Shoutcraft America Winter Preview

While ASUS ROG may be taking most of the attention from the Starcraft scene this weekend, we shouldn't forget that the second iteration of Shoutcraft America will be happening in tandem with the German event! For those of you not familiar with the tournament, Shoutcraft America is a unique tournament hosted by TotalBiscuit and sponsored this time around by Ting. Basically, the top 7 from the North American ladder will join defending Shoutcraft champion, Kane, in a single elimination bracket for $5,000. With the brackets just being announced, I figured it'd be an opportune time to give my thoughts on the event. Here's some important notes on the qualification process:

• Only citizens or permanent residents of the Americas can compete (I.E. ForGG is rank 1 but ineligible due to being Korean living in Europe)
• Kane is qualified through being the defending champion, despite not being highly ranked on the NA ladder
• Obviously, having 2 accounts in the top 7 (as Huk did this time around) doesn't qualify you twice.

Despite a good number of vocal people down-talking the initial Shoutcraft America tournament back in Summer for lack of Korean (and therefore "good") players, TotalBiscuit was able to work his magic and brought in fantastic numbers nonetheless, so I'm very excited to see how this Shoutcraft performs! I have no doubt that with Idra and TotalBiscuit manning the casting stations, it's going to be a fantastic tournament. Side note, I really really enjoy Idra's casting. He did a fantastic job at IEM last weekend, so I'm very excited to listen to him this weekend as well. I hope he does more in the future. Now, without further ado, let's have a look at:

The Players

Photo by Richard "R1CH" Stanway

mYi.Kane: Kane is the defending champion of Shoutcraft America. Going through players like qxc, Goswser and State, he was able to pocket $4,000 back in summer, and he's highly motivated to defend his title. While some might argue that he's playing with a lag disadvantage due to living in Europe, I can assure you all that we don't really get critical ping to the NA server, so have no fear! This will be Kane's first real tournament appearance for mYinsanity, so we're looking forward to it!

Acer.Scarlett: Scarlett comes into this tournament as the probable favorite to take it home, but she is going to be massively overworked this weekend between ASUS ROG Northcon and Shoutcraft America. It'll be interesting to see how well she can handle herself stamina-wise. Her Ro8 match is scheduled last though, so there is no chance of overlap with ASUS ROG, which is nice. With Scarlett's recent tournament successes, she definitely has a great chance of winning this tournament, packed schedule or not.

Major: It's been a while since we've seen Major in tournament action! Having moved back from Korea after a stint on KeSPA's 8th team, he's currently teamless, so a strong showing in Shoutcraft would be a great way to reaffirm his relevance in the scene and potentially stir up some interest in himself. I'm not too sure what to expect out of Major playwise this tournament as we really haven't seen much of him at all in the past few months, but he's always been a contender among foreigners, and could definitely pose a threat to the favorites.

Photo by Kevn "Silverfire" Chang

EG.HuK: It's been a long time since the MLG winning glory days of Huk, but while he's been up and down with results this year, he has at least shown that he's still around, with a pretty good Dreamhack circuit this year (with the exception of Summer) including two top 16 finishes at Valencia and Stockholm. Comparing him to his American peers, Huk has looked pretty strong recently in online competition, specifically in the Homestory Cup VIII Qualifier where he took out qxc, Kane and Suppy, and in the IEM Singapore qualifier where he took out State, Suppy and puCK. With his ups and downs, it's hard to call how Huk will do, but if he plays his best he's always a contender.

EG.DeMusliM: Demu! It's so sad that we see so little of Demuslim in tournaments nowadays, but the lack of tournaments for him makes seeing him in this lineup all the sweeter. While he's spent most of 2013 predominantly being a streamer and not so tournament-focused, he's still regarded as one of the strongest players currently residing in the North American region. His recent tournament results, however, have been lacklustre to say the least. a Round of 32 elimination in the final season of WCS America Premier League followed by (only) a top 32 finish in Challenger League and an abysmal IEM New York open bracket performances winning only one of his 3 matches. Demuslim has a lot of fans cheering for him to go far in this tournament, and he definitely needs a good result to prove to both his fans and himself that he's still capable of challenging the best that North America has to offer.

ROOT.MaSa: MaSa is a bit more on the unknown side for those of us not super familiar with the NA scene. He's definitely a good player, but he's more of a ladder hero than anything else of late, with his last premier tournament showing being way back in NASL Season 4 back in 2012. To be honest, the only thing I remember seeing MaSa in recently is BaseTradeTV's Starcraft 2 Survivor show, and even that didn't last for long. I kind of want to predict him to do well because I know he's a strong player, but looking at the limited recent results (which include going 0-4 in the first round at the last Shoutcraft and an 0-2 record in ATC Season 1), I don't have all too much confidence in him, but we'll see if he can prove me wrong!

SYF.Hitman: Who the hell is this guy? Nobody really seems to know. If there has ever been a dark horse going into a tournament, Hitman is it. All that I can really find on the guy is that he played in some small team leagues and is regarded as extremely cheesy (apparently he only played 4 gate for all of WoL). Pulling Scarlett first is bad luck for the kid, but with nobody expecting much out of him, there's nothing to lose, and he can only impress. Even winning a map or two in the Bo5 series would be a great way to put his name on the map. I always love seeing new names rise up in the scene, so here's to hoping that Hitman can put on a good showing this weekend!

ROOT.Minigun: Minigun has had a very solid year, despite having very limited tournament opportunities due to being located in America. He's one of just a few foreigners who has maintained a WCS America Premier League spot for all 3 seasons, coming top 16 in Season 2. Minigun also managed a very respectable top 24 finish at the MLG Spring Championship in Anaheim, falling only to HerO and YugiOh. Despite coming into Shoutcraft America Winter as the last seed, I'm looking forward to a good showing from the ROOT Protoss.

The Matches

Shoutcraft America Winter Bracket

Kane vs Minigun:

I think this one is going to be the best match of the first round. Both players seem pretty similar in levels of play, and personally PvZ is my favorite matchup to watch, so I'm really hyped for this. Based on having seen Kane's recent play though (and maybe partially because of my own bias, hehe), I've got to predict this one going to Kane by a scoreline of 3-2

Masa vs Major:

This one's much harder to call, since we haven't really seen much of either of these guys recently. Major has always been one of the top foreign terrans though, with a pretty solid TvT if memory serves, so I think he has to be the favorite going into this. Of all the matches, it's the ony I'm looking forward to the least, but I still think it'll be a good set of games. I'm mostly interested to see the winner vs the winner of Kane vs Minigun. I'm gonna go with Major winning this 3-1.

Demuslim vs Huk:

This one's probably the most highly anticipated match for the masses. The EG Teamkill will definitely pull views, that's for sure. Huk is definitely the favorite, but if Demuslim is going to put his name back on the map, taking out Huk would be a great way to do just that. I have no doubt that he's going to be very motivated going into this, and he definitely has the quality to upset Huk. I'm expecting a close match either way, but based on recent results, I have to go with Huk 3-2

Hitman vs Scarlett:

I am so hyped for this. I really love watching new talent pop up and see how they can do, and that's exactly what Hitman is going to be doing here. Going up against the tournament favorite in the first round is some pretty awful luck, but we'll see what this wily Protoss can pull out to try to take down Scarlett, who doesn't have the most fantastic recent track record against Protoss cheese (WCS America Season 3, anyone?). That being said, even with the potential tournament fatigue from coming off of ASUS ROG Northcon, I still have to favor Scarlett to take a pretty convincing 3-0.

In Summary:

It's gonna be another fantastic weekend of Starcraft. Even if you're more inclined to follow ASUS ROG Northcon, you should definitely stop by and show your support for Shoutcraft America Winter as well, as this bracket has the potential to show us some seriously awesome games. So make sure you tune in, and cheer for Kane!!