Eight players from three continents find their way to California as usual to compete at the BlizzCon event. This year sees a return of reigning champion June 'Lyn' Park and runner-up Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán, as well as bronze medalist in 2007 Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen.


1. Lyn
First round opponent: Nikita 'Nicker' Pomadov Place your bet
Prediction: 2nd

The only Korean at BlizzCon to still be in the race for WCG qualification, Lyn took first at the Korean BlizzCon Qualifiers, as well as 2nd at ESWC Cheonan and more recently 2nd at eStars2009. Lyn also finished the NGL ONE 1on1 League in 1st place after an excellent season, and is the reigning champion after defeating Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán last year in the Grand Final to collect $25,000.

Although now 1st in the G7 rankings after high consistency in recent tournaments, he still has no gold medal in an international competition this year. Anything but the Grand Final would be a dissapointment for Lyn, but with an on-form Grubby, he might have to settle for silver.

2. Soccer
First round opponent: Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán - Place your bet
Prediction: 4th

Eliminated for the WCG Qualifiers in the first round by team-mate Moon, SoCCeR was in excellent shape last month as the NGL ONE 1on1 League drew to a close finishing in the top3 and securing a LAN spot. Has never really performed well at international tournaments but with three other elves at BlizzCon and team-mate Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang as a practice partner he could really have an edge in the Elf mirrors.

He enters BlizzCon along with another Night Elf Korean Chul Woo 'Shy' Park, but SoCCeR is in much the better shape and BlizzCOn is tipped to be his tournament with many considering a possibility for a top3 finish. International LAN experience is something he lacks, which is why he is down for fourth place instead of top3.

3. Shy
Phil 'LongWalk' Crawford - Place your bet
Prediction: 5th-6th

One of the favourites to win the Korean WCG Qualifiers before being eliminated by Violet, Shy finished second at the Korean BlizzCon Qualifiers and 1st at the WC3L Finals back in May along with team-mate FoCuS.

Shy did not fair so well in the NGL ONE 1on1 League, ultimately finishing in the bottom half of the table. He is also entering BlizzCon on the back of eight defeats in his last ten competitive matches, which includes losses to Daniel 'LiiLD.C' Claesson, Hao 'suhO' Su and now retired Dae Hui 'FoV' Cho.

Fortunately he opens with a match against Phil 'LongWalk' Crawford, one of the weakest players at the tournament, but has definately not shown strong results in the lead up to this competition. His last gold medal in an individual competition was KODE5 back in summer 2008. Shy could easily pull off some one-hit wonder wins against the top dogs but highly unlikely to challenge for top3.



4. Grubby
First round opponent: Nikolaus 'SonKiE' Cassidy - Place your bet
Prediction: 1st

The favourite going into this competition after winning the GomTV Worldwide invitational online, and then taking the title of King of the Game at eStars offline after beating SK.Lyn 2-1 in the Grand Final.

Grubby was forced to sacrifice his participation at the ENC Finals after leading the Netherlands to their LAN spot, and the Dutch were defeated in super quick fashion 3-0 against the Danes without their veteran to spur them on. He opens with a match against the only Human player in the competition, Sonkie, and it seems unlikely that he will have practiced the match-up heavily. Aside from this Grubby is in the best shape of the competing players and assuming he settles himself in his new surroundings he should take this.

5. Nicker
First round opponent: June 'Lyn' Park Place your bet
Prediction: 7th-8th

The surprise of the European Blizzard Regionals after he defeated Demuslim and an inactive SaSe. Was fortunate to avoid Dmitriy 'Happy' Kostin in the lower-bracket as he instead faced ThomasG who had disposed of the Russian in impressive fashion in his previous match. Still a long shot as he faces the reigning champion June 'Lyn' Park first round and is likely to be one of the first players to be eliminated.

6. Lucifron
First round opponent: Deok Man 'SocceR' Youn - Place your bet
Prediction: 3rd

Underperformed at the recent eStars2009 event, but still placed 1st at ESWC Masters of Cheonan and the European BlizzCon qualifiers, and also took 2nd at least year's BlizzCon.

Aside from being unable to progress from the round-robin stage of eStars King of the Game - which was best-of-1 - Lucifron has a strong ability to come back from a map down in bo3 series, in particular in mirror matches which means the straight playoffs format suits him well.

The Spaniard's Orc mirror and Orc vs Night Elf are his weakest match-ups, but on the basis of the calibre of opponents he has beaten on LAN this year, stats are perhaps unreliable and a bronze medal for Lucifron would be adequate.



7. Sonkie
First round opponent: Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen - Place your bet
Prediction: 7th-8th

The only Human player in the competition, was expected to win US BlizzCon Regionals but was outclasses by Longwalk twice and eventually finished second. Sonkie has a strong advantage that being the only human, most players will have focused primarily on their Orc and Night Elf match-up, and left their Human match-ups as a secondary concern.

Sonkie is unfortunate that Orc and NightElf are his weakest match-ups, with 46% and 41% respectively, making him unlikely to go further than the second round. Although he still holds much more experience as an offline competitor than Nicker or Longwalk, he will probably fall first unless he can catch the WCG winner Grubby off guard in their first round match.

8. Longwalk
First round opponent: Chul Woo 'Shy' Park - place your bets
Prediction: 5th-6th

The unexpected winner of the US Regionals, it is hard to gauge his threat factor given that all that can be determined from his Regionals performance is he is good in Night Elf versus Human. Prior to the Blizzcon2009 US Regionals his last competitive offline tournament was WCG2007 where he did not pass the group stage. Night Elf versus Human is his only match-up over 50%, however, he still looks more likely to make it to the second round than his American comrade.

NGize recruited him after his victory in Cologne, but whether it is because he could be the dark horse of BlizzCon09 or because they want a bit more exposure is anybody's call.



BlizzCon 2007

1. Olav 'Creolophus' Undheim - $10,000
2. Sung Sik 'ReMinD' Kim - $5,000
3. Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen - $2,500

View bracket

BlizzCon 2008

1. June 'Lyn' Park - $25,000
2. Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán - $10,000
3. Dmitriy 'Happy' Kostin - $5,000

View bracket