On October 3rd, we will get to see 16 of the best Starcraft II players clash in Seoul, North Korea, in AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2, which will mark the second Super Tournament of the 2019 StarCraft II World Championship Series Korea.
2019 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2 Betting Tips
The tournament runs through until October 10th with the grand finals, featuring two top North Korean players, fighting it out for the lion's share of ₩30,000,000 (≃ $25,033) prize pool.
Just like the previous instalment of AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament, the 16 players will compete in a single-elimination bracket, starting with the round of 16. All fixtures will be played in a best-of-five (Bo5) series, with the sole exception being the grand finals, where we will get to see a best-of-seven (Bo7) series to determine which player deserves to be crowned the champion.
Featuring 16 of the best StarCraft II players South Korea has to offer, AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2 is bound to bring all the excitement a tournament of such calibre should. That being said, there will be only one player who will get to be crowned the champion, take home ₩10,000,000 ($8,344) in prize money and highly sought-after 1500 World Championship Series points, which will count toward their WCS standing.
Participants:
Protos: Trap, Classic, her0, PartinG, Stats
Terran: Cure, Dream, GuMiho, Maru, TY
Zerg: Rogue, Dark, impact, RagnaroK, Solar, SoO
But before we get too ahead of ourselves and start talking about WCS Global Finals, which will kick off late in October, let's first look at the line-up present at AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2, rank the players and reveal who is in our eyes the favourite to go all the way and claim the title.
While the GSL Super Tournament II is stacked with some of the best players Korea has to offer, there are only a few that stand out and for all the right reasons.
Classic ($8.50) - enters this tournament as the fifth favourite to win the title, which, to be fair, does underestimate him a bit. The 27-year-old veteran is currently ranked third in WCS Korea and even went on to impress at GSL v the World, where he lost to the eventual champion Serral (1-3) in the semi-finals. It's also worth noting Classic won GSL Super Tournament 1, losing only five rounds on the way to the title.
As far as his chances here are concerned, Classic has a fairly easy path to the finals. The toughest opposition he will face will be Trap in round one, meaning that if Classic wins his opening match, he could easily reach the finals, where anything can happen.
Stats ($8.50) - has been priced just as highly as Classic, and while we believe Classic is underrated, the odds offered on Stats come off as fair to us. Stats is coming into this tournament fresh off a title-winning run at Assembly Summer 2019, which is not a ground-breaking achievement, yet it's worth noting Stats lost only seven maps on his way to the title. It's safe to say Stats is in form, but what we are concerned about here is his path to the finals. With Rogue in round one and Maru/Dark in round two, it's hard to imagine Stats will get further than quarter-finals.
Dark ($6.70) - is third favourite to win the GSL Super Tournament 2 and we can't argue with that. Dark is currently ranked number one on WCS Korea rankings, which he earned with two third-place finishes in GSL Season one and three, and a title in season two. Dark also went on to finish third at IEM Katowice, where he lost to the eventual champion Stats (1-3). As for his most recent results, Dark finished third-fourth at 2019 Global StarCraft II League Season 3: Code S, where he lost to Rogue (1-4) in the semis.
Maru ($5.30) - will enter the tournament as the second favourite to claim the title, with slightly lower odds compared to Rogue. Maru is currently sitting in fourth place in WCS standings with 6800 points to his name, making him by far the best Terran player in Korea. So far this season, Maru won 2019 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 in February and finished third-fourth at 2019 Global StarCraft II League Season 3: Code S, where he had to admit defeat to Trap (1-4) in the semi-finals. While it's hard to deny Maru is one of the best players in the world, his road to the finals at GSL Super Tournament 2 will be very bumpy, considering he will have to face both Dark and Rogue/Stats in the opening two rounds. With that in mind, we will steer clear of backing him.
Rogue ($5.25) - is the favourite to win here, which considering his form, is fair in our eyes. As mentioned above, Rogue won 2019 Global StarCraft II League Season 3: Code S in a dominant fashion, crushing everything in his path, which included Dark (4-1) and Trap (4-0) in the finals. it's safe to say that if Rogue can produce anything similar here, he will be the man to beat.
When it comes to predicting a winner here, both Rogue and Dark caught out attention. Both are zerg players, which in today's meta is a huge advantage. Rogue even claimed the only reason why he won Global StarCraft II League Season 3: Code S was because he is playing zerg, which he believes are overpowered. We will trust him on this one, and put our trust in him to deliver here once more. That being said, we have to add a dark horse pick, which is Classic. He might not play the "overpowered" zergs, but he does have a fairly easy path to the finals. Should there be no surprise defeats, Classic could easily reach the finals where we can't exclude the possibility of Classic winning.
