VIDEO GAMES

Every Sunday at 2 AM Pacific, Nick “Tasteless” Plott and Superdanielman commentate professional Starcraft matches from the Intel-Averatec GOMTV tournament in Seoul, South Korea. Download the GOM player from http://www.gomtv.net/classics3/live/ and tune in by clicking the Live link at the appropriate time.

This week we begin the round of 16, and of the 16 predictions I made at the beginning of the round of 32, 13 came true. Of the three I missed, MVP beat Shine in a TvT of nobodies I didn’t think much of, Violet beat Luxury in what I would describe as an upset, and Much beat Falcon, avenging the Panda Bear Guy and moving on to face Jaedong in this round. So without further ado:

Flash(T) versus Hoejja(P): Hoejja is still a relatively new player, and although I think he has a lot of potential and I would love to see him beat the Terminator here in the round of 16… ultimately, I just don’t think he’ll make it. He’s good, but he isn’t S class yet.

PREDICTION: FLASH
I WOULD PREFER: HOEJJA

Shuttle(P) versus Hwasin(T): Shuttle is the sort of player I only ever see doing well at GOM, but he has made it far in the past. Hwasin, on the other hand, is a reliably A class player with a lot more experience under his belt; if I had to give in edge in this match, I’d give it to Hwasin.
PREDICTION: HWASIN
I WOULD PREFER: HWASIN?

Jaedong(Z) versus Much(P): LOL. But seriously this time, Much isn’t a nobody like Jjonga was last round, and if there’s any match-up to eliminate Jaedong in, it’s going to be Protoss. Jaedong has said in the past that he would purposefully kill the Panda Bear Guy and go on to win the tournament just to prove Tasteless’ myth wrong, and Much has already shown himself an ally to the panda, both of them existing since before the dawn of time. Ultimately, Jaedong is Jaedong and Much is just an aging player who never did much. (LOL GET IT HIS NAME IS MUCH)
PREDICTION: JAEDONG
I WOULD PREFER: JAEDONG

Violet(P) versus Effort(Z): Now this is a strange position to be in, because both of these guys are new, rising stars, and Violet is another guy — like Shuttle — who I don’t really see outside of GOM. If the round of 32 had never happened, I would just side with Effort and say Violet was still struggling in obscurity, but last round he managed to defeat Luxury, the number two Zerg in the world behind Jaedong. To side with Effort here is to suggest that he’s better than Luxury, and yet at the same time I really like Effort and remain unconvinced of Violet’s reliability in perfomance. Both of these guys appear to be respectable in the appropriate match-ups (Effort v P and Violet v Z) so I suppose I’ll just take that risk and side with Effort, though it is far from a certainty.
PREDICTION: EFFORT?
I WOULD PREFER: EFFORT

Baby(T) versus Skyhigh(T): Baby has somehow managed to get really good really quickly, and Skyhigh is also in the midst of a rise, though I would describe his as more meteoric. Honestly, I would suggest Skyhigh as brushing up against S class play while Baby — although he did somehow manage to beat Jangbi in an earlier round — is still only showing A class play at best. It could theoretically go the other way, but I think ultimately Skyhigh is the better Terran of the two.
PREDICTION: SKYHIGH
I WOULD PREFER: BABY?

Goojila(P) versus July(Z): Now this is a high-quality match-up which I am loathe to make a call on. Both of these guys are monsters, with Goojila (secretly Kal) referred to as one of the “Six Dragons” of the Protoss, while July is just an otherworldly beast from the depths of the Overmind, and he apparently has an almost 70% win rate against Protoss. July is also a far more experienced player, having come back from a great slump after a previously great stay at the top. Ultimately, it should happen that July overpowers Kal, getting that much closer to the finals, but it may not turn out the way I’ve planned.
PREDICTION: JULY
I WOULD PREFER: JULY

MVP(T) versus Berserker(T): MVP is apparently the Terran who took out Stork, and I’m really at a loss to explain how. It’s probably better to just place the blame on Stork Storking himself, though he managed to do it quite a few rounds early this time. Maybe the database stats are out of date, but I’m not coming up with very many games under MVP’s belt at all, meanwhile Berserker is an experienced, bloodthirsty player WHOSE LOVE FOR YOU IS LIKE A TRUCK.
PREDICTION: BERSERKERRRRRR
I WOULD PREFER: SOME MAKING FUCK, BERSERKERRRRR.

Tempest(P) versus Mensol(Z): Tempest would be a relative nobody except that he managed to eliminate Jaedong in Season 2, and Mensol would be a relative nobody except that he is secretly another rising star of the Zerg world, Zero. While I suppose I am opening myself up for a surprise, I’m going to go ahead with the assumption that the Jaedong victory was a fluke, and Tempest is really just the relative nobody that one would expect, while Zero continues to impress with a solid win here.
PREDICTION: MENSOL
I WOULD PREFER: ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Player records viewed at the Team Liquid Player Database: http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/players/