Meet Your SC2ITL Playoff Teams - Vega Squadron
Academy : Miszu, Pidiiinne, Kreator, Matt, KaKoS, PrimeLoT, Sheggi, Sloth
Hosting a small main team Vega Squadron are definitely not ones to count out as a deep and powerful academy lies in back up for them in-case times get tough going into the playoffs. They made it through the Groups in fairly dominating fashion, dropping only two matches on their way to RuW and Alien Invasion - and really you should expect no less from a team who had three players in the WCS System already in 2014 (Firecake who made Premier League, Revolver and VERDI who made Challenger League). Throughout the season they also had Spanish player AlastOr helping them out, though he recently left the team to pursue new opportunities.
Vega Squadron drop into the upper half of the Playoff Bracket with their second place finish in Group D, which will be a great relief to them as many see the upper bracket as a much simple route to the finals. That being said they will not be taking it lightly as they go up against ESL Euro Spring Series 4th place finishers Team Missing In Action in their RO16 match. MiA have honestly not looked their best throughout the groups and have slipped up more than once - dropping games to Esselta and Aachen, while beating some of the top teams in their groups.
If MiA let up their guard like they have done previously then Vega Squadron are going to roll straight on over them instead of it being the close match we expect from these two teams. They face MiA on Sunday at 1900 CET and I honestly think the victor of this match will move through with confidence into the RO8 where they play against AT Gaming.
Can Vega Squadron go all the way? I really think they can. Their academy alone would probably make a decent stab at going far in the playoffs so when you add in their Main Team players they really could cause an upset against anybody (notably Cascade or ESC Gaming in the semi-finals, if they make it that far.) Let's take a look at another fantastic interview we got, this time with Vega Squadron's Manager HighArT.
Wardi : How have you been enjoying the league so far? Has it been a good experience?
HighArT : I must say, this league came at perfect time, when there was no other team leagues to play for us. It was great experience, and since we like to participate in team leagues and play clan wars, there was no doubt for my players and for me that we should participate, and i wish there was more such good organized team leagues then SC2ITL. Only thing that bothered us was the length of the season, which i think is really long time, but for the rest of the stuff i have only good words. GJ Wardi on organizing such entertaining, competitive and organized team league! We appreciate it!
Wardi : You had two close losses against Alien Invasion and RuW early on in the Group Stage, did this shake your confidence of advancing at all?
HighArT : Yea, both CWs were kinda close, especially one vs Ai, which is really strong and scary team these days. But i must say we agreed to use group stage for training and practice our academy players, to see how they will do against better teams, and it turns out they were all really confident and all played great, so we knew with help of our pros we can easily secure top 3 positions which lead to playoffs. So basically, we never lost our confidence after loosing to RuW and Ai, we just knew we had to win all remaining CWs till the end, that was our goal, and we achieved it pretty decisive i must say.
Wardi : You move through from Group D in second place and hence will play MiA, who have looked extremely shaky in their Group, in the Ro16. Are you confident going into this match?
HighArT : I think, since I'm in Vega, we still didn't play any official matches vs team MiA, so i guess this will be our 1st one. We all saw how they played good in EES Winter reaching top 4, while we lost in quarterfinals vs mYi pretty badly. They are sick and very strong team, i know them pretty well, and with their top player Starbuck, they can take down any team in Europe. We both (Vega and MiA) have chance and quality to win this CW, i guess will be hard cw for both teams, but we are pretty confident and prepared for that CW. i wish GL to both teams, and cant wait our CW, hope it will be good to watch :)
Wardi : If you make it into the RO8 you will play against AT Gaming and then potentially mYinsanity - knowing this what are your goals for the playoffs and do you think you can go all the way to the finals?
HighArT : First of all, i must admit that we got easier part of bracket, while bottom bracket is really sick with so many candidates for 1st place like Ai and mYi for sure. Honestly, i must say, if we manage to beat MiA, we have big chance to get into finals on SC2ITL, since we feel pretty confident about rest of the teams in our upper bracket. So MiA and Vega are candidates for winner of upper bracket, for sure. Top 2 in this league is our biggest goal, and we will try to reach it, since we think we at least belong to top 4 strongest teams here.
Wardi : Vega Squadron has a solid roster of players with three fairly unknown players (FireCake, Revolver and Verdi) making it into WCS this Season. In terms of individual leagues what do you expect your players to achieve in 2014?
HighArT : Our team and players are becoming more and more popular and known, since they are making sick results, like WCS Challenger for Revolver and Verdi, and 2nd WCS Premium in a row for our star player Firecake. We expect good results in online individual tournaments and maybe some qualifications for Major tournaments, and for sure good runs in Dreamhack Open, where we plan to send some of our players, aswell as some local LANs.
Wardi : You also have a very strong academy team - what do you feel the importance of the academy team is for Vega Squadron?
HighArT : We build whole team on our academy roster. Sometimes im joking that soon our academy will become stronger then our pro roster, which maybe some day may become true, because we have sick group of players and friends in academy, we training and working hard with them, so they can potentially become better and known players. That is our main goal with academy. They are showing sick results too, in individual tournaments, and in CWs too, even in some LANs, so we are very proud of them as collective and as individual players, and how they turning themselfs into great players.
Wardi : Best of luck in the playoffs - if you have any shoutouts or sponsors you wish to mention then please do!
HighArT : Thank you for good wishes. First, i would like to thank you Wardi for organizing sick sick team league, and for keeping it going with almost no mistake, there should be more guys like you investing their time for community and helping others. Hope we see you in Season 2, which we hope it will not last so long :P
Last but not least, i wanna say thanks to all my players that played in group stages and showed good games, hope we do good in playoffs ;)
And thanks to our sponsors Vega, bweb group, Qcyber and our newest partner guys from esportclothing!
For more infos about our SC2 and LoL teams, sponsors and achievements follow us at facebook /vegasquadronesports and twitter @vegasquadron
Vega Squadron - Group D - Position : 2nd - Wins : 11 - Losses : 2 - Map Wins : 49 - Map Losses : 20 - All-kills : 4