Quake Voltage

The groups have been revealed and ESWC Masters of Paris is going to start on 5th of July. There are 24 players in the list - 6 players in each group devided by top and high seeds and challengers. Among "most famous" names - Zer04, czm, fox, fooki,  Jibo, Cypher, ProZaC and k1llsen. There are 3 spots that will be given to the winners for Grand Finals. Now let’s have a closer look at what’s happening in the groups.

Group A:

• Alexei "Cypher" Yanyshevsky
• Karl "fooKi" Johansson
• Arnaud "slx" Lanoe
• Jeffrey "draven" Debipersad
• Benjamin "Unity" Rovira
• Daniel "ddk" Kapadia

Group B:

• Fan "RazerJ" Zhibo
• Richard "noctis" Gansterer
• Andreas "ArrW" Ihrfors
• Thomas "griffin" Wall
• Ondra "Legie" Konecny
• Grégory "falcuma" Ollivier

Group C:

• Paul "czm" Nelson
• Marcel "k1llsen" Paul
• Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager
• Cyrus "proZaC" Malekani
• Pierre-Emeric "link1n" Portier
• John "ZeRo4" Hill

Group D:

• Magnus "fox" Olsson
• Shane "rapha" Hendrixson
• Dongkin "Dongjin" Suh
• Maciek "av3k" Krzykowski
• Chance "Chance" Lacina
• Mateusz "matr0x" Ozga

The first group we’re going to analyze is Group A. From the first look the main players here are Cypher and Fooki. Cypher have been performing well on Asus tournaments as well as on internet events. I don’t think we have to make some decissions out of his loss on  EDL Grand Finals to KillMaster - back on Asus Spring, Cypher won ( fnatic-Cypher [14:5] K1llmaster @ ztn).  Cypher is in good shape and while he doesn’t have ESWC qualifiers in Belorus he will try to grab a spot for the Grand Finals here on Masters, it’s his one and last chance, so he’s pretty motivated to win the event.

Fooki have already won a spot on national qualifiers, losing only to fox. Still he is the second person has to step into the play-offs. He’s an oldschool player with high experience, and that will probably play a lot on event like Masters.

Unity, slx, ddk and draven are approximately equal in skill, but still they can make some unpredictable games vs Fooki and Cypher and can ruin there plans. From this 4,  Unity and ddk have been "more" active. ddk has signed a contract with 4Kings, so he has to train a lot and Unity is seen on different online events. Can’t say nothing about slx and draven, of course they can surprise and probably they will perform a great play.

Group B: RazerJ (Jibo) is the most powerful player here, he showed great play on the last Russian event - Quake III eXtreme LAN Cup 1×1 and 2×2, where he took the first place winning  Nike and  Makaveli - that are on top of their skill now. Check out the demos:

Jibo vs Makaveli - download

Jibo vs  Nike - download

noctis has also joined 4Kings and is motivated to play, he’s been showing good skill on online events. Arrw and griffin have same chances as noctis. Arrw is in good shape after national qualifiers, demos:

Arrw vs Spart1e @ t4 - download

Arrw vs ProZaC @ ztn - download

Haven’t hear about griffin much, but think he’s training with US best players, may be even with Zero4, rapha and chance, that are also coming for the event.

Even less we can say about Legie and falcuma. Legie is excellent organizer, but haven’t seen him playing Q3, and falcuma was good in Q4, since then I haven’t heard about him.

Group C - the most skilled group. czm and Zer04 will meet earlier than always - in the group stage, that has to be a big show between legends of Quake 3. While czm was placed as a top seed player, Zer04 was placed as a challenger, but I think this two players will be fighting not only for the play-offs spot but for top 3 of Masters of Paris. Another player that has equal chances is k1llsen. He is gaining skill quickly and has been seen in different online events, performing well on EDL.

ProZaC, Vo0 and l1nk1n have equal chances as well, they can also show a good play, but  ProZaC and Vo0 didn’t surprise on national qualifiers. L1nk1n will have one more chance to grab a spot for Grand Finals on national qualifiers that will start tomorrow.

Group D: fox is definitely a leader of this group, he won the ESWC qualifiers and is training a lot. He is also a candidate to win the Masters. rapha and chance can also make way to play-off. av3k is a defending champion of ESWC 2007, where he won 1st place in Quake 4. He has an autospot for the Grand Finals. He didn’t show much skill on  EDL, but I’m sure he’s training a lot with Pole players, may be with matr0x that is also in his group. Haven’t heard about Dongjin skill and Korean Quake 3 community, so won’t make any predictions here. av3k, motr0x and Dongjin will probably have equal chances for the play-off.

Also we’ve made a poll - who you think will win ESWC Masters of Paris, so vote and may be your prediction will be right )

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

 Loading …