Grand Tournament Round 1 Games

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates over the last couple weeks. It's been a bit busy for me with school kicking up and with plenty of stuff going on around AWBW keeping me too preoccupied to feel like writing much. One of the biggest things going on, as most of you should know, is the start of the Grand Tournament II, which kicked off last week. In honor of that, I'll leave you all with some of the Round 1 games that I'm keeping an eye on:

Group A: Ultra Storm vs. Desklamp
This is probably the best matchup we'll see in Group A for the group stage (although Desklamp vs. Rush_FTK is getting interesting too!), with Desklamp being Ultra's biggest threat to win the group. The Drake mirror is fairly rare for low tier games, and I expect not to see many copters...

Group B: taviroww vs. Cereal Killer
Taviroww is my favorite to win Group B, but Cereal Killer and ymouba both have a good chance if one of them can get a win. CK gets his shot at taviroww in Round 1 in a Max/Andy matchup. At first glance, I'd say that Max has the advantage over Andy. Taviroww appears to be rushing for a tower in the south, although it's on CK's 2-base side, so who knows how well that will work out for him.

Group H: NGC6240 vs. Diwa
If this game ever gets started (still on day 1, with NGC down to 0 days on the boot counter), it could be one of the more intriguing Round 1 matches. Diwa sits at 1st in the Global League and is the favorite going in, but he chose a low tier CO (Jake) against NGC's Andy. This is the match that I predict will decide 1st/2nd place in Group H.

Group I: khdou vs. sarastro
It's hard to say how this match will go, considering that khdou is very much an x-factor. Sarastro has done well in the Global League (13th place as of right now), with good results against better players like Black Mont-Blanc, while khdou is 5-0-0 in the league with no recent games against top competition. This game will be something of a measuring stick for the two players, and will quite likely determine who takes the #2 spot in the group.

Group K: SM Ephraim vs. felix45
Best two players in Group K (in my opinion, although airob could possibly make a claim to that title too), on one of my favorite maps of all-time, Jake mirror, what's not to like? I think felix should be able to handle SM Ephraim, but SM has had surprising results against top players from time to time, so I wouldn't be too shocked to see an upset here.

Group M: black_wave vs. ichbinsehselber
Two of the top 15 players on the site, and this game will almost certainly decide who wins Group M. Nuff said.

Group N: excrimophalus vs. TotalFire
Old, proven veteran in one corner, challenger trying to make a name for himself in the other. If I know excrimo, this game will progress very slowly, but I'm calling an upset alert here. My official prediction: TotalFire takes this game (and not by boot!).

Group O: TGAL05 vs. japanj
Another match between two solid players, but the CO matchup here seems a little lopsided. Maybe TGAL05 knows something we don't about Jess, but I have a feeling that TGAL is not going to be very happy about what Eagle does to her... Still should be an interesting match regardless.

Group P: akiyoshi vs. dorian5
In a funny twist of fate, two of the Japanese players ended up in the same group, and get an early meeting in the tournament. Dorian5 is probably the better of the two, and certainly the favorite to win the game, but I doubt it will be easy. Adder mirror keeps things nice and normal, too.

I'll try to get around to writing a Global League review sometime in the next 3-4 days, so until then.
- Walker