The first ever ESWC Masters is finally upon us and with it comes one of the hottest competitions of the WC3 calendar. Twenty of the world’s finest micro machines will compete for a spot in the ESWC grand finals in San Jose later this year. The groups are tough, the knockout stages will be even tougher, but one must triumph. SK-Gaming gives you the run down of just who it might be.

Group A

Xiaofeng 'Sky' Li
Yoan 'ToD' Merlo
Mateusz 'hG' Pietrzak
Daniel 'XlorD' Spenst
Jae Wook 'Lucifer' Noh

The Favourites: With two players qualifying for the knockout stages and three world class players in the pool, Group A will be one of the toughest. Sky, ToD and Lucifer are all capable of beating one another and XlorD won’t be an easy game for any opponent either. The German is definitely the dark horse of the group and if either of the two human players makes a mistake they will be made to pay.

Sky especially is in danger in this group. Having performed less than impressively at Blizzard’s WWI last weekend, the Chinese can’t afford any slip-ups if he wants the chance to end his barren run.

Zechs Picks: ToD and Lucifer.
I think Sky is in very poor form lately and will probably draw with or even lose to ToD, sending the Frenchman through by the odd point. Lucifer, on the other hand, is overdue a good LAN performance and I think this will be his time to shine.

Group B

June 'Lyn' Park
Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen
Shahriar 'Demigod' Shaki
Christophe 'Wolf' Laporte
Kevin 'RotterdaM' van der Kooi

The Favourites: On paper (or should that be monitor), this orc dominated group looks straightforward. The two high seeded orc players, Grubby and Lyn, should have it sewn-up. But WC3 is never so simple and RotterdaM has a solid record against his fellow countryman. More than that, he has a pretty good record in Orc mirror in general – good enough to give Lyn cause for concern too.

Of the other two players, Wolf is the most likely to cause a problem for the favourites but realistically he is likely to finish fourth with just a win over Demigod to his name.

Zechs Picks: Grubby and Lyn.
While RotterdaM is a definite thorn in the side for the favourites, I think he will just fall short and experience will win through. Wolf may even put pay to RotterdaM’s ambition, regardless of his mirror matches, while I honestly can’t see the Nightelf player having a chance against Lyn or Grubby.

Group C

Seo Woo 'ReiGn' Kang
Mykhaylo 'HoT' Novopashyn
Bora 'PsYkO' Kim
Peter 'DNA' Agardi
Leif 'KleeneX' Boutin

The Favourites: Again, this group looks a lot simpler than it actually is. While ReiGn and HoT are experienced veterans of major tournaments, DNA in particular is an up-and-coming talent. As an orc player, the Hungarian will give undead ReiGn considerable difficulty. At the same time, HoT’s form tends to be rather sporadic. Brilliant at times, average at others, his chances hinge on which of his two personas turns up to play.

As for the basement battle, the positions of the two Frenchmen are mostly interchangeable. Both play for the same clan (Millenium) and neither is especially well known outside of Europe. Since ESWC is best-of-three this year there will be no draws, but don't but don't be surprised to see some fun strategies when these two meet - it probably won't mean much in the long run.

Zehcs Picks: HoT and ReiGn
Personally, I would love to see DNA go through this group but I don’t think he is on the same level as the pair I have chosen. While the orc-undead advantage might win him a map against ReiGn, realistically he won’t beat either of the favourites outright and the two old-timers will triumph.

Group D

Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang
Du Seop 'WhO' Chang
Daniel 'LiiLD.C' Claesson
Marc 'yAwS' Förster
Dae Hui 'FoV' Cho

The Favourites: D is for Death. This group is by the far the most interesting and most difficult to predict. The trio of Koreans is near impossible to separate, and the other two are no pushovers either. Liild.C, in particular, will give Moon and Who a tough time with elf mirror notoriously Moon’s weakest match-up.

FoV, however, might suffer for his race. Undead’s only real advantage is against nightelf, yet Moon’s record against his countryman is very impressive, rendering the racial advantage void. With the Korean vs Korean matches being pivotal in this group, Who’s probable victory over Fov will see him safely through to the knockout stage.

Zechs Picks: Moon and Who
After Moon’s victory at WWI, it would take a braver man than me to bet against him at ESWC Masters. I feel a little sorry for FoV, though – if it had been any other elf player in the world beside Moon, the new mTw star would have qualified. As it is, he will finish third behind two other Koreans.

Can Moon be Stopped?

ESWC Masters, it seems, is the fifth race’s even to lose. After a resounding win at Blizzard’s World Wide Invitational, Moon proved once again that he is the man to beat and it his momentum will be running high with this event coming just seven days after that victory.

Unless the metro got a whole lot quicker since I was last in Paris, jet lag from back-to-back tournaments will have no part to play and it is going to take something really special to beat him this time around.

Never the less, this event has a lot of special players and if the king is going to fall, where better than France, the spiritual home of regicide?