Nikita: Lyndsy Fonseca on Season 3 and Alex's "Very Different Direction"

Nikita returned last week for Season 3, with a very different new scenario for the characters, as they are back inside Division – albeit a Division under new management.

I spoke to Lyndsy Fonseca about what’s to come this year for Alex, who’s had quite a few dramatic changes occur of late. We discussed Alex’s celebrity status, her dynamic with Sean and Amanda -- and a popular non-relationship with Owen -- and more. We also chatted about this Friday night’s exciting new episode, in which Nikita and Alex discover a young girl who has been taken by a former Division agent and apparently been brainwashed. Plus, will Fonseca be able to reprise her role as Katie in Kick-Ass 2?

IGN: Things have changed for everyone on the show, but for Alex, this is really the first time she is allowed to be herself – she’s not a double agent, she’s not a rogue agent, and everyone knows her true identity. What is this transition like for her?

Fonseca: I think in the bigger picture, her being this kind of public persona has brought a lot of power to her and this maturity. It hasn’t come easily. I don’t think Alex is the kind of person that enjoys dressing up like that and being in that public way. But I think what it does is forces her to grow up a little bit and kind of take charge on her own. As the season continues, we’re not going to be focusing a lot on her public persona, but I think she brings a lot of that to Division to help her deal with being there.

IGN: The premiere used her celebrity in a very fun and funny way, but going forward, how do you deal with someone who’s been trained to be a spy being very publically known? 

Fonseca: Well, Alex is going to go in a very different direction than I think most of the audience is going to expect. We start off this season with her in this really great place and her using her celebrity to benefit the mission. But it’s going to go in a very different direction. She’ll end up really having to deal with certain things that… You know, I think that a lot of things have been cleaned up, like her relationship with her mother, and Nikita and her are on such good terms. It’s like the final thing is her addiction self, and she’s really going to have to struggle with.

IGN: So that's going to be coming back into focus?

Fonseca: I think that's been a little bit buried, because there’s been other things to deal with. Now that she’s in this new place where they’re all agents, they’re all in this together. But she gets hurt and there’s pain and it’s going to really force her to deal with things that she thought she had resolved before.

IGN: I’ve seen the episode airing Friday, with that great young girl…

Fonseca: She was amazing.

IGN: It seems as though this girl brings up a lot of emotions and memories for both Nikita and Alex.

Fonseca: I think that it’s kind of shocking to see a girl her age in Division, because she is the age that Alex was when she was sold into slavery and then a few years later was on the streets, doing drugs. You see this girl who’s just such a shell of herself. You don’t know if it’s Stockholm syndrome. You can’t really figure it out. And the pain in her eyes, everything that she’s dealing with, it’s so similar to Alex’s life and I think she sees a lot of herself. And I think Alex just doesn’t want to go there. What she ends up doing is going to the parents a lot and the mother and I think that is something that she can relate to as well. Because Alex’s mom didn’t know that she was alive and I’m trying to find out all this information, but I can’t tell them that I know that their child is alive. So dealing with the mom really is difficult in a lot of ways for Alex.

IGN: The first episodes this season touch upon a lot of the big emotional points the show has set up in the first two years, but as far as overall mythology goes, they’re more standalone. How is this season mapping out compared to the first two?

Fonseca: Especially at the beginning, it is a little bit more standalone and kind of bad guy of the week or a mission [of the week] at first. But there are going to be recurring storylines that we’re going to be doing that wall continue through all the episodes as well. It’s kind of a little bit of both. But it’s gonna be different, because there’s no Percy, you know? We’re in this together and Amanda is going to come in and out and we’re trying to figure out where she’s coming from and what her plan of action is. But it is a little bit more standalone than it has been in the past.

IGN: You mentioned Amanda and when I asked on Twitter if fans had questions for you, quite a few seemed to enjoy the interplay between Alex and Amanda.

Fonseca: I love that!

IGN: Will there be more of that this year? Obviously, it’s more difficult, because they’re no longer co-existing inside Division.

Fonseca: Right. Yes, they’re definitely going to be in a storyline together, but we have not shot it yet. I know that it’s in the future for the season, but in all honesty, I don’t know how it’s going to come out. I think the writers are still figuring that out! [Laughs] But it’s going to be good, because she’s going to have a hold over Alex in some way… So it’s not going to be taken lightly. It’s not going to be fun thing. Amanda is going to go all out.

IGN: And we know Amanda can be very scary when she goes all out.

Fonseca: Oh my gosh… She’s so good!

IGN: How are things going for Alex and Sean?

Fonseca: Well, it’s funny, because at work today, the only scene that I have to do is to make out with Sean Pierce in a closet. It’s a very hard day at the office. [Laughs]

But no, it’s not going to be an easy relationship. There’s going to be this thing where Sean really puts it out there and makes an ultimatum and says, “It’s me or Division” and “Why are we here? What are we doing here? We have a life to live.” And I think that contrast is totally confusing for Alex. It’s like, “What do you mean? This in my life. What am I going to do? Go sit on a beach somewhere and drink Mimosa?” That’s not reality, you know? And that’s going to cause problems because they want different things, even though they want each other.

IGN: Meanwhile, it’s funny, because a sect of Nikita fans have been curious about this whole Alex/Owen dynamic, even though they’ve never met...

Fonseca: I know. It’s so weird how there are shippers for that, when we’ve never even met! It’s very flattering! It’s great. It’s so cool.

IGN: So that being said, this season they will finally meet and interact. What do they make of each other initially?

Fonseca: You know, it’s kind of cool… I made the decision that there’s always been this kind of animalistic part of Alex. There’s this kid that’s not a celebrity… the really down and dirty part. And I feel like Owen can be like that. This guy is very, very animalistic in many ways. And I think they kind of connect in that and sense that about each other. And I don’t mean that necessarily in a relationship kind of way. It’s more that he comes back in the picture and it’s like, “What is your deal, man?” There’s definitely sparks and some sort of understanding that they have with each other.

IGN: You mentioned Alex’s addiction issues. Owen recently got over his own addiction to the regimen. Could there be some bonding there?

Fonseca: There is that. We haven’t really touched on that topic as characters yet, but absolutely. That would be a really cool thing to play as well.

IGN: So at San Diego Comic-Con, you were crossing your fingers – has it worked out with your Nikita schedule to do Kick-Ass 2?

Fonseca: It has! CW and Warmer Bros. and the creators here at Nikita, they’ve been so wonderful about letting me out for a week to go to London and do a little bit in Kick-Ass. I’m very limited in my time that I can go there, but the fact that they let me do it at all… I actually leave on Saturday to go shoot for a week there. And I’m really excited!

IGN: My last question comes via your costar, Devon Sawa. When I asked on Twitter if anyone had questions or you, he asked if himself, Shane West, Dillon Casey and Aaron Stanford were Ninja Turtles… who would be Raphael?

Fonseca: [Laughs] Well, that’s funny, because they were having this major debate two nights ago over dinner. And honestly, I had no idea what they were talking about, because I’ve never seen Ninja Turtles! I don’t know… If I’d seen it, I’d have an opinion! Sorry!

Nikita airs Friday nights at 9pm ET/PT on The CW.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on on Twitter at @EricIGN and IGN at ericgoldman-ign.

Source : ign[dot]com

StarCraft II - IPTL - NsHoSeo needs a good showing vs Karont3 to advance to Up and Downs

Contender Division Group B has the most difficult situation to asses. Why? Currently, there are 3 teams with similar score: Team Empire 1-2 (10-13 in small points), Team Dignitas 1-2 (10-11) in small points and New Star HoSeo 1-1 (6-7) with one game left. Who’s going to join Karont3 e-Sports Club in the Up and Down Matches?

The game between the Spanish organization and Koreans is going to be the decisive factor in establishing the final result in their group.

Karont3 e-Sports Club line-up: LoLvsxD (Z), LucifroN (T), Ryo (P), VortiX (Z), AlaStOr (Z), MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

New Star HoSeo line-up: Tassadar (P), jjakji (T), Seal (Z), Sculp (T), SalvatioN (T), Brave (P)

Potential starters

Karont3 e-Sports Club: AlaStOr (Z), MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

Three players that I’ve put above are the ones loaned from other teams purely for the “Team Games:” AlastOr is playing for French organization, Team LDLC.com, MikOeL represents another Spanish team, Aprender, and Verdi wears Vega Squadron tag together with DaNa, Polish player who will probably represent his country in the upcoming WCG 2012 Finals.

So far, both Spaniards have opened a game for Karont3 with Zerg falling to BlinG and MikOeL defeating Beastyqt, but later losing to Brat_OK. Now it’s time for Verdi to open the most important match for the Spanish team thus far.

New Star HoSeo: Tassadar (P), Sculp (T), Seal (Z)

New Star HoSeo went from being one of the best teams in Korea to a mediocre organization with one star player on the roster and average key players. They’ve lost four players over the last 3 months and their IPTL performance wasn’t as good as people would expect especially in one of the weakest groups in Season 1.

So far, both Brave and SalvatioN opened a game, so now it’s time for one of the core NSH players to be the lucky participant in the opening game against Karont3. Just like with the Spanish, NSH starters represent all three races available in Starcraft 2. Should be interesting.

Key players

Karont3 e-Sports Club: MikOeL (T), Verdi (P)

Both have decent results in IPTL and look strong against New Star HoSeo. I can see Verdi taking even a double-kill if Karont3 decide to use him in this match. As for MikOeL, he should be able to win at least one match just like he did against Team Empire, but will probably lose the next one. One should bear in mind that mediocre Korean player is still a level above decent European. We will see if that’s true in this case as well.

New Star HoSeo: Tassadar (P), SalvatioN (T)

So far besides jjakji they are the only players to grab a win in IPTL Season 1, thus it is safe to assume that they might be able to do it again especially against core Karont3 players. However, even when most of Karont3 roster is out there are always LucifroN and Vortix left who might be more than enough for NSH this time.

Ace players

Karont3 e-Sports Club: LucifroN (T), Vortix (Z)

Duran brothers are currently considered top Europeans with a huge potential that they’ve been showing for the past few months. IEM and DreamHacks were perfect tournaments for them to shine and make room for themselves among the best of the best in the world.

Both had a huge experience with Warcraft 3, but back then it was LucifroN who managed to achieve some international recognition. This time it is Vortix leading the family with impressive results lately.

But, are they going to fall in a slump as always? LucifroN was a one game wonder back in W3 era and after three / four good tournaments he quickly became another pray among beasts like Grubby, Moon or Sky. Is the same thing going to happen to Vortix? Let’s hope not.

New Star HoSeo: jjakji (T)

Although he failed to stay in GSL Code A jjakji is the best player on NSH, but despite his unstable play he managed to grab a victory for NSH in their match against Team Empire. However, in NSH match against Team Dignitas he wasn’t able to defeat Bischu.

Prediction

New Star HoSeo 1 > 5 Karont3 e-Sports Club

At this point Karont3 is just too much for NSH. If Team Dignitas was able to defeat NSH 5 – 1 then Karont3 will crush them even harder. I expect to see one game won by jjakji  and that’s it. In that case, Karont3, Team Dignitas and Team Empire will have 1-2 score so their small points will count when deciding who’s going Karont3 in the Up and Down Matches. However, if NSH win then both them and Karont3 are the undisputed winners of Contender Division Group B.

Tune in on October 19th to our stream to watch Karont3 e-Sports Club against New Star HoSeo live!

Source : ign[dot]com

Can the Zerg-only Acer lineup upset FXOpen?

Both Team Acer and FXOpen e-Sports took wins in their first Contender Division matches, and now these two powerful teams will come to head in their second match.  Acer's lineup consists of only Zerg players, but two of them make a good case for being the best foreign Zerg at this point in time.  On the other hand, FXO is the reigning GSTL champion, reaching the title on the back of their ace GuMiHo and a couple of solid Zerg players.  Let's take a look at some of the keys to the match.

Lineups

Acer:

• Nerchio (Z)
• Scarlett (Z)
• Bly (Z)
• ParanOid (Z)
• DarkHydra (Z)

FXO:

• GuMiho (T)
• Leenock (Z)
• Lucky (Z)
• asd (T)
• Choya (P)
• JKS (Z)
• mOoNaN (T)
• Sirius (Z)
• TheBest (T)
• Tree (T)
• Weekend (P)

Potential Starters

Acer: ParanOid (Z), DarkHydra (Z)

Though he was one of the strongest European Brood War players, ParanOid has not been able to achieve that kind of success since switching over to Starcraft 2.  He and DarkHydra are certainly the weakest Zergs in the Acer lineup.  One or both of them will likely be used in a leadoff spot to try and steal a win before turning the reins over to the more skilled players on the team--Bly, Nerchio, and Scarlett--who will almost always be relied on to take all five of the map wins.  This could be a tough task against a Korean team like FXO.

FXO: Choya (P)

Choya has been one of the more successful player/managers to this point in Starcraft 2.  The FXO staff relies on Choya to essentially run the Korean division of the team, as far as regulating practice time, preparing lineups, and just handling general coaching duties.  Yet somehow, he has managed to  remain at a competitive level of play, showing this most recently by scoring four kills against Complexity in FXO's last IPTL match.  Using him early in a match makes a good deal of sense: if he enters early and then steps aside, he can dedicate himself entirely to his coaching duties instead of having to maybe play later on in the clan war.

Key Players

Acer: Nerchio (Z), Bly (Z)

It is very difficult to not call Nerchio the ace of any team, as he is just that good, but right now Scarlett seems just a little bit stronger.  Nerchio is more than capable of out-playing any opponent, Korean or not, as he proved during his championship run at Homestory Cup V, but other than that never seems to put up results that match the skill level he brings to the table.  Bly is more of an up-and-coming player whose results have been better and better since joining Acer in early 2012, with his most recent accomplishment being a first place finish at the WCS Ukrainian Nationals over a strong field of players like White-Ra, Strelok, and fraer.  Between the two of them, Nerchio and Bly cleaned up the aTn.Type roster, but the FXO lineup is much, much stronger, and they will need to bring their best play to have a chance at defeating such a potent Korean team.

FXO: Leenock (Z)

Though Leenock fell a bit off the pace he set towards the end of 2011, where he won an MLG championship and came second in Code S, he remains a staple of Code S, qualifying for every 2012 season.  Many people thought he would be the best Zerg in the world in no time after that early success, and while we have not quite seen the level of play that leads to GSL championships, Leenock is certainly good enough to give both Nerchio and Scarlett a run for their money.  However, both of these Acer Zergs are strong in the ZvZ matchup; Scarlett's mind-blowing run through many of North America's best Zerg players springs immediately to mind.  FXO's strongest Zerg has a tough task ahead of him, but he does have the liberty of training heavily in just that one matchup up until the match.

The Aces

Acer: Scarlett (Z)

Scarlett doesn't play in that many tournaments, but when she does make an appearance like she did at WCS North America, she takes down anyone who stands in her way.  She has quickly ascended from being an up-and-coming female player, and straight past best female player, to one of the strongest Zerg players in the foreign scene.  Between the WCS Canadian Nationals and North American Continental Finals, Scarlett dropped a total of two maps, an absolutely insane achievement.  However, she will likely need to defeat GuMiho to achieve an Acer victory, and her ZvT was rarely tested in the North American tournaments.  It will be very interesting to see how Scarlett matches up against the world-class players of FXO, as she grabbed three kills in her only other IPL team league appearance against TSL during TAC3.

FXO: GuMiho (T)

GuMiho cemented both his role as ace and a GSTL championship with his all-kill of SlayerS in the grand final, taking down phenomenal players like the team league hero Puzzle, and the great TvT player Ryung.  He proved himself yet again by coming in as the last man against Complexity, and grabbing the final kill against Killer to avoid an upset defeat.  But, much like Scarlett, GuMiho has not played a tremendous amount of TvZ recently, though he was able to beat both CoCa and Miya in the course of his GSTL all-kill.  After not making it out of his GSL round of thirty-two group, GuMiho could very well be looking to rebound here and show why he should be considered the best player on FXO at this moment.

Prediction

Acer: 5 > FXO: 4

This match should belong to FXO, but the result will come down to the performance of Scarlett when she is called upon.  She has not been tested as an ace player very often since joining Acer, but she will have to play at her very best level to clean up after the rest of her Zerg brethren fall.  Also, this result could be very different if one of the lower tier FXO players can defeat any of the big three Zergs for Acer, opening the door for the Korean team's superior depth to come into play.  However, I think Nerchio will play at a very high level and take up to three maps, making life very difficult for FXO, and possibly granting Acer an upset victory.

The match will take place on Thursday, September 27th.  Check in to see if the curious Zerg-only lineup for Acer can stand up against the well balanced FXO attack!

Source : ign[dot]com

LG-Incredible Miracle continues their title defense tonight against Prime!

Both LG-Incredible Miracle and Prime were able to edge out wins with 5-4 map scores in their first Premier division matches against StarTale and Team SCV Life respectively.  They now meet in the third match of Group B, with the winner securing passage into the playoffs and a chance at the inaugural IPTL championship.  Check out the rosters, notes on some of their key players, and a prediction below!

Lineups

LG-IM:

• Seed (P)
• MC (P) (from partnership with SK)
• NesTea (Z)
• Mvp (T)
• Happy (T)
• First (P)
• YongHwa (P)
• YoDa (T)
• True (Z)
• LosirA (Z)
• Ready (P)

Prime:

• MarineKing (T)
• Creator (P)
• ByuN (T)
• Maru (T)
• BBoong (Z)
• Classic (P)
• AriA (Z)
• Salmosa (Z)

Potential Starters

LG-IM: YongHwa (P) or First (P)

As he is overshadowed by two GSL champion-level Protoss players in Seed and MC, it is easy to forget just how good YongHwa actually is.  YongHwa has already seen action this season, taking down Hack but falling to the up-and-coming StarTale Zerg Life.  While those results aren't stunning, YongHwa is capable of much more.  He has a recent all-kill to his name, coming out first in LG-IM's second match of GSTL 2012 Season 3 against Fnatic and defeating the entire lineup.  Even more recently, he emerged as the surprise champion of the WCG 2012 Korean Nationals, defeating Prime's ace player MarineKing in the finals.  If YongHwa can take some maps and force MarineKing out early, then take him down like he did at WCG, LG-IM will be sitting pretty for the series.

Prime: MarineKing (T)

Prime has been known to attempt the unorthodox strategy of throwing their star MarineKing into the fray as the first player to grab as many kills as he can before handing the reins over to support players, relying on Creator to clean up in the more traditional ace role.  This very tactic was used in their first IPTL match against TSL, with MarineKing taking the first map over a more typical starting player in RagnaroK, forcing the TSL ace Symbol out in the second spot to try and stop MKP's momentum, which he did.  Prime was somewhat lucky, as Maru managed to take down the TSL Zerg star, setting the table for Creator and Byun to finish off the opposition.  If Prime tries this strategy again, it may not work so well: LG-IM is so stacked that they have the two most recent GSL finalists and a host of other stars, and with that depth, they do not risk much by sending a stud player out to stop a surprise starter in MarineKing.

Key Players

LG-IM: SK.MC (P)

The Boss Toss MC did exactly what he needed to do in the last clan war, coming in as the last player with a 4-4 score on the board to take out the resurgent Curious and win the match for his partner team.  If he can continue to consistently put wins on the table, he will immediately become more reliable in team league play than either of the other multiple GSL champions in the stable for LG-IM.  He still puts on amazing  individual performances, placing in the top three of four major tournaments since the start of July.  Also, the only person who stood between MC and the most recent GSL title, Seed, is now his quasi-teammate; these two Protoss superstars combined for four of the five map wins in their most recent team match, and do not be surprised if that trend continues moving forward.

Prime: ByuN (T)

Prime saved ByuN for the final spot in their last match, and he certainly pulled through, defeating a very strong TvT player in Polt before taking down Shine to secure a fifth map win and the match for his team.  If Prime continues to use MarineKing in a starting role, ByuN will become very important in the success of the team; without their ace Terran player to anchor, Prime could find itself hurting for strong Terran play at the tail end of series if ByuN does not continue to produce.  ByuN will have to handle more stressful situations than he may have been used to in team matches, but so far he has shown that he can step up to the task.  He is a very capable player and a recent GSL semifinalist, so do not be surprised if he defeats any member of the LG-IM roster.

The Aces:

LG-IM: Seed (P)

Seed, though unable to close out the entire match for his team, satisfied expectations in the match against StarTale, taking out Life, Squirtle, and Parting--all amazing players--in succession before finally falling to Curious.  This is the sort of play we should see from a GSL champion, and should he continue to play like this, Seed could very well secure LG-IM's advancement to the next round mostly by himself.  His victories over Parting and Squirtle are a particularly good sign, as one of the major keys to defeating Prime is being able to effectively handle their Protoss beast, Creator.  Seed should be considered a favorite in every PvP he plays, especially considering the aforementioned map wins against StarTale, as well as the fact that Seed won his GSL finals over another very good Protoss player in MC.  Creator is no slouch, though, and put up a good fight against Seed.

Prime: Creator (P)

With the eccentric play style of MarineKing, Creator is a bit better of a fit for the traditional ace role on Prime.  Whenever he can, he plays a methodical and patient macro style, very well tailored to the current metagame.  The key to Creator's success is his ability to defend and keep his economy intact, while at the same time teching, upgrading, and building up an immensely strong late-game army, then knowing when and where to move his army once he has it.  These strengths are most evident in his PvT, but with the two arguably strongest LG-IM players being Protoss, Creator will need to bring his PvP A-game to do his part for Prime.  PvP is not known as a matchup where you can sit back and macro up; Creator will need to be able to defend all kinds of crazy aggression that either Seed or MC are more than capable of mustering.  He will have a tough task ahead of him if both of the LG-IM Protoss studs are still available when he is sent out.

Prediction

LG-IM: 5 > Prime: 3

The outcome of this clan war will come down to three things: how many kills MarineKing secures if he does start, ByuN's performance, and whether Creator's PvP is strong enough.  I think only one of these will go Prime's way.  If LG-IM leads with YongHwa, he will bring down MarineKing again, taking out one of Prime's strongest players right off the bat and setting the tone for the whole match.  ByuN will grab two or three kills, showing the strong play we expect from him, but Seed will come in to close.  The GSL champion should take out both ByuN and Creator, all but claiming the win for LG-IM.

This match will take place on Wednesday, September 26th.  Catch the live stream to see these two ridiculously strong teams have at it for the right to advance to the playoff bracket.

Source : ign[dot]com

IPTL Premier Division - Group B Preview

Welcome to IPTL Season 1 Premier Division Group B overview. Information that you can find in this article should help you in getting the best possible viewing experience while watching our live stream during IGN Pro Team League where the best teams and players in the world clash not only for the money, but also for the title! Fasten your seat belts or grab something to drink and enjoy.

Premier division of IPTL Season 1 consists of 8 teams that are divided into 2 groups. In Round of 8 we are going to have Round Robin system and matches will be played in an All-Kill format. Top 2 teams in every group advance to the Round of 4 while bottom 2 teams drop into the Up and Down Matches.

Round of 4 is a single elimination tournament for the IPTL’s championship crown. All 4 teams who qualify to Ro4 are instantly seeded in the next season Premier Division’s Tournament.

Premier Group B has everything that Starcraft 2 fans love: top Korean teams and superstar line-ups. With professional commentary provided by IGN’s casters done onh free high quality stream you get a perfect combination.

Team SCV Life have five strong players capable of winning, but what’s going to happen once they get eliminated? Read about TSL’s champions and runner-ups here Known for having super strong players like Bomber or PartinG, StarTale is ready for IPTL Season 1. They possibly have the highest number of players seeded in both Code A and Code S, but is that enough? Read IPL’s article on StarTale here. This is the team with the smallest number of players, but 80% of their roster is seeded in one of GSL’s leagues. Lead by MarineKingPrime and young Creator, Prime is a force to be reckon with. Apparently they believe in motto “quality over quantity.” Is it true? Read about them here Incredible Miracle is full of big names, but is it going to be enough? Lately most of their ace players weren’t performing well, so everybody’s looking forward to see them in action. Is IPTL going to be their event? Find out more about IM here.

We want to make sure that you know our schedule for IPTL Season 1, so that you won’t miss the most exciting games this season. Below you can find the schedule for Premier Group A matches.

Match 1: Incredible Miracle vs StarTale (09/11/2012)

Match 2: Prime vs Team SCV Life (09/19/2012)

Match 3: Incredible Miracle vs Prime (09/26/2012)

Match 4: StarTale vs Team SCV Life (10/03/2012)

Match 5: StarTale vs Prime (10/10/2012)

Match 6: Incredible Miracle vs Team SCV Life (10/17/2012)

I don’t remember if we ever had such an amazing and fun to watch group in any team event thus far. Four Korean power-house teams full of beastly players and long history of grand achievements in one league is just insane. I do not believe anyone who would say they are not going to watch this – you would be stupid. I am sorry, but that’s the truth – IPL did something that only GOMTV was able to do during their GSTL event. IPTL Season 1 is going to be the best team event outside Korea hands-down.

Isn’t it electrifying to watch TSL in what could possibly look like a group of death for them taking into consideration their GSTL performance and teams that were able to defeat them in the semi-finals of every tournament? It’s going to be insane!

MarineKingPrime isn’t as good as he used to be, but I feel that this event might be his great comeback. In June he did an all-kill on StarTale in KSL Team League Season 1, so why couldn’t he repeat this success in IPTL? I believe he can, especially when he’s being supported by Creator, current TeamLiquid StarLeague 4 champion.

I cannot wait to see Squirtle’s PvP – he’s the only player who can actually make this match-up look so interesting. StarTale have so many godly players on their team that they look unstoppable, but in All-Kill format even one small point counts.

We all know the story about NesTea who created the earth and people told by Tastosis during GSL matches, but is he going win at least a game during IPTL Season 1? He’s been in a slump for a very long time, yet there are still many people who would actually love to see him win again.

But fear not! There is still Seed, LosirA, Mvp and Happy who can come and save the day, and if they would fail IM have Yonghwa. On paper it looks like they simply cannot lose even one game.

However, these are all assumptions based on players latest performance. The results will verify everything. I just hope to watch six awing matches and get ready for the playoffs. IPTL Season 1 begins shortly and it’s going to be legen – wait for it – dary!

Source : ign[dot]com