The StarCraft II World Championship Series Global Finals are slated for Nov. 5 and only eight players remain for a shot at the title. Several surprises took the opening week by storm, but none of them were bigger than the advancement of both Tobias "ShoWTimE" Sieber and Mikołaj "Elazer" Ogonowski.
Elazer wasn't guaranteed a spot before the tournament and headed into a tiebreaker match before several players, like Shin "Hydra" Dong Won, dropped out.
The favorite to take the title, Park "Dark" Ryung Woo, may just have the easiest road to the finish line. He'll be the lone South Korean player on his side of the bracket and needs to best only one threat in Alex "Neeblet" Sunderhaft. Neeblet was the first non-Korean to win a premier South Korean tournament in 16 years (during that run, he also missed playing against Dark). It may be preconceived region bias, but Dark's playstyle and experience spells trouble for his non-Korean foes.
Byun "ByuN" Hyun Woo, the Micro King, will face two incredibly tough tests for a chance at a potential finale against Dark. Standing in his way will be Jun "TY" Tae Yang and potentially Joo "Zest" Sung Wook. However, ByuN's strengths may be exactly what beats both TY and Zest. In the mirror-match against TY, it will be less about the composition and more about the bio-control. ByuN is the best in the world with the least amount of resources and his marines will likely run rampant around TY's units. TY may be a more polished player overall, but the match will be anything but conventional. Against Zest, it will be about aggression and map control, something that ByuN does better than his Protoss opponent.