And we're back to Jönköping?, Sweden, as it's June and as June tradition has it, 'tis time for eSports enthusiats and pro players alike to forget everything about the outside world, stock on energy drinks with questionable quality and get ready for three days of DreamHack action.
There's plenty of renown flocking to Sweden this weekend, which is a fortunate thing to write knowing how a lot of players announced that they will be missing the summer gathering. Some were, luckily, replaced with other names of equal if not greater stature while others simply made it in the very last second.
If we try to compare this DH Summer to the last one, we'll simply find ourselves in quite the predicament. The 2012 one had powerhouses like Taeja, HerO and Keen and it had foreigners dominating in spite of them. It saw Stephano meeting his end and MaNa taking the trophy, surviving Dimaga's manic ZvP. It saw an aww-inducing camaraderie at the finals marking the second time in a row that westerners will hold their ground, something which cannot be labeled an oft occurrence these days.
What of this DH Summer? Well, it might or might not have all of it. What it does have for sure is 127 players and one kid to rule them all.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves and StarTale's Life is just a small piece of the playoffs everybody (or at least we) want to see. Having said that, let's start with the hometurf boys:
Photo: Kevin Chang??
NAME: Thorzain
COUNTRY: Sweden
RACE: Terran
TEAM: Evil Geniuses
Ever since DreamHack Stockholm 2012, EG's Thorzain has become one of the faces of the DreamHack circuit. Though he never repeated that particular run and the closest he ever got was a top eight at Winter 2012, there is little doubt that the Swedish Terran will evoke maddening cheers from the local crowd. After all, he is the first and only Swedish winner of DreamHack and this is something he can always bring up in the popularity contest with his "rival" in this regard - Naniwa.
What Thorzain needs to do here is much more than a repeat of a personal success. On Swede's seemingly physically weak shoulders lies the burden of bringing EG back on their feet now that the team has lost Idra and is certain to not reach the Proleague playoffs. For the American organization, Thorzain is its best shot.
Photo: MLG
NAME: Naniwa
COUNTRY: Sweden
RACE: Protoss
TEAM: Alliance
If we bring out one half of the Swedish eSports royalty, we are obliged to talk about the other as well. In the last few months, Naniwa has been picked up by a new team and has cut back on his thrash-talk a little bit but where he continues to excel is coming up with interesting build orders and strategies, revolutionizing the Protoss match-ups one small step at a time.
Naniwa furthermore carries the momentum of DH Stockholm, where he narrowly missed the gold and finished second, causing a weird mix of disappointment and genuine foreign pride from viewers all over the world. Come this weekend, Naniwa will attempt at the trophy again, taking advantage of Leenock not being around to stop him. Now if only he can dodge Life...
Photo: itsjustatank
NAME: TLO
COUNTRY: Germany
RACE: Zerg
TEAM: Team Liquid
TLO is a weird lot. Around the end of 2012, he wasn't doing particularly well and in an interview with us at IEM Katowice he shared that he had to take a mental break from StarCraft 2, to put aside the handle TLO and become Dario for a little while. At that time, I had my strong personal doubts that the German will be able to recover and make his way back into the highly competitive, ever-developing world of StarCraft 2. In a scene so vicious and with such short memory, stepping away from the game even for a second sounded like an unwise decision.
But here TLO is, stronger than his ever been . The third best player in Europe according to WCS rankings and the fifth on the continent overall. Although sans the majestic beard of the days of old, TLO's presence on the scene can once again be felt, either through his diligency in swarm-host favoring playstyle or through him making playoffs after playoffs. With Heart of the Swarm so young still, now is the time for the innovative Zerg to unfold all his talent.
Plus, everybody really likes cheering for him!
Photo: Battle.net
NAME: Lucifron
COUNTRY: Spain
RACE: Terran
TEAM: Mousesports
It has been a tough couple of months for Lucifron. Or rather unfair couple of months, as the Spanish Terran just can't seem to win. Along with his brother, he carried Karont3 to a high position in TeamStory Cup. He improved by the day and found new ways to abuse old HotS tactics to make people cry in the dark before they go to sleep. He dominated left and right and got named "The best Terran in Europe" only to narrowly miss the Season 1 finals.
Jonkoping now opens doors to one very determined and very scary Lucifron. One Lucifron who desires the head of ForGG's compatriots (because of the lack of ForGG himself), of TLO for barring him from the Season 1 finals and of every other person who has stood and wills tand in his way.
After all, for someone named "the best" in some category, the lack of any premier gold is almost embarrassing and the Spaniard simply has no other option but to make playoffs.
Photo: MLG
NAME: Stephano
COUNTRY: France
RACE: Zerg
TEAM: Evil Geniuses
Although the StarCraft community has been taking Stephano for granted, it now has to adjust the idea that there're are a very few months left of his career. With his retirement coming very soon, the French Zerg needs something big so he can go out with a bang.
Stephano's days in Heart of the Swarm have definitely been bumpy ones. His first steps in the new game were a disappointment and led to many a speculation of if the "best foreigner of all time" will ever recover his previous form. Many of the naysayers were disproved during WCS Europe where Stephano ended up the runner up but placing second has never won anybody a trophy. His second shot at a WCS championship at Season 1 finals ended disastrously and the shadow of a doubt crept back.
All in all, DreamHack Summer might be Stephano's best chance to retire with a gold in his hands. A WCS Europe S2 run equally successful to the first one might be difficult to pull off but DH is different: it will allow Stephano to channel his power of improvisation, take advantage of the weekend-long tournament on European soil and crash some Korean and foreign skulls alike.
Photo: Foxy
NAME: MaNa
COUNTRY: Poland
RACE: Protoss
TEAM: Mousesports
Unlike TLO, MaNa has not been doing too well, not in individual leagues at least. He often comes to carry Mousesports to team league victory but outside the comfort of roster battles, the Polish hasn't yet reached the peak he experienced in 2012. His Ro32 WCS EU elimination came after a succession of unconvincing IEM results (at least for a player of his position) and he's dangerously close to losing the popularity battle in Europe.
It is around here that we ought to bring up that MaNa is actually the reigning DH Summer champion but that trophy was one in much different circumstances. In the summer of 2012, MaNa was playing some of the best StarCraft 2 of his career, the Korean opposition was small and the PvZ weakness of Stephano was figured out.
This time around, not of that is true and the Protoss star of Poland will have a very hard, if not impossible way to the trophy.
Photo: Helena Kristiansson
NAME: Dayshi
COUNTRY: France
RACE: Terran
TEAM: Millenium
It's weird how we don't talk much about Dayshi. We really should. Because away from all the WCS attention all over the world, this up and coming French Terran has been doing miracles for his team, as many as ForGG, in fact. Among them two all kills against the stupidly deep roster of Mvp and the all-Korean line-up of Quantic.
If that is not impressive enough (and it is), Dayshi has proven skillful in extracting foreign blood as well. After suffering Ro32 elimination in WCS EU S1, he casually strolled back to Premier league, leaving Elfi, HasuObs and Strelok - all proven representatives of the continent - to scrabble for promotion seeds in the second round.
No matter how we look at it, Dayshi is the perfect Cinderella story for DreamHack Summer and reaching playoffs should elicite wild applauds, regardless of his results thereafter.
Photo: MLG
NAME: Jaedong
COUNTRY: Korea
RACE: Zerg
TEAM: Evil Geniuses
It so happens that regardless of everything (literally everything), Jaedong will be the number one star of every tournament he is attending. Over the years, Jaedong has acquired an avalanche-sised fanbase ready to follow him anywhere, regardless of if his results, form and team. He's a Tyrant and a bonjwa and every tournament should be lucky to have him in the playoffs.
Which makes it all the more important for Jaedong to prove himself, and he desperately needs to do so here. The last time he was at DH, he made semi finals, losing to hometurf hero Naniwa under the roaring chants of the crowd. For Jaedong, this tournament is way beyond simply taking reveng on the Swede, it's about stopping to glide around his former fame and taking action towards regaining the "Tyrant" monicker, a title which doesn't seem to fit him nowadays.
Plus, if he wins this, he'd be the first of the TBLS to be coated in gold and that, I imagine, feels awesome.
Photo: Kevin Chang
NAME: Taeja
COUNTRY: Korea
RACE: Terran
TEAM: Team Liquid
A year ago we'd all be like "Oh, Taeja is attending? Just give him the money and let's go home". Nowadays, things are a bit different. The Liquid ace had to fight with hurting wrists and see his performance decline, which in turn led to him falling out of community's attention more and more. With the wave of new players coming from the KeSPA sea, Taeja not only had to fight against the "originals" but also against names which are all the rage right now like Innovation and Flash.
DreamHack Summer comes thus as the perfect opportunity for Taeja to get back what was taken from him. The attending line-up is strong but far from unbeatable and is one that would bring a great renown to the one who conquers it. The Terran in blue has a large experience in playing and winning and DreamHack finals. He only has to remember how it's done.
Photo: Ghostclaw
NAME: Violet
COUNTRY: Korea
RACE: Zerg
TEAM: Azubu
The worst thing about Violet is that we haven't seen a lot of HotS from him. His individual league performances are exclusive to WCS America where he not only didn't get as much exposure due to the lower viewership numbers but also had to forfeit the playoffs due to visa issues.
Violet was posed to miss DH Summer as well but he made it in the very last minute and that should make everyone exciting. Back in 2012, Violet was ridiculously good on international soil and in 2012 scored nine top four finishes, including golds at IEM and MLG. This is now his first time to the Swedish capital of eSports and for his fans' sake, Violet needs to deliver.
We simply need to see him play, as much as possible.
Photo: Quantic Gaming
NAME: HyuN
COUNTRY: Korea
RACE: Zerg
TEAM: Quantic Gaming
In spite of all his successes throughout his career, HyuN has always had a big fat question mark over his head. Although once a GSL finalist and IPL Fight Club caesar, the TSL-gone-Quantic Zerg never got that trampoline jump that would put him alongside other masters of the race.
What is even more terrifying is that I'm not sure that even a Code S win would've solved that. For all his good - no, outstanding - play and practice diligence, HyuN leaves more the taste of Seed, Jjakji and Sniper than of Life, NesTea or DongRaeGu.
That being said, making the playoffs should be an easy job for the Quantic maestro. From there, the struggle to prove himself in front of the whole community (for the umpteenth time) begins.
Photo: Wellplayed
NAME: Squirtle
COUNTRY: Korea
RACE: Protoss
TEAM: Incredible Miracle
Squirtle has the habit of looking beyond godly one month and kind of mediocre the other. He hasn't been in the prime spots of a Korean-heavy tournament like this one since his second place at 2012 WCS Korea and has struggled to show top form ever since.
Yet if we go back to the very first sentence, the paradigm dictates that Squirtle should be a force of nature at DreamHack. He received a bit of tournament practice in smaller scale international events (Numericable House Cup and Gigabyte Proleague in particular) so he should be warmed up just enough to make a strong stand in Sweden. The foreigners should not be a problem for the IM ace and it is his compatriots who he must fear, Terrans most of all.
Photo: Kevin Chang
NAME: Life
COUNTRY: Korea
RACE: Zerg
TEAM: StarTale
Do we really need to write anything about him. I mean, really?
We won't be the first to say Life is the absolute favorite to walk out with the easy money. Or remind you of all the shit he won in a couple of months. Or that he's still considered the best Zerg in all the world despite Soulkey's recent ascend.
So we'll just close this section here. See you when we screenshot Life with a fat cheque in hand.
Photo: Silverfire
NAME: HuK
COUNTRY: Canada
?RACE: Protoss
TEAM: Evil Geniuses
To put it mildly, HuK is beyond his prime. In fact, he's so much beyond his prime that his last results that weren't a placement in the double digits were in the first half of 2012, in another game, another meta and fewer unbeatable players.
So why would we even put him in here. Well, first of all, there aren't many Americans to begin with and skipping a third of them would not look good. Second of all, HuK's fanbase is still enormous and should he ever reach the playoffs by the power of seven different types of Gateway all-ins, it would be among the best stories this tournament, if only for its improbability.
Photo: Ghostclaw
NAME: Suppy
COUNTRY: United States
RACE: Zerg
TEAM: Evil Geniuses
While HuK's success in DreamHack Summer is doubtful at best, it's not so much the case with his team-mate Suppy. With Scarlett currently occupied with GSTL business and not able to attend, the young Zerg of Evil Geniuses flies to Sweden as the best North American player, at least to WCS standards. He was one of the only two Americans to beat the Ro32 of AM Season 1, he 4-0'd two Korean Terrans along the way and was only beaten by HerO and Revival, the two players who would eventually play for the WCS AM cup.
So what are young wolf's chances? Theoretically, if he gets to play a lot of ZvTs he should reach far, playoffs even, but his other two match-ups are subpar. He's been losing ZvPs to people who are likely below his skill level and even if even if his ZvZ has improved since AM Season 1, there are still a ton of players marginally better than him in the mirror. Regardless, if we are to pick one American player to make playoffs, that should be the one.
Photo: Kevin Chang
NAME: Goswser
COUNTRY: United States
RACE: Zerg
TEAM: Millenium
There was a time when Goswser was considered the up and coming star of North America, getting his fair share of Korean kills in MMA, Happy, Oz, Puma, MarineKing, Ganzi and almost even Life.
It is not this time. In year 2013, Goswser is trying to find his way back to this status where he was if not a force to be reckoned with, than at least a player capable of delivering an upset and making a Korean powerhouse blink against the monitor in disbelief, refusing to acknowleged the fact that some American "punk" just beat the crap out of him.
A playoffs finish at DreamHack for Goswser would mean getting rid of that "patch Zerg" label which many players "earned" in late 2012. If failure is tasted and followed by an equally unimpressive in AM Premier S2, Goswser risks being completely and utterly forgotten.
