The times Stephano has been the best foreigner in a tournament probably rival those of HuK. As Championship Sunday approaches, it's up to Millenium's zerg to make the western world proud again.

Players are judged tournament by tournament. It might be a flawed system executed by the community but we cannot help it - progamers are only as big as their recent successes.

At the end of the last year all eyes were set on HuK, during last season's Code S it was Naniwa who made the headline and now with Spring Arena coming to an end it's only Stephano that matters. By the end of last night, the great Frenchman kept his status quo of the best foreigner in New York this weekend and practically dismemberred both MC and Heart to reach the WB finals.

There are just a few more miles land two or three matches left for Stephano but those are the thorniest ones. Five Koreans still remain in the tournament and although Stephano is already guaranteed a top three finish I am sure he would very much have that $10,000 cheque instead.

The end of the winners bracket

Before we resume talking about Stephano, let's first examine another two great progamers: Polt and Violet. As the last draft ot the tournament, TSL's terran did not disappoint. Often do we forget Polt's ST championship, his Assembly gold or his DreamHack Stochkolm second place and this is an atrocity that should cease to exist. Encumbured with the Herculean task to survive one of the hardest ZvT challenges that Spring Arena had to offer, Polt had to knock down Bly, DongRaeGu and his team-mate Symbol thanks to his cool head during base races, the Korean discipline to fight from behind and, of course, his trademark unfaltering macro.

Polt's golden road, however, hit an unmovable obstacle in Violet. Polt opened all three games with cloaked banshees and hellions but by map three, Violet had taught himself to defend more than perfectly against the harass. Still, game three on Entombed Valley was a prolonged endurace race but winnin a fourth ZvT in a row would not happen for Polt. This sent Violet to the winners bracket final and supporters of his opponent Stephano can hope that the Frenchman had watched and learned from Violet's macro-based ZvZ against Leenock from earlier.

If being in the winners final is not a feat enough for Stephano, then how about earning it by defeating MC for the first time on stream? And what about the way he did it, survivng a near-lethal +3 blink all-in from the protoss in game one and switching to full macro mode in game, making use of the super-sayan--cookie-cutter brood lord/mothership composition, which was flatout OP against MC's stalkers? Compared to this brilliant manhandling of MC, the next victory against Heart seemed barren and unimpressive, despite the reward of a WB final spot.

The war below

Until Diablo III becomes an e-Sport, the losers bracket are my new tournament love. Fighting on the edge for your tournament and winning (or losing) induces far more entertainment than simply following the winenrs bracket to see who will make it to the grand final.

Starting from top to bottom, we saw Dream do the Polt dance and play six TvZ's in a row for the last two days before ending where he began - in a match against Symbol. Prior to meeting his eliminator, MVP's terran ended the tournament lives of Idra, Losira, Bly and Leenock and although we can argue day and night that none of them are in a particularly sharp form, Dream's run does not lose any meaning. We can also argue that things could have been different had there been not the extended series rule (making him start at 0-2 against Symbol) but this would be also false - Symbol was just better and always knew how to play to Dream's critical openings.

Much to my colleague procyonlotor's delight, the German Samson was kind enough to deliver another great MLG performance after his Winter Championship Cinderella story that was the elimination force for Puma, DeMuslim, Crazymoving and TheSTC. This weekend in New York, Socke played one of the best Bo3's in the tournament so far, blazing out Thorzain in a series that featured a 40+ minute game on Daybreak and a desperation yet pure genius fourth nexus after losing his army in game three.

Although finishing off Thorzain was impressive enough, winning the first map against DongRaeGu was even a larger surprise. The reigning champion was knocked to the losers bracket by Polt and was now a game away from elimination but to the joy of his fans, he managed to pick himself together and hammer down Socke with the full might of a Korean overlord. Unfortunately, that seemed to have drained him out of mojo and packed his luggage after facing MC in the next round.

Sunday night predictions

LOSERS BRACKET ROUND 6: HEART VS SYMBOL

If we each take the time to name three Korean terrans and three Korean zergs, the names of Heart and Symbol will rarely come out, if at all. The truth, however, is that both of them deserve much more respect that they are currently getting and hopefully after this MLG they will be getting it more often.

Heart is the Winter Championship third place finisher but TvZ is not his forte at least compared to his prowess against protoss. On the other hand, Symbol also made the headline recently, finishing second at Iron Squid after playing on par with Mvp in the groups, 3-0'ing MarineKing in the playoffs and giving MMA more than a hard time in the finals. His ZvT record betrays victories against Jjakji, sC, Taeja and Puma making him, in short, really really good in the match-up. Look at what he did to Dream...

Prediction: Symbol 2-0 Heart

LOSERS BRACKET ROUND 6: MC VS POLT

Oh, so this is not a Code S final? OK then.

This will be Polt's first non-TvZ in this tournament and he might have gone a bit rusty over the last two days, although he is nothing if not famous for his PvT. Unfortunately for him, so is MC and the SK terran has the momentum of knocking down MMA and Ganzi in the earlier rounds and having won five championship titles against terrans during the span of his career. If there was any other opponent against either of them, the odds would be heavily in their favor. Too bad that the tournament paired them against each other. Or is that too good?

Prediction: MC 2-1 Polt

WINNERS BRACKET FINAL: STEPHANO VS VIOLET

To conclude this write up, we make a huge circle around all MLG and end where we began - Stephano, who is already in top three and with another zerg barring his way to the grand final.

Beating Ret in day 1 was less than a mundane task for the Frenchman but as such, it cannot be taken into account when predicting the upcoming game agaist Violet. The Korean has sick micro left over from his WarCraft 3 days but yesterday he showed both Leenock and the audience that he is no stranger to standard macro games as well. Where Stephano can channel power and confidence from is that 4-0 IPL 3 victory against Lucky that shot him to the highest tier of progamers and the fact that he is by far the best ZvZ-er left in the tournament.

Prediction: Stephano 2-1 Violet