Just as the dust has settled from the clash between Bisu and JangBi and just after Bisu finishes applying his tongue to the trophy, the offline preliminaries for the next season are underway.



24 groups with 8 people in each and every group compete for the right to advance to the next stage of the MSL, the Survivor tournament. Some big names that were eliminated early in the previous MSL contend alongside newer, more unknown players. While the seasoned veterans did well this time around, there were a few upsets to be had.

Morning Groups

Group 1 had two large names playing in it, BeSt and YoonJoong. Both players easily dispatched their opponents in the Ro8, but surprisingly BeSt lost against a completely unknown protoss player, inyeon[3.33], in the Ro4. YoonJoong later crushed inyeon[3.33] in the group finals match and advances to the Survivor tournament.

In Group 2 the favorite to advance in the group was Luxury, or Practice as he's called these days, and he did in fact advance, although he did drop a game to every opponent he faced. His opponent in the group finals was the protoss GuemChi.

Group 3 was one of the more interesting groups, mainly due to the fact that JulyZerg faced none other that Idra in the Ro8. July ended up defeating Idra 2-0 before moving on to defeat LuCifer 2-1 in the group finals and advancing.

Group 4 had such players as Mind, oDin and assorted unknowns. One of these unknowns decided to show his fangs and defeated both Mind and oDin and will advance to the next stage in the MSL. sKyHigh is his name and has been seen in the GomTV Intel-Classic recently, defeating NaDa and Rumble. Not much else is known about this fellow, so we shall have to see how he does further ahead in the tournament.

Group 5 was GGPlay's group to win and he didn't disappoint, easily cruising through the group and defeating SoO in the finals 2-0.

Group 6 saw players such as Light, ToSsGirL and toSky play. Light went undefeated the entire group and ended up advancing. toSky defeated ToSsGirL and Tazza only to fall to Light at the end.

In Group 7 han, Rock and GoRush were vying for dominance, but GoRush ended up superior to them all, defeating han in the finals 2-0.

Group 8 proved that Midas is not completely down for the count yet, despite his uneven play as of late. Midas defeated Sky in the finals 2-1 and advances.

Afternoon Groups

In Group 9 one of the youngest Terrans around, BaBy, managed to defeat Dream.t)M18M 2-0 in the finals and continue on to the Survivor tournament, looking good while doing it.

Group 10: It's always pleasant to see an unknown player do well and advance. Horang2 is a Protoss player playing for OGN SparkyZ and beat Melon in the finals by 2-0.

Group 11 belonged to by.great, who cruised through the group without too much hassle and defeated Nbs 2-0 in the finals.

Group 12 was another snoozer of a group. While Oops, Spear and Notice can construct an amusing sentence together, they were no match for CJ Entus' Kwanro, who advances after defeating Spear 2-1.

Group 13 turned out to be a struggle between Calm and SaiR, one which Calm won handily. Calm has enjoyed wins against players like Stork and fOrGG lately, so perhaps this is not too surprising.

Group 14 had the expected players fighting for the advancing spot in the Ro4: Chalrenge, hyvaa, RorO[white] (not to be confused with the other RorO) and FireFist. FireFist ended up smacking both Chalrenge and hyvaa with 2-0 wins and will be the one advancing.

Group 15 was somewhat surprising, given the state of SKT zerg players. It seems the claims from the SKT players that their zerg players play very well during practice but choke on televised matches might be correct, as Hyuk will be advancing comfortably after a 2-1 win against HiyA.

Group 16 got a lot of attention as the Terran legend iloveoov was playing in the group. Unfortunately he did not fare very well, losing to ZergBOy[fOu] 1-2. The winner of the group ended up being RorO, who defeated JiHyun 2-1 in the finals.

Evening Groups

Group 17 was another sleeper, with a Zerg player named Modesty advancing to the next stage after defeating Haran 2-0 in the group finals.

Group 18 featured yet another Zerg winner. eSTRO's maGma defeated SKT's TheZerg 2-0 in the finals and will be moving on.

Group 19 had another eSTRO winner. Tester, the Protoss who scores wins against surprisingly good opponents at times, defeated Trap 2-1 to advance. Perfect Terran XellOs was in the group, but was stopped by Trap in the Ro4.

Group 20 consisted of Sea.Really, Shine and other players. Sea.Really and Shine easily made it to the group finals, where Sea.Really came out on top with a convincing 2-0 win.

Group 21 lacked surprises as well. Saint is a proven player that should advance out of a group such as this, and that is exactly what he did, defeating Violet 2-0 in the finals.

Group 22 was slightly more surprising than the previous one. EffOrt has been playing really well lately and continued doing so in the group. At least until he ran into the wall named BestGod, who handily defeated EffOrt 2-0 and putting his MSL journey to a screeching halt.

Group 23: Nearing the end now, some slightly more notable names were spotted in this group, TT, Jaehoon and Orion prominent among these. Jaehoon defeated the Zerg named Child 2-0 and advances.

Group 24 is the last group and the final heartbreak for some. Crowd favorites Sea and Pusan both failed to advance. Instead it is by.hero who, by virtue of defeating Pusan 2-0, is the final player to advance to the Survivor tournament.

Whew! This was a good time for Zerg, as 14 of the 24 advancing players are Zerg players. Of course, most top name Protoss and Terran players are seeded into the higher tiers of the tournament so this was perhaps to be expected, but a pleasant fact nonetheless. As usual, a few upsets and the odd upstarts doing well but otherwise the expected players advance.

For full group stats, check out the Teamliquid thread linked below.

Links
Teamliquid.net - Source