WTL 2023 Winter – Week 10 Recap/Week 11 Preview

by: Nakajin

On the last three days of Christmas, SCBoy will give us three broadcasts of StarCraft 2 to end the regular season.

Unlike previous seasons, the final week of play will be unusually tame. ONSYDE have already locked up first place, leaving the race between MYG and SLT for the final playoff spot as the only high-stakes scenario to watch. However, any professional SC2 is welcome over the holidays, and it will help hold us over until the playoffs in January.

Top 7 teams qualify for the playoffs.
Bottom 2 teams must requalify.
Points are awarded as follows:

• 3 points for a victory in a series that does not require an ace match
• 2 points for a victory in a series that requires an ace-match
• 1 point for a loss in a series that requires an ace-match
• 0 points for a loss in a series that does not require an ace match

Week 10 Recap

瘦死骆驼 (SSLT) 1 – 5 BASILISK
Watch VOD

Reynor and Serral made short work of the Starving Camels (who had their ace player Cyan signed away by Mystery Gaming), confirming the relegation of derelict dromedaries.

The first match saw TooDming almost summon the 50/50 demon inside of Reynor with a 16-Drone all-in, but the Italian Zerg kept his cool under pressure. Serral got his 2-0 as expected against Sakura, which left Trigger to try and run up the score in the final match against Silky.

Despite a very strong start on Oceanborn, the BASILISK Protoss almost blew it when he didn’t catch a back-breaking doom drop coming into his main. Fortunately, his initial lead was substantial enough for him to recover and win the game anyway. However, Silky did manage to save some face for his team in game two, winning with a Queen-walk all-in while being 20 Drones down.

ONSYDE 4 – 2 Shopify Rebellion
Watch VOD

ONSYDE earned the full three points from their match against the Rebellion, confirming their second straight regular season victory in the WTL.

Solar drew first blood against Lambo, breaking his opponent with a gold-base Ling-Roach all-in on Alcyone. The lack of a gold base on Oceanborn didn’t change Solar’s aggressive approach, as he delayed his Lair for a Roach-Bane timing in game two. However, Lambo held off the attack this time, and took a solid mid-game lead with Mutalisks. Unfortunately for the Rebellion, Lambo couldn’t quite consolidate his advantage, allowing Solar to stall and tech to Hydra-Roach-Lurker. Solar proved to be the superior player in the Hive-stage land war, and he put ONSYDE up 2-0.

Maru was also aggressive to start against Harstem, and took the first map with an early Marine-Tank push. Harstem looked to slow things down in game two, changing the battlefield to Radhuset Station. With the regular season championship on the line, Maru pulled an ace out of his sleeve with a 2-Starport Battlecruiser opening. Harstem had the same sort of idea, teching up quickly to mass Tempests. After the two players maxed out, Maru ended the game in one fell swoop as he teleported his Battlecruisers atop the Tempests to negate their kiting advantage.

ONSYDE had clinched the regular season title, but Ryung and Scarlett nevertheless had to play for our entertainment (and for Shopify’s final standing). Scarlett took the 2-0 victory, which may turn out to be important as it prevented Team Liquid and PSISTORM from overtaking Shopify in map score differential.

Team Liquid 6 – 0 Starlight Twinkle
Watch VOD

In hindsight, Team Liquid hinted at their strong showing at DreamHack: Atlanta with this spanking of SLT. Elazer vs Wayne was an adequately entertaining ZvZ—outside of that, this was not exactly the most memorable series of the season. Mystery Gaming 5 – 1 Kwangdong Freecs
Watch VOD (Chinese)

With a convincing win over the Freecs, Mystery Gaming overtook SLT as the holders of the seventh and final playoff spot.

SHIN proved well prepared against Keen’s battle-mech composition, and won a convincing 2-0 as a result.

TY had his best performance of the season against Bunny on Oceanborn, giving us a classic Marine-Tank TvT where he forced Bunny into an uncomfortable basetrade sequence toward the end. However, TY couldn’t actually get the victory, and he ended up conceding a 0-2 loss (making him 0-12 for the season).

With the relegation race against Platinum Heroes likely to come down to map score, Stats actually had quite a bit to play for in the final match against Strange. The first game was remarkably unremarkable, with Stats a-moving Strange to death after 10 minutes. Strange took the tie in game two, topping Stats with a 4-Gate Blink all-in off of one base.

Matcherino Esports 0 – 6 Dragon KaiZi Gaming
Watch VOD

Continuing the string of demolitions on the week, DKZ swept Matcherino to end the playoff hopes of the newcomers.

Nevertheless, the series featured a couple of nice, if ultimately unfruitful, defensive performances from Astrea against Dark. Future also put in a respectable showing against herO, playing some surprisingly scrappy games that suggested his positive win-loss record wasn’t a total fluke. Still, herO proved himself to be the stronger player in the end by taking the 2-0.

Platinum Heroes 1 – 5 PSISTORM Gaming
Watch VOD

Platinum Heroes were unable to take advantage of Spirit’s departure from PSISTORM, and thus failed to separate themselves from the Freecs in the relegation race.

Gerald took the opener against DnS with an Immortal-Stalker push set up by successful Stasis Ward harassment. Game two on Radhuset saw DnS go for double-Stargate Phoenix, but he still couldn’t avoid taking serious damage against Gerald’s Oracles. The macro-favoring map meant the two players reached the late game anyway, where Gerald prevailed with Tempests over DnS’ Carriers.

Firefly demolished Namshar as expected in game one, striking fast and hard with an aggressive opener. However, Firefly committed an early blunder in game two, allowing Zerglings through his wall and lost 17 Probes as a result. Namshar snowballed his lead capably, and soon had a powerful Lurker-Hydra-Viper army knocking at Firefly’s door. Firefly almost fought his way back with double-Robo Immortal-Disruptor production, but he couldn’t overcome his initial disadvantage in the end. With the 1-1 tie, Namshar pulled off his second major upset of the season, following his earlier 1-1 tie against Liquid`Elazer.

MaxPax closed the series out against ShaDoWn with a 2-0. Game one saw MaxPax pull off a miraculous hold (are they miracles if we see them every week?) after going for his signature Stargate expansion, while game two saw him win a similarly dicey game thanks to dogged DT harass.

Match of the Week: MYG.Bunny vs Freecs.TY

Watch VOD

If you’re like me, and are in dire need of purging your memory of the Cyclone TvT atrocities of DreamHack Atlanta, then Bunny and TY have you covered. The two battled in a fun and action-packed Marine-Tank TvT, with TY playing some of his best StarCraft in months.

Week 10 MVP: ONSYDE.Solar

In a week where nearly all the favorites ‘did their job’ and got a 2-0 for their team, it was pretty hard to pick one performance out as being MVP-worthy. In the end, Solar got the nod for his 2-0 victory against Lambo, which helped ONSYDE clinch the regular season title.

Weekly MVP’s:

• Week 10: ONSYDE.Solar
• Week 9: BASILISK.Serral
• Week 8: MYG.Strange
• Week 7: SR.ByuN
• Week 6: MYG.SHIN
• Week 5: Liquid`Clem
• Week 4: SLT.Wayne
• Week 3: BASILISK.Reynor
• Week 2: SR.Harstem
• Week 1: BASILISK.Serral

Preview: Regular Season Week 11

by Nakajin

The World Team League has spoiled us with exciting final weeks in previous seasons, but this time around things are relatively straightforward.

Day 1 will determine who gets second place between DKZ and BASILISK. Day 2 will determine who gets relegated between the Freecs, Platinum Heroes, and (in an extreme scenario) Matcherino. Day 3 will decide whether MYG or SLT is the final team to earn a playoff berth.

DKZ will be looking to clinch the #2 seed in what should be a routine match against the Spirit-less PSISTORM.

Dark and herO are big favorites over Gerald and Namshar, even with Gerald heating up over the last few weeks. As it stands, there’s a good chance this match is over before PSISTORM ace MaxPax can even play. Even if we get to MaxPax vs Oliveira, that’s hardly a guaranteed 2-0 for the mysterious Dane. Basically, PSISTORM need to have a near-perfect day to even steal a point.

Prediction: Dragon KaiZi Gaming 4 – 2 PSISTORM Gaming

It was a great weekend in Atlanta for Team Liquid. Clem became the first Liquid player to win an offline major since TaeJa back in 2015, while Cure also made a deep run to the final four. Both of the Liquid Terrans took out an ONSYDE player along the way, with Cure beating Maru while Clem battled past Solar. But regardless of what happened in Atlanta, ONSYDE are looking as sharp as ever in WTL, reminding us that team competition is another animal entirely.

It’s a shame that this ended up being a low stakes match. ONSYDE has already locked in the #1 seed, while it seems very likely that Liquid will stay in 5th place no matter what. However, there is still a bit of pride at play, especially since ONSYDE is on the brink of an historic season. If they can beat Liquid 6-0, they would set a new record both for points (the current high is 29, set by both ONSYDE and BASILISK last season) as well as map differential record (the current high is +34, set by DPG in 2021), completing indubitably the best regular season run ever in WTL.

The luck of the draw favors ONSYDE, as Solar dodged Clem’s mighty TvZ in favor of the more beatable Cure. Given what both players showed in Atlanta, I think Solar can take the 2-0… … but I’ll cheer for the much more fun 1-1. Maru has an even greater advantage, drawing SKillous in TvP. Maru is usually dominant against Protoss players not named MaxPax or herO, and I expect him to lock up the regular season MVP award in this match.

The newly crowned EPT champion will have to take on Ryung in a tricky duel. Clem’s TvT was relatively untested in Atlanta, winning just a single mirror match against GuMiho on day one. Still, momentum and vibes are on Clem’s side, so I’ll predict he takes a 2-0.

That would send us to an ace match where both teams would have some interesting choices. With Maru as the likely ace for ONSYDE, do Liquid decide to go with Clem’s momentum or Cure’s superior track record in TvT? As for ONSYDE, do they continue to trust in teamleague-Maru, or do they get cold feet and play the in-form Solar?

Just for the fun of it, I hope we get the stellar Solar-Clem match-up from Atlanta one more time.

Prediction: Team Liquid 3 – 4 ONSYDE

The Freecs need to win at least two maps to have a chance at escaping relegation, a hard task considering their opponents are the mighty BASILISK.

It’s a shame this match didn’t take place in 2019, as we have some juicy match-ups in Reynor vs Stats and Serral vs soO. Reynor was surprisingly poor in Atlanta, getting eliminated by Harstem in the RO24, so perhaps Stats has a chance of summoning the 50/50 man here. As for soO, this seems like a pretty clear 0-2 loss, so he probably should schedule a re-watch session of IEM Katowice 2019 to pick himself up after his series.

KeeN vs Trigger may be the best chance for the Freecs to pick up those precious maps. KeeN has been the clear ace for the Freecs this season, while Trigger has had some minor PvT woes in the last month. A 1-1 seems probable, but perhaps KeeN can win a heroic 2-0 and add a little bit of suspense to the final days of the competition.

Prediction: BASILISK 5 – 1 Kwangdong Freecs

There’s a good chance this match will be rendered utterly meaningless by the time it’s played, we can hope that the competitive spirit of the players still leads to some entertaining games.

Matcherino seem to have small edges in the two Protoss mirrors—Astrea and Nightmare are just a bit better than Goblin and ShaDoWn. The last match is looking decent for Matcherino as well, as Future showed some impressive TvP in his 0-2 loss to herO last week. While Firefly is a considerable on-paper favorite, I’ll go out on a limb and say Matcherino gets the full sweep on the back of a 2-0 from Future.

Prediction: Platinum Heroes 0 – 6 Matcherino

After a dismal start to the season, MYG are on the verge of completing their rally and securing a playoff spot. It would be entertaining if MYG had to overcome some huge obstacle as their final test, but as it turns out, all they have to do is defeat the last place Starving Camels.

Looking at the matchups, there shouldn’t be any complications—a 6-0 actually seems like the probable result.

Prediction: SSLT 0 – 6 Mystery Gaming

Last season, ONSYDE vs BASILISK was scheduled as the season closer—only for it to end in a Rotterdam vs Crank showmatch due to ONSYDE’s point advantage rendering the ace-match meaningless. SCBoy rectified the situation by placing the marquee matches in the middle of the season, which leaves us with SLT vs Shopify as our unusual finale.

Wayne and Scarlett is an evenly matched confrontation between two players who had a pretty good season, but with ByuN and Harstem having a much better draw I don’t see SR losing more than at most 2 maps to confirm their 4th position in the league.

Prediction: Starlight Twinkle 1 – 5 Shopify Rebellion.

---

• SEO Powered Content & PR Distribution. Get Amplified Today.
• PlatoData.Network Vertical Generative Ai. Empower Yourself. Access Here.
• PlatoAiStream. Web3 Intelligence. Knowledge Amplified. Access Here.
• PlatoESG. Carbon, CleanTech, Energy, Environment, Solar, Waste Management. Access Here.
• PlatoHealth. Biotech and Clinical Trials Intelligence. Access Here.
• Source: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/619223-wtl-2023-winter-week-10-recap-week-11-preview