
Ret61-42 (59%) 50-38 (56.82%) [email protected]
Tarson210-107 (66%) 105-78 (57.38%) [email protected]
It's the European Battle.net Invitational, the reason, we suspect Assembly had to move over and give up the weekend time slot, hosting the event on the less popular choice of weekdays.
The stakes are high- with a 24 and a half thousand dollars on the line for an 8 player event, this quickly took priority over Assembly for those invited, and even forced Nerchio out of hiding, marking the Pole's debut on the international offline circuit.
Naniwa vs Strelok, Saturday 12:00 CET, STREAM(CLICKABLE)
The money might be a tempting reward but the competition is no less then adequate. And the first match is there to prove it. The TSL 3 Runner up, the MLG Dallas winner, the guy who will make his GSL debut just 4 days from now is taking on one of the most experienced, solid, and pioneering terrans in the business.
And surely Strelok has been nothing but impressive lately. Most notably came his 1st place in his NASL group, taking the set from, amongst other, the StarTale PvT sniper Squirtle. And being close friends with White-Ra, and teammates with the great Terran mastermind BratOK and the up and coming Russian protoss star Roll it seems that Strelok is posing a great threat to Naniwa.
We do however have our doubts. You see, Naniwa has a 15 to 5 personal record against Strelok. This is not only physical sign that Naniwa got the Ukrainian's number but also a sign of a great psychological advantage over the latter. Not to mention that Strelok's TvP has took some tumbles in the recent days- his losses against the lesser known Serashin and Monchi stick out like a sore thumb.
Round of 8GGDBTLPD vP/TMoney Lines 02:48 PST
Naniwa181-71 (72%) 147-66 (69.01%) [email protected]
Strelok211-101 (68%) 122-83 (59.51%) [email protected]
Ret vs Tarson, Saturday 12:00 CET, STREAM(CLICKABLE)
If you've been following Ret lately you would notice that he had his share of troubles and early exits - out of tournaments as a whole as well as out of the matches themselves. But you would also notice his amazing ability to macro.
It's been said by many very important people in the past that if you leave Ret alone his macro will outshine anybody else in the world. And it was never more obvious that in his IPL game against Socke where he had a maxed out army with drop and dropspeed at around 13 minute mark. There is no doubt then that if that guy is left alone he will not lose. But that one condition, that's a big problem.
His IGN winnerbracket exit by the hands of Select, his MLG exit by the hands of MMA and Rain, they all have the same thing in common - an early Terran aggression leading to the Dutchman's demise.
And his opponent- Tarson - is the master of that. A master of anything really. The versatility and stability of the Polish terran was evident since the very early days of beta. While he might not quiet been able to make it to the very top he was always a contender. And even those being written off by many after encountering a bit of a slump he has managed to prove everyone wrong when taking out Ret's close friend and practice partner - yet another Zerg macro king - Idra in the HomeStory cup and placing fourth behind the 3 best protoss from each continent.
This then, despite quiet large following in favor of Ret, the Pole's match to lose.
Round of 8GGDBTLPD vZ/TMoney Lines 02:48 PST
Ret61-42 (59%) 50-38 (56.82%) [email protected]
Tarson210-107 (66%) 105-78 (57.38%) [email protected]
