This preview takes the first round matchups, weighing which players have the best chance of advancing to the next round.
Another Warcraft III tournament begins in Seoul, South Korea as they have invited some of the top players to compete. This event, dubbed e-Stars, flew in players from across the globe. The participants include players from Korea, China, Europe and America, making it a global event.
To no one's surprise, top European players Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen and Yoan "ToD" Merlo represent their contigent. They both recently came from the Battle.net Season 5 Finals in Blizzcon held in Anaheim, where Schenkhuizen managed to take a 3rd place spot.
The South Korean representatives are Jae Ho "Moon" Jang, Sung Sik "ReMinD" Kim and Jae Wook "Lucifer" Noh. Jang and Kim also came from the recent Blizzcon Finals, where Kim managed to secure a 2nd place spot for himself. Jang's recent success came from defending his title against Lyn in the W3 Summer Grand Prix. Noh on the other hand, won ESWC last year in Paris, France.
The organization invited two Chinese players to represent the growing popularity of the game in China. Night Elf player Su "suhO" Hao, a long time player for World Elite, takes one spot. The other spot is given to popular innovative player TH000, who took third place in the recent PGL League. TH000 replaced Xiao Feng "Sky" Li for the tournament, as Li was unable to attend.
To finish it off, American player Franklin "Nilknarf" Pearsall represents the West. He also recently came from Blizzcon, where first place winner Olav "Creolophus" Undheim mentioned that Pearsall was his toughest opponent throughout the tournament.
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Grubby came from a very competitive tournament in Blizzcon, where he faced some of the best Night Elves in the world.
The constant tournaments keeps this Orc player in very good shape, giving him an enormous advantage against his opponent.
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suhO is long touted as China's best Elf, but he never proved anything significant over the years.
His race might give him a slight advantage over the Orc player, but suhO seems to lack the extra punch to win the entire best of three.
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These two last butted heads at WSVG Wuhan last May. suhO managed to defeat Grubby at the upper bracket. Grubby returned the favor when they faced each other again at the lower bracket.
Grubby should be able to walk away with the win on this one. Anything else is a huge upset.
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ToD left the Blizzcon with less than desirable results as he was one of the favorites to win, losing to ReMinD and Grubby, getting knocked out of the event.
Despite this, ToD showed amazing results since last year, and notably plays very well against Undead.
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Just as Lucifer made a big impact in the Warcraft III scene, he suddenly seems to have lost the motivation to win.
After winning ESWC 2006 and finishing 2nd at the Bnet S4 Finals, his game has been declining ever since.
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ToD looks to be motivated to win more than ever compared to Lucifer who seems to be in a bit of a slump. Their last meeting was back in WSVG Wuhan, where ToD knocked Lucifer out of the tournament in the lower bracket.
The Frenchman should have an advantage against the Korean Undead, unless Lucifer decides to train to the brink of his capacity and focus to win this tournament.
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ReMinD recently won 2nd place in the Battle.net Season V Finals in Anaheim, losing only to Creolophus in the Finals.
While it doesn't seem that ReMinD was playing like his usual self during the tournament, he did manage to defeat ToD and Grubby, putting himself above two of the top contenders of this event.
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Nilknarf is USA's little golden boy. He does better than his peers, giving him the opportunity to get invited to most events.
Sad to say, even he knows that he can't compete against those who dedicated their lives on this game. This student plays well, but not up to par to the rest of his competitors.
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The recent Bnet S5 winner Creolophus called out Nilknarf as his toughest opponent in the whole tournament. Creo didn't look like he had a hard time against ReMInD in the tournament at all.
While it might look unlikely for Nilk to win as ReMinD defeated ToD in the same tournament, we might see a couple of nice matches between these two players.
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Moon, like many famous people, needs no introduction to the Warcraft III audience with his slew of successes.
He automatically becomes a favorite in any event with his awe-inspiring playing style and incredible micro, earning him the nickname "the 5th race'.
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TH000 pales in comparison to Moon, but he's making small waves in the Warcraft III community with his unconventional way of playing.
He recently took third place in the recent PGL event in China, winning against established progamers, marking it as his breakout tournament.
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This looks to be the most colorful match of the first round. Moon is known to pull off amazing tricks in his games, while TH000 began the craze using the Paladin first against Undead.
TH000 might not even use his main race (Human) against Moon as he's known to use a race apt against his opponent.
Moon should come out as a winner, but expect crazy games between the two!
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User Comments
- 10 Comments» This story has had 10 comments posted since August 08, 2007 at 1:22 PM EDT.