Kim “Stats” Dae-yeob and Shin “SHIN” Hee-beom last met in December 2023 during AfreecaTV Pro Series #22, where SHIN won 4-0. It marked his third head-to-head victory of the year and his eighth overall (8-13).

Stats has dominated SHIN since they first met in 2015, but he could not match his compatriot last year as the balance of power flipped. For this match, we also have to consider Stats’ poor record against Zerg players.

Protos vs Zerg is Stats’ worst matchup at a 58.60% win rate across 1,413 games. That number has dropped to just 12.5% over the last 16 games, which is highly concerning. In contrast, ZvP is SHIN’s best matchup, with a 60.24% all-time win rate and 76% over the last 50 fixtures.

Considering Stats’ performance metrics and recent head-to-head record against SHIN, it’s tough to justify a wager on him.

After placing 17th-20th and 21st-24th in his last two trips to Poland, Clément “Clem” Desplanches enters IEM Katowice 2024 as the second favourite to win the tournament, priced at $3.80 on the outright betting markets. That’s hardly surprising, considering Clem is the current ESL SC2 Masters champion and the second-ranked player on the European ESL Pro Tour 2023/24.

Li “Oliveira” Peinan hasn’t accomplished nearly as much as the French StarCraft II pro over the last few months, but he has left a good impression in bigger tournaments. More importantly, Olivera is 1-1 in the head-to-head against Clem on the year, with a 3-1 victory from WardiTV 2023.

Olivera’s victory against Clem two weeks ago isn’t something to ignore, but it doesn’t prove he is a better player. Clem is in excellent form and holds a 67.37% win rate against Terran players over the last 95 games, whereas Oliveira’s win rate in mirrored matchups sits at just 48.89%.

Oliveira is a solid player, but at the offered StarCraft II betting odds, Clem is a more appealing choice.

Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon and Kim “Stats” Dae-yeob have not met once since March 2021, when Bunny won his third consecutive head-to-head match and improved his all-time record to 7-9. It’s been nearly three years since, so those numbers mean nothing.

SCII betting sites have Stats priced as an underdog for this match, likely because he hasn’t played an official game since mid-December. On the other hand, Bunny has been active over the last month but hasn’t accomplished much, recently placing 15th-16th at Master’s Coliseum 7.

This match is much closer to 50/50 than it may seem. Stats has a decent record against Terran players, whereas Bunny has a 57.58% win rate against Protoss over the last 33 outings. At plus money, Stats is a much better choice.

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Kim “Cure” Doh-wook and Kim “Stats” Dae-yeob have met 32 times since 2015, each winning 15 series and 39 maps. However, while their all-time head-to-head record is 50-50, Cure holds a perfect 6-0 record (12-0 in maps) against the 31-year-old veteran this year.

The strong head-to-head record explains why Cure is heavily favoured for this match, but we must also consider that Cure is in excellent form. He holds a 62.66% win rate across the last 233 games and is 65-34 against Protoss players. Stats has a 48.1% win rate across the last 54 games and an abysmal 36.84% win rate in PvT games.

Stats is never to be underestimated, but at the offered StarCraft II betting odds, we have to side with Cure to sweep Stats for the seventh time this year.

Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon is priced as a $1.30 favourite to defeat Jang “NightMare” Wook, which sounds fair considering Bunny is 3-0 against NightMare across their last three meetings. However, the two Korean SCII pros have not met once since November 2022, so that number doesn’t mean much.

NightMare’s best tournament placement was ninth–12th at the 2023 Global StarCraft II League Season 2: Code S, which isn’t too inspiring. However, Bunny hasn’t looked much better recently. He made the semifinals in GSL Season 1 Code S but then added two 13th–16th-place finishes at GSL Season 2 and ESL Summer.

The only thing going in Bunny’s favour is his strong record against Protoss players (57.14%), but even that is only slightly better than NightMare’s PvT record (55.71%). Bunny should be favoured, but not by that much. Value is with NightMare.

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The tournament was a star-studded affair, with most of the top SC 2 players present, with the noted exception of TY. The format was a single-elimination series of best of fives (going from Ro16 to Ro8, to Ro4, and then finally the grand finals) and the tournament was spread over four days.

Innovation showed that the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated, as he easily took out reigning world champion Rogue in the Ro16.

Maru continued to show up in top form, eliminating perennial second-place finisher soO in the Ro16, but he, in turn, was beaten by Classic in the Ro8.

Stats and Solar had a great, closely contested Ro8 match, with an exciting game 1 where Solar managed to equalize despite losing a good fifty drones in the early/middle game, but Stats did eventually get the better of him, advancing to the Ro4.

herO managed to beat Innovation in the Ro8, before being defeated handily by Stats in the quarterfinals. For his part, Dark beat True and Classic to advance to the finals, with a 3-2 and 3-1 score respectively.

Grand final recap: Dark vs Stats

The finals came down to Dark vs Stats. The ultimate late game zerg vs the perfect defensive protoss.

Stats took game one proving that mass high templars do, in fact, trump roach ravager play.

In game two Dark opened up with a ton of zerglings, sacrificing economy in the hopes of catching his opponent off guard with a very early attack. While taking a circuitous route around the map in order to avoid Stats’ scouting adept, Dark discovered Stats’ proxied stargate.

The zerg player destroyed it before any air units could be made, but in doing so tipped his hand about the early aggression, enabling his opponent to erect a complete sim city defense. With both players’ early games plans thwarted they entered the middle game in a roughly even position. Stats tried some archon drop harass which failed to get any real damage done, and when Dark’s roaches moved across the map for a counterattack the Protoss was forced to tap out.

Game three was an incredibly exciting game. Dark proxied his third hatchery for an early queen/spore/ravager push on Stats’ natural. Stats managed to sneak out two oracles to eliminate Dark’s entire economy, but at the same time, Dark managed to eliminate the protoss natural and moved into his opponent’s main base. After a final climactic battle, a single ravager was all that remained, and Dark took a 2-1 lead.

Game four was a lopsided affair, with Dark’s +1 lings dealing game-ending damage early on, and suddenly the zerg player was on match point. Down two games, Stats began to rally, winning game five and six in the late game with carrier tech.

Tied up at 3-3 there was only one game left. Game seven came down to a massive chargelot / archon attack from Stats. Dark managed to hold off the attack, and with heavy losses on both sides the players had equalized and began to macro up.

Dark maxed out first, but his fourth base got taken out by a large attack, and while his burrowed roach harass kept Stats busy, Stats’ high tech immortal / archon/templar composition directly countered Dark’s roaches. Despite Dark’s excellent use of accelerated healing from burrow, eventually, Stats was able to power through and win the series.

But now the season is over and it’s coming down to the business end with just four players left fighting it out for the title of GSL Champion.

Who will it be? Could it be SoO, the champion South Korean, who has played in seven GSL finals without ever winning one, or will it be Stats, Dark or Maru?

EsportBet StarCraft II expert Zak Y gives his take and betting predictions on the semi finals.

soO vs Stats

March 21st, 2018 : 20:30 KST

Stats may be the perfect defensive Protoss, but soO loses only in the finals, not the semi-finals. All jokes aside, soO has consistently demonstrated himself to be one of the absolute top SC2 players over the years by making so many deep runs in very important tournaments, including last year’s Blizzcon. While Stats is an incredible player with a great depth of skill, soO is a 3:2 favourite to win this best of five. In terms of match history, soO is 29-22 against Stats, and while this should be an exciting and interesting match to watch, you can expect soO to be victorious.

Best bet: Back SoO at $1.57 at GG Bet

Dark vs Maru

March 24th, 2018 – 13:00 KST

Dark and Maru recently played in the grand finals of the WESG, one of the largest tournaments of the year. Despite Dark taking a 3-2 lead in that best of seven match, Maru managed to take the last two games with the same aggressive proxy two rax build. This is definitely going to be an incredible series and one that is too close to call because neither side really has the advantage here. This match will be a statistical dead heat. Historically Dark is 25-22 in matches against Maru, but both players have been playing absolutely phenomenal lately and this will be anyone’s game.

Best bet: Back Dark at $1.98 at GG Bet

How to bet on the Global StarCraft II League semi finals

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How to watch GSL Semi Finals – AfreecaTV live channel

You can watch all the GSL semi finals action on the AfreecaTV live channel or read our guide to watching Starcraft.

The report examines the growth and consumption of esports content in Sweden and northern Europe. According to the report, Nordic audiences of esports came to a standstill last year, even though consumer engagement continues to be on the rise.

Mediavision, a specialist firm in analysis and strategy within the digital medium, reveals that esports growth in 2017 was characterized by “increased competition over distribution rights and by several mergers and acquisitions.” But more on this later.

Willingness of viewers to pay for content indicative of sector growth

The report states that an average 650,000 Nordic enthusiasts watched esports and gaming activities everyday of 2016 and 2017. The number of daily viewers in 2017 did not increase above the number for 2016. But there is higher engagement since viewers spent more time watching these games. To buttress this, esports and gaming viewers spent on average one hour 40 minutes everyday watching their games in the fourth quarter of 2017; while they spent only one hour 20 minutes per day in 2016.

Mediavision’s analysis attributes this increased engagement to better content.

One of the parameters for measuring the increased engagement in Q4 2017 is consumers’ willingness to pay for content. Viewers expressed their willingness to pay for content devoid of ads, and game content inclusive of rewards. To drive home this point, 75 per cent of Swedish consumers said they would gladly pay for particular streaming services if they offered the stated two conditions.

YouTube, Twitch and Facebook compete to provide esports/gaming streaming services

“The increased share of paying viewers points toward a slowly maturing consumption. Meanwhile, the group of consumers willing to pay for content is considerably larger than those who pay today. We see this as a clear indication for further growth potential”, says Torbj?rn Axelsson, analyst at Mediavision.

YouTube and Amazon’s Twitch were the largest streaming services for esports and gaming content in Q4 2017. But then Facebook has also joined the competition and even managed to snatch up to 14 per cent of the viewers within this same period.