WTL 2021 Winter – Team Tiers and Week 1 Preview

by: TheOneAboveU

Having delivered a successful inaugural season of the World Team League (WTL) over the summer months, the SCBOYs deliver on their promise of two seasons of the globe’s premier team league being held this year. Brace yourselves, for Winter is coming!

Catch WTL 2021 Winter every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 14:00 CEST on Wardi’s channel!

A Refresher on the Format

Previous followers of the WTL or the previous iterations of the competition won’t have to learn any new rules as the Winter Season will continue with the same format as the previous season. Here’s a summary for anyone looking to follow the league for the first time.

During the first phase of the tournament, the Regular Season, teams will battle in a Proleague-style round-robin league over eleven rounds. The WTL’s unique trait is that each match is made up of three best-of-two series, with draws being possible. If the three BO2 series end in a tied map score, a best-of-one ace match breaks the tie and decides the outcome of the match. A clean, ‘regular’ victory without needing an ace match nets the winning team three points, while the losers get zero points. An ace-match victory provides two points for the winners, while the losing team is awarded one point.

The starting maps for each BO2 is predetermined, and the teams blind-pick their player for each series. Speaking of maps: With updates to the map pool remaining absent, SCBOYs have taken matters into their own hands and cycled in some classics—Frost and Overgrowth will be making their return to competitive play, and GSL’s Oblivion will also feature in the map pool as well.

The top seven teams at the end of the Regular Season will advance into the Playoffs. The playoffs are gauntlet/king of the hill style. The seventh and sixth place teams from the regular season play each other in round one of the playoffs, with the winner advancing to face the fifth place in round two. The round two winner advances to play the fourth place team in round three, and so forth. The match format for the playoffs is a hybrid all-kill format—it’s a bit complicated so we’ll explain it when we get there.

Team Tier Ranking

Korean Team NV participated in the WTL for the first time in the latest season and was able to walk the ‘Royal Road’ to victory—NV will be back as defending champions in the Winter Season and in many ways the number of their rivals has shrunk over the break: Afreeca Freecs lost strong players to military service over the course of last season, which already weakened their performance towards the tail end of summer, a trend that is likely to hold on. KaiZi Gaming also took a massive hit in their power level with INnoVation leaving to fulfil his military service. Dragon Phoenix Gaming remain as the only team with a roster of juggernauts, though it’s uncertain as to how long Zest will be on the roster.

Overall, two changes have occurred during the break in terms of participating teams. PSISTORM Gaming has taken over Team eXoN and retained their spot in WTL. Chinese Team LP unfortunately did not survive to see another season, the former runner-ups being replaced by new Korean team PREP eSPORTS, which has won a qualifier to this end. Once again, twelve teams will enter the season, but only five can lock in a spot in the Playoffs—with $46,000 USD on the line, which are spread over all the placements, there’s plenty of reason to fight for every rank over the next eleven weeks. To give you a rough outline of the ‘power levels’ of each team, we’ve ranked them into a tier list with three categories (order in the categories has no further meaning), so you can pick your favourite juggernaut or underdog to cheer for.

S-Tier

Team NV
WTL 2021 Summer: 1st Place

Bunny, HHQuanTa, Maru
DongRaeGu
Creator, Nightmare

Maru proved his reputation as one of the deadliest team league players in StarCraft 2 history in the latest edition of WTL by amassing a 17-3 record during the Regular Season and carrying Team NV into the Playoffs, where he played a deciding role in securing the title for the Korea-based squad. While he will for sure continue to be a vital asset for NV, the sudden retirement of sOs has robbed them of their second-most reliable option, which severely weakens them in comparison to last season.

Bunny will have to step up and fulfil this role now, while DRG must fix his consistency issues (though he stepped up big in last season’s playoffs). Creator will be a big question mark going into the season: His form has trended upwards recently with several ESL Open Cup victories, but can the often-disappointing Protoss really translate these successes elsewhere and provide stability for his team? As it stands, Team NV are still able to field a very strong roster but may have to rely on more ace matches this season to secure wins.

Dragon Phoenix Gaming
GTC 2020 Spring: 1st Place | GTC 2020 Fall: 3rd Place | WTL 2021 Summer: 2nd Place

Cure
Dark, Rogue, F91
herO, Zest

Dragon Phoenix Gaming were able to steal first place during the Regular Season from Team NV in the summer but lost the revenge match in the Grand Finals. Silver is not an acceptable result for the superteam, and they’ll be aiming for the title once more.

Last season, it may have been debatable who could field the strongest roster. This season, no such discussion needs to take place: DPG players have won the last two seasons of GSL Code S and locked in three of the top four positions in the running third season. DPG also leads the ESL Open Cup medal rankings with a staggering 85 medals won.

The main complication for DPG is the availability of Zest. He’s been omitted from the week 1 line-up—likely due to his GSL finals preparation—and it’s uncertain how his conscription situation could change over the last three months of the year. Also, could winning Code S finally cause him to take it easy after one of the most active years of his career?

If Cure and Zest can give anywhere near the same contributions as last season, DPG should be able to crush any opposition during the Regular Season—and the beautiful thing is: If they aren’t capable of doing that, Rogue and Dark stand ready to do their part. DPG also took a leap of faith by signing herO directly after his military service ended and WTL might just be the weekly proving ground for the Protoss to regain more of his old form. With more military returnees participating this season, it’s going to be very interesting to follow their development in particular. Once again, the Chinese team enters a team league season as the favorite to take it all.

A-Tier

Afreeca Freecs
WTL 2021 Summer: 5th Place

KeeN
Armani
Trap

Opposing teams will certainly know what to expect from the Freecs every week this season, as their three-player line-up leaves no room for any real surprises. Despite his brilliant form, Trap could not carry Afreeca in the way Maru carried Team NV and took some big losses himself, merely going 13-8 over the course of the season. However, Armani gave his team an unexpected boost by going 13-7, while KeeN made a strong, late debut in the Summer Playoffs during which he beat ByuN. While not being ranked amongst the true juggernauts anymore this season, Afreeca fans can hope that Armani and KeeN will keep up their good performances and help the Freecs return to the playoffs.

Alpha X
GTC 2020 Spring: 4th Place | GTC 2020 Fall: 2nd Place | WTL 2021 Summer: 7th

RagnaroK
Astrea, Classic, TriGGer, Zoun

The Golden Dragons soared above their weight class in 2020, but smashed against the mountain of harsh reality in 2021. Now, Alpha X have returned with a key reinforcement: Classic has replaced Nice and looks to be quite promising after having returned from the military. Outside of RagnaroK, Alpha X really lacked valuable consistency in the previous season, which saw them miss out on a Playoff spot in the end—despite some really fortunate mistakes from the other contenders. Having another Proleague veteran on their roster should prove to be a vital asset for the Golden Dragons, who should have higher expectations in the Winter Season. Doubling down on the Protoss power, Alpha X also signed TriGGer during the break—the Canadian has made some waves in ESL Open Cups and DHM NA, but is he ready for the big leagues?

Good Game Gaming
WTL 2021 Summer: 9th

Dream
Vanya
Cyan, Nice

The youngest of the Chinese teams participating in the WTL has invested quite a bit in reinforcements to gear up for this upcoming season, with workhorse Patience departing for military service. Bringing in Nice certainly makes sense in this regard: The Taiwanese Protoss brings Patience’s cheesy X-factor alongside some solid macro play, even though he may not be as consistent as GGG would want him to be. Vanya is a bit of an odd choice. Having a Zerg does provide some more flexibility and the Russian has been a solid DHM EU competitor, but it’s not a huge power spike for GGG. Dream will remain their ace and core of the team: Without him doing well, GGG won’t do well. What Cyan and the newcomers must do is provide support to the Terran and hope he can win some ace matches.

KaiZi Gaming
GTC 2020 Spring: 3rd Place | GTC 2020 Fall: 1st Place | WTL 2021 Summer: 3rd Place

Spirit, TIME
Courage, Solar, Xiaose

How the mighty have fallen. KaiZi Gaming were one of the title contenders in every season so far but losing INnoVation can only be considered a critical blow for them. The Machine went 19-5 during the Regular Season (and 13-3 in the season before that)—can his replacement Spirit (aka souL), as good as he is, be realistically expected to even come close to matching this consistent success? On the positive side: Solar went 19-4 last season and historically is one of the greatest and most consistent players in this team league, meaning that KaiZi have one super-ace left to invest their hopes in. If Spirit and TIME, who himself was quite disappointing last season, can provide some support to the Zerg, KaiZi Gaming have some fight left in them. They’ll depend more on ace matches than in the past, but they can make a push for the Playoffs all the same if Solar can carry such a burden.

PSISTORM Gaming
CTC 2019 S1: 5th-7th Place | CTC 2019 S2: 9th-10th Place | WTL 2021 Summer (as eXoN): 8th Place

Epic, GuMiho, MaSa, SpeCial
Namshar, SouLeer
Adonminus, Gerald, MaxPax, Nina

In terms of sheer quantity, no one can easily compete with PSISTORM Gaming this season. Quantity, however, is not a quality of its own in this format. The US-based team sure possess some flexibility with their extensive roster, but the individual strength of their players is dubious. GuMiho must still get back to his old form and will have to prove his worth, SpeCial has repeatedly underperformed in the WTL, while MaxPax failed to live up to the hype in the previous season. Outside of this trio, things become more questionable: MaSa, Gerald and Nina can work some magic and punch above their weight class, though that’s not a reliable factor. Using Epic, the Zergs and Adonminus against strong Korean opponents would be wishful thinking at best. Still, the young MaxPax has continued to make strides in individual competitions since the end of his first WTL season, and he could very well end up being a difference maker in his second campaign.

Shopify Rebellion
WTL 2021 Summer: 4th Place

ByuN
Lambo, Scarlett, TLO

Going into their second season, the Rebels will be in high spirits. After their surprisingly strong run during their debut, there’s no real need to prove anything anymore—they’ve shown they can compete with the best. The big question, which remains, is: Can they do it again?

It feels like Lambo’s exceptional performances last season in and outside this league may have been an outlier, especially considering his rise and fall in individual competitions. However, the tactically astute German might return to great form in this preparation-based format and repeat his strong summer performance. ByuN’s form is the other major question for Shopify, as he seems to be in the middle of a lengthy slump. And, of course, there are the ever-present concerns about Scarlett’s motivation as well.

Captain TLO has a chance to steer the Rebellion ship to another playoff appearance, but it’s clear that he has an unpredictable crew.

Team Liquid
WTL 2021 Summer: 6th

Clem, Kelazhur, uThermal
Harstem, MaNa

Liquid is in a similar position to Shopify in that there were no roster changes. However, TL lacks the Rebels’ confidence gained from a successful run into the Playoffs and will be under pressure to make things work this time around. Once again, a lot will hinge on how well Clem can perform. The Terran undeniably carried Liquid’s efforts last season, but losing critical maps to underdogs like Nice and Coffee also throws some blame on the young Frenchman for his team missing the Playoffs. Of course, his teammates must do a better support job this season, if Liquid wants to finally break into the top five—relying on ace matches alone is a dangerous strategy, so scoring a couple of clean wins will be necessary.

B-Tier

Invictus Gaming
GTC 2020 Spring: 6th Place | GTC 2020 Fall: 8th Place | WTL 2021 Summer: 11th

Coffee, XY
Jim, MacSed

What is there to say about Invictus Gaming after seeing them in every iteration of this league? You can’t help but root for these Chinese underdogs of the old guard, who may suffer losses week after week but are still always good for one or two huge upsets each season. Last season, forcing an ace match against Team Liquid had massive implications on the Playoffs race, for example. Once again, Invictus won’t compete with the top teams for a spot in the final five. Instead, they’ll compete for each and every map win, upsetting some favoured teams on the way and being an annoying hindrance you can never underestimate. Their name says it all, though perhaps not in the way you’d think: Invictus means ‘undefeated’ and that’s certainly not the case with them. ‘Unbeaten’ is, however, a very good description for them, as they come back with an unbroken spirit each week.

PREP eSPORTS
New entry to the league

Bly, ByuL
YB, Has, Puzzle

The new Korean team around town has won a hard-fought qualifying battle to feature in WTL Winter as replacement for Team LP and their roster at least promises that they’ll do better than their rather unfortunate predecessors. With Bly and Has on your roster, you just know you’ll get some crazy wins on the board at some point. The team also has some Proleague experience in the form of the prior CJ Entus duo of ByuL, who is nowhere near his old form yet, and YB, who was formerly known as Hush. We can’t expect too much from this newly formed squad in terms of overall success. What PREP brings to the table, however, is the weekly possibility of a favoured team getting blindsided by whatever insanity Bly and Has can cook up in the few days of preparation time they are given—no one will be safe against PREP eSPORTS and we might see some hilarious map drops against them.

Team GP
GTC 2020 Spring: 7th Place | GTC 2020 Fall: 7th Place | WTL 2021 Summer: 10th

Percival, Ryung
Cham, Gamja
Dandy, LunaSea, Prince, Trust

Team GP returns for another season with an intriguing reinforcement in the person of Percival. The Terran debuted in the WTL for Team NV last season and scored a clean victory on that occasion, his repeated forays into Code A at least mean that he can compete with many of the present opponents on equal terms. Together with Ryung, who’s shown a knack for stealing maps, Percival could pose a danger to many teams. The Terran duo certainly is the strongest contingent of Team GP and the rest of the line-up won’t be half as reliable to score maps. However, competition at the bottom of the table should be fiercer this season overall as no one can rely on the ‘free-win’ that was Team LP anymore.

Week 1 Preview

Friday, Oct 01 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) Matches

Will Team Liquid be able to become a delivery service for ace matches again? It’s definitely a possibility in Week 1: With Liquid’Clem and NV.Maru both looking to take clean victories over their opponents, much will depend on Liquid’Harstem‘s performance against NV.Bunny on Frost—their last competitive matches on that map should date back quite a while, so whoever can adapt the best will have a marked advantage in this duel. Overall Team NV should be able to secure the season’s first win, a potential TvT between ace players Maru and Clem favouring the four-time Code S champion.

Prediction: Team NV 4-2 Team Liquid

KaiZi Gaming may have been downgraded in our ranking compared to the previous season, but some favourable match-ups against Good Game Gaming leaves them in a favourable spot going into Week 1. KZ.Spirit enjoys a healthy statistical advantage over GGG.Cyan and should manage a successful debut for his new team, though his Chinese opponent is by no means a walkover. We find our next two players in a bit of a funny situation: Both GGG.Dream and KZ.TIME seem to live in a deep black pit of misery when it comes to TvT at the moment, their recent records being disastrous—we’ll have to wait and see who can make the best out of this scenario, but TIME would already score a huge win for his team by merely stealing a map off his Korean opponent. While GGG.Vanya, the second debutant in this series, is on paper capable of doing the same against KZ.Solar, KaiZi’s ace player is backed by dominant numbers when it comes to duels with the Russian: the Korean leads 11-1 in maps and 5-0 in series this year. If the Russian winter can’t help Vanya out on Frost, Solar should have no problems closing this series out.

Prediction: Good Game Gaming 2-4 KaiZi Gaming

Saturday, Oct 02 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) Matches

Saturday starts off with a banger of a series and a blast to the glorious past of Proleague—at least that’s what the names of αX.Classic and AF.Trap being pitted against each other reminds me of. The Golden Dragon’s new star player will go into the match as an underdog, but having recently beaten his opponent 3-1 in a Bo5 series does show that even a not yet fully powered up Classic can be a dangerous foe for the best. In return, αX.Zoun should be considered the favourite over AF.Armani, who could not win a single map against the Protoss in their last three Bo3 series. This showdown should be exciting until the very end and likely further, as αX.RagnaroK and AF.KeeN should be quite evenly matched and may well delay a decision into the ace match. In this case, the Freecs should be slightly favoured with Trap at their disposal, but we’ve seen Alpha X pull off crazy ace snipes before.

Prediction: Alpha X 3-4 Afreeca Freecs

This one is really going to depend on which Invictus Gaming is going to show up: If the Chinese veterans can continue their relatively solid form from last season, we’re in for a good match-up here as PREP eSPORTS may be greeted into the WTL with a little more resistance than they’d like. iG.MacSed has been around a long time—certainly long enough to know who exactly PREP.Bly is and what he does best. Be it counter-cheese or rock solid defence, the Chinese Protoss should in any case be ready for whatever the Ukrainian has cooked up. PREP.Puzzle takes some map off big names here and there, but overall his PvT record seems rather unimpressive at the moment. iG.XY on the other hand is a literal god quite a cunning opponent to face, despite the statistics clearly favouring the Korean. Certainly, he can be hit or miss with his strategy calls, but this won’t be an easy ride for the former KeSPA draftee. Likewise, PREP.Has, who over the course of the WTL Qualifier has clearly shown himself to be the ace of his team, has the advantage over iG.Coffee, but may find himself facing an unexpected proxy attack before he can initiate his own plans.

Prediction: Invictus Gaming 3-4 PREP eSPORTS

Sunday, Oct 03 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) Matches

Team GP have not exactly won the lottery by getting Dragon Phoenix Gaming in Week 1 and starting into the season with a devastating loss, but on the positive side they’ll have that particular massacre behind them. Okay, it may actually not be that bad, but chances for it are pretty high: All of DPG’s players enjoy heavy statistical advantages, which GP’s roster will have a very hard time overcoming. One player might beat those odds, but all three of them at the same time? Unlikely.

Prediction: Team GP 1-5 Dragon Phoenix Gaming

PSISTORM Gaming bring pretty much their best line-up to bear against Shopify Rebellion, making this North American duel an interesting one. PSISTORM.MaxPax and SR.ByuN both had rather underwhelming summer seasons with their inconsistency being the big issue for their teams. Head-to-head the Korean should hold the slight advantage, on any server other than Europe he still hasn’t lost a series to the young Dane—a map-split is certainly in the cards, though. In their long match history, SR.Scarlett has PSISTORM.SpeCial narrowly beat. Recent match-up records, however, indicate a slightly favourable pairing for the Mexican—if the Terran actually plays up to his level, that is.

Uncertainty is the name of the game for our last match: PSISTORM.GuMiho, who’s probably been one of the quieter military returnees in terms of results, faces off against SR.Lambo, last season’s great hero of the Rebellion. How are we to estimate those two facing each other? Lambo seemed very comfortable in the preparation based format of the league, though ZvT has not been his strong point in ages. The Korean even beat the German in a tournament in August, their first ever clash. But will it tell the tale for the team league match? Things don’t actually look that great for Shopify in this series, but a lot of factors aren’t exactly determinable before we see the games and get a feel for the dynamics of this season: Does SpeCial show some fighting spirit this time? Is Lambo back to super saiyan form in this format? How good is GuMiho right now, actually? Based on last season’s performances, the Rebels seem like the much more motivated and invested force, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for Week 1.

Prediction: PSISTORM Gaming 3-4 Shopify Rebellion

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Source: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/578754-wtl-2021-winter-team-tiers-and-week-1-preview