$387,288.
This is, as of September 25th, Jang “MC” Min Chul in earnings according to SC2earnings.com. Less than $13,000 short, the legendary Protoss is now fighting to be the first to walk the final steps to the cherished $400,000, something he wanted to do during the Season 2 finals at Gamescom.
To MC’s disappointment, the event in Germany would not award him with this Gordon Gekko kind of reverie. It only teased him by giving him a victory over Welmu only to slap him for his greediness with the backhands of Jaedong and Rain. Instead of forty thousand, MC went home with just five and if many a competitor would be exuberant winning that kind of money in one weekend, it was a day of total defeat for the SK Protoss.
Fortunately for MC, he is still pretty close to the target and as of September 5th, his only true rival in earnings, IM’s MVP, is out of the race, having placed third in the Ro32. The remaining players in the top five are no threat as well: NesTea’s declined form almost guarantees that he won’t be anything big soon, Stephano is in retirement and Polt is almost $170,000 behind in winnings. No, there won’t be anyone beating MC to the $400,000 before the end of the regional Season 3 circuits.
Although there is no fear of losing the race in the foreseeable future, there are a couple of things capable of hindering MC’s strive for more cash. The first is the very number that separates him for the milestone. SK’s poster boy needs exactly $12,712 which is mere $712 more than the guaranteed earnings for placing top two in WCS Europe, meaning MC will have to win this season or try his luck at the Season 3 finals, should he make it that far.
MC (left) not really liking the check he got from Europe Season 2. Photo: ESL
Second, although the players who have a real chance at threatening his world-first $400,000 player are not exactly in the best shape to do that right now, it’s only for the time being. MC is right on the edge of not making the top sixteen cut out for Blizzcon – currently placed 15th with 2475 points – and should he fail to win some more WCS points, he might miss his chance at dramatically inflating his earnings at the world finals. Addtionally, before now and the Season 3 finals there’s only IEM New York as a premier tournament with a sizeable prize pool but MC will have to travel to the states and try and qualify through the preliminaries if he wants a piece of the pie and he has yet to get a spot for it through the on-site preliminaries if he even decides to travel to the US.
This means that a defeat today will likely exclude MC from a possible Blizzcon appearance which in turn will give his “enemies” an opportunity to melt the gap between their earnings and MC’s $387,000. Which brings us to “thing to hinder MC’s strive for cash” number three, which is what’s considered to be the group of death for the Ro16. Where other groups have hosted European underdogs or players with fluctuating results, Group B has welcomed some of the biggest names on the scene. MC’s first match is against Thorzain – EG’s Terran who has now split his attention between school and gaming – and while it looks like to be an easy series for the Protoss, the Swede is never a person you want to neglect. After all, if TargA can 4-1 a group with StarDust, Welmu and Happy, then Thorzain can pull a surprise just as easily.
Next on the list is Vortix whose specialty is killing Protosses, who’s won seven of his last ten ZvP games, who already beat MC 2-0 in the previous WCS Europe season and who 4:0’d his Ro32 group three weeks ago. Finally, we have BabyKnight, a Europe top eight finisher who is once again on the rise after a disappointing run in Season 2 and whose list of PvP victims this year alone includes Tails, StarDust, Grubby and Naniwa and who had the Protoss mirror as his best match-up in Wings of Liberty.
To put it shortly, MC will have to perform at his best if he is to earn what no man has earned before. Winning WCS Europe is going to be a tall order considering tournament favorites like MMA, ForGG, VortiX and StarDust are still in the pool but securing a spot for the playoffs should be his minimal goal.
