A new year is upon us and new champions are set to emerge in Starcraft 2 in 2017. Although many of the same faces are around, there is a lot of new blood set to debut this season. The first big tournament of the year is already underway as 32 players are competing to see who will win 2017 GSL Season 1 in South Korea. The winner will receive a little over $35,000 and an automatic spot in the WCS Global Playoffs.
Global Starcraft 2 League Betting Odds at BookMaker.eu
INnoVation -285
Losira +225
INnoVation might not currently have a sponsor after SK Telecom T1 decided to stop fielding a Starcraft 2 team in October of last year, but is still considered one of the best players around. Although he didn’t make the WCS Global Playoffs, the pinnacle event for solo Starcraft 2 players, he finished in the Top 5 in player standings in Proleague and dominated IEM Season XI – Gyeonggi in the last major tournament of 2016.
After winning three online tournaments, INnoVation qualified for the main event and didn’t disappoint. He knocked off Stats and Losira to win Group A and then swept Trust in the quarterfinals and Stats again in the finals to become champion. The only tough match he had was against Zerg player Dark, who outmaneuvered him on a couple maps, before losing in the decisive Game 5.
Losira has been a mid-tier Starcraft 2 player for the last few seasons, but has shown he can place well in online tournaments. He won Stream.Me Arena 2 in December over 15 other competitors, but hasn’t made the semi-finals of a premier level tournament since 2014.
At IEM XI, he fell 2-1 to INnoVation and 2-1 to Stats, and subsequently failed to get out of the group stage. However, he was placed in an extremely tough group with the likes of those two as well as herO, and the fact that he was able to go 4-5 overall shows he is a competent adversary.
Byul -395
Forte +295
Byul is the overwhelming favorite in this one after making the semi-finals at IEM XI last month. He was one of the best in all of Starcraft 2 in 2015 though, finishing second in three premier tournaments as part of CJ Entus, and had a semi-finals appearance at the KeSPA Cup to boot.
At Gyeonggi, he rallied out of a hole after falling to Classic in his first match, defeating jjakji and Classic the second time around to reach the quarterfinals. There he needed five games to defeat soO, but almost made it to the finals before falling to Stats 3-2.
Forte is the newcomer of this group. He had to knock off two other competitors in order to qualify for this tournament, and although he is a bit of an unknown, that could be an advantage in an environment like this where everyone is used to knowing everyone else.
It’s early in the season and at these prices, it’s best to take one of the underdogs and hope you split. These players have had a lot of time off between their last competitive tournaments and the favorites could show some rust. In a best-of-three format, it’s not hard to see one of these two lose.
Global Starcraft 2 League Betting Odds:
Losira +225
Forte +295
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