Tournament Spotlight: AfreecaTV Champions Cup

by Wax

Following a short post-DreamHack regionals break, top-tier SC2 competition is set to resume with the AfreecaTV Champions Cup. With sixteen of the best SC2 players in the world vying for a prize pool of $15,000, the competition should provide valuable insight on where everyone stands ahead of the DreamHack: Atlanta main event.

Key info

Schedule:11:00 GMT (+00:00) start time each day (US/Canada viewers should account for daylight savings time on Nov 6)

• November 3

: RO16 Groups A & B (BO3)


• November 4

: RO16 Groups C & D (BO3)


• November 5:

Quarterfinals (BO5)


• November 6:

Semifinals (BO5) and Grand Finals (BO7)

Prize money: $15000 total, $4050 for first place
EPT points: 1280 points total, 250 points for first place
Stream: AlphaX (AfreecaTV)

Players and groups:

Reading into the Group Selection

The ACC has produced some intrigue before the tournament even started, using a Code S-style draft to pick its round-of-16 groups. In the past, this has generally been a good proxy for judging who progamers really consider to be the strongest and weakest players in the scene (though, as we’ll see below, there’s some match-up specific opinions to account for).

It was no surprise to see Clem show his confidence in TvZ by taking Elazer with his first pick, or Maru put his faith in TvT by choosing HeroMarine (though #1 seed Clem ‘swapped’ HeroMarine for Cure later). However, it was rather curious to see Reynor select MaxPax as his initial opponent and the #3 pick overall. The Danish Protoss has been a monster in online competitions lately, even beating Reynor 3-1 in a recent ESL Open Cup finals. Perhaps Reynor believes he still has a considerable advantage when it comes to major competitions?

On the other end of the draft, it was surprising to see ByuN beat out Serral as the last pick and win the unofficial title of ‘scariest player in the tournament.’ This seems to be partially due to ByuN’s strength in online competition, where he’s been absolutely destroying people in the last few weeks. Even though he has an unfortunate tendency of underperforming in live, major events, the online-only nature of the ACC gives him a better chance of performing at 100% of his skill level. It also reveals herO’s relative level of confidence in his PvT/PvZ at the moment, as it was ultimately his choice of whether to play against Serral or ByuN.

The Pre-Atlanta Check-up

Just two months ago, it seemed like a new Serral dynasty was dawning. The Finnish Phenom had claimed back-to-back titles at HomeStory Cup and TSL, winning the former with a clutch lower bracket run and the latter through an all-around dominant performance.

However, with Clem’s all-conquering run to win the latest DreamHack: Europe regional—where he defeated essentially all the top EU players along the way—the StarCraft II scene has been plunged back into chaos. The vibes are back to where they were in the first half of the year, where it feels like any of the 6~8 top players could win the championship in a major event.

As of now, I consider six players to be on that list of true ‘tier one’ contenders, and all of them happen to be competing in the ACC: Clem, Dark, herO, Maru, Reynor, and Serral.

It seems inevitable that match-up rock-paper-scissors will come into play during the playoff phase. Given recent tournament results, it’s possible that we’re back in the unusual 2020/21 ‘meta’ where Serral is favored against everyone except Clem, but Clem himself is vulnerable if he isn’t playing TvZ. herO is another player who could drop out early or win the championship depending on the bracket—he’s been the top PvZ player in the world for months now, but has become averse to PvT since winning the Code S title. As always, the randomness of ZvZ could play a big role in how the tournament plays out: any of the matches between Dark/Reynor/Serral feels like it would be 50/50, even if Dark is slumping in the other match-ups.

I’m tempted to say Maru is the player with the fewest weaknesses, if not for the fact that he lost his last three BO5+ matches to Serral in rather convincing fashion. While he has defeated Serral in most of the games where he’s been able to go into full turtle mode, it’s been hard for him to reliably establish that defensive stance. While most fans will want to see a Maru-Serral rematch, the recent G5L winner might just be hoping a Zerg or Clem takes care of Serral for him instead.

The ACC isn’t just stacked at the top end. Indeed, 15 out of the 16 top players on the Aligulac.com rankings are represented in the tournament, with the sole exception #12 ranked Neeb (who did not participate in the qualifiers, presumably due to school obligations). That means nearly all of the intriguing dark horses—the potential upset-makers in the tier right below the elite—will get a chance to show off their skills. This includes players like Bunny, RagnaroK, and GuMiho, who improved hugely in 2022 and made it all the way to the later stages of GSL Code S. If they’ve somehow become even better since the last GSL season, then this will be our first chance to see it in high stakes competition.

There’s also old stalwarts such as HeroMarine, ShoWTimE, Cure, Elazer and Solar, who all have a fair chance of upsetting a top-tier player in the right match-up. Their presence makes the BO3 RO16 especially perilous, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see players like Maru or Serral repeat the group stage eliminations they suffered in previous events with the same format.

Another type of underdog to keep an eye out for is the online-only king: namely, ByuN and MaxPax. As mentioned above, ByuN has struggled to play to the best of his abilities in major offline events, but online events allow him to show glimpses of his former, world championship-class skills (indeed, his only major win since his military return was the online-only ASUS ROG 2020 event). As for MaxPax, mysterious circumstances still prevent him from attending any live event, which makes it likely the ACC will be the last time we see the PvP master in a major competition this year.

All-in-all, the AfreecaTV Champions Cup should provide a densely packed bonanza of high-level matches for the viewers, and a hefty momentum boost to the winner headed into DH: Atlanta.

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