The busiest weekend in StarCraft! Part two!

As I mentioned yesterday, this weekend features three separate major StarCraft II tournaments. Yesterday I talked a bit about the old relic of a tourney in WCG, and today we'll go a bit more in depth with IEM Singapore which will in fact be in Singapore! The highlight reel will be the best chance for someone NOT from Korea to win a major tournament out of the three, and then there will be ToD and IdrA casting. I guess there's also the story line of whether or not Grubby can repeat the deep run he had here last year. 

So let's talk Scarlett. Her performance at the Red Bull Battle Grounds in New York last week probably cemented her as the one of if not the strongest foreigner in the scene. Her Zerg versus Terran is without a doubt world class level, and her ZvP and ZvZ aren't that far behind. What makes her so strong right now though? The focus of the Mutalisk in each of these match up, at least that's what I think. Mutalisks play a key role in each Zerg match-up and Scarlett is one of the best users of this unit. With the slightly less potent line up of terrifying Korean stars, 15 of them in total and only 5 I think can actually beat her, (Bomber, EffOrt, DRG, Hydra, and San) This is the best oppurtunity for Scarlett to claim her first tournament victory of the year, and the best chance for a foreigner to actually take a tournament this year. 

In all seriousness though, as far as the games go, the only thing that has me excited at all is that Bomber and Scarlett are in the same group, so they will more than likely play each other. The last two times these two have met each other we've gotten absolutely fantastic series with each one of them going to the final game.
Scarlett bested Bomber in a Bo3 at the Red Bull Battle Grounds last weekend, and a few months ago Bomber took a narrow 3-2 victory at the quarterfinals of the WCS Season 2 global finals where he would go on to take the tournament. Beyond that, there really isn't a whole lot that I'm intrested in seeing from the players. IdrA and ToD hopefully will cast at least one series together and if they do it'll be hilarious. Protoss player who thinks Zerg is broken, and a Zerg who thinks Protoss is also broken, what could go wrong?

I suppose it wouldn't be fair to talk about this tournament without at least mentioning Grubby, who last year nearly claimed his first StarCraft II major in Singapore. However, the Grubby that was here in 2012 was the Grubby that was constantly improving, coming closer and closer to being the best, and seeming destined to eventually become the best foreigner in scene. Then 2013 happened and Grubby seemed to falter. He didn't all of the sudden become bad, but the constant improvement in both skills and results seemed to fade. What was left was a strong, but certainly not overwhelming European Protoss. Don't get me wrong, I want Grubby to do well here, he's one of the nicest, hard-working and more professional people in the scene. It just doesn't seem realistic to say that he will make a deep run. I still think he will eventually become very good, I'm unsure if he'll reach the same heights that he did during his run in WarCraft III though. Whatever he does it will be entertaining though. 

He'll also still have that sick jacket. 

If you are thinking of watching a StarCraft II tournament this weekend I would definately recomend you check out IEM Singapore at twitch.tv/esltv_sc2.   ESL always puts on a good show, and I'm sure there will be some great games played. Tune in! I promise it'll be worth it. 

Source of picture BenQ gaming.