Meet Your SC2ITL Playoff Teams - Cascade
Cascade. Out of all of the teams who made the playoffs or who gave us surprising performances, I cannot help but feel Cascade gave us the most surprising of all. They came out of Group A - the Group of Death - in first place with an astounding map score, dropping on average one map for every team they played. They had two defeats in the Group Stage - an unexpected forfeit to iD due to miscommunication and a 3-4 loss to mYinsanity in the best series we saw throughout the whole of the SC2ITL Group Stages.
These results would have been expected from a team such as mYinsanity or Alien Invasion who have numerous very strong ace players to come out for them - but Cascade don’t have anything like this. Their strongest player is arguable Adonminus, the SC2Improve Winter League 2012/2013 Champion, who has recently seen success by making it into WCS Challenger League for two consecutive Seasons. Adonminus has not been the only player pulling his weight in the SC2ITL for Cascade however as we saw the Danish Zerg Player Blackcidy come out and all-kill numerous times. When you back up these two monsters with the rest of their roster, which consists purely of GM players, you can see how they performed as well as they have so far. But it’s still relatively surprising!
Going into the playoffs those who have faced the wrath of Cascade already will be extremely worried of meeting them in the finals - but that is the only place they will meet them as LYFG and mYi both sit in the lower half of the bracket. This leaves a lot of teams who may make the deadly mistake of underestimating Cascade as they head into their playoff matches against them. Cascade and their players will leap at any chance they have to punish an un-expecting team.
From winning their group they stand only three matches away from being the champions of the SC2ITL. As always we managed to grab their manager for a quick few questions to see how they are feeling leading up to the big games.
Wardi : Congratulations on advancing in first place from Group A! Many said Group A was the ‘group of death’ - did you feel this way?
RvSon : Thank you for your congratulations. Group of death? Yes. We were aiming initially to be in top 2, the greatest resistance was naturally from mYinsanity, but we also feared Karnage, because before that we had almost never played with them. At the beginning of the season we were pleasantly surprised by LYGF - they played at a very high level.
Wardi : How confident are you of making it all the way to the finals? Are there any teams you are afraid of?
RvSon : We think we are able to reach the final, but it's Starcraft, all can be. This is the playoffs, there are no weak opponents, all matches will be difficult.
Wardi : You had a very close loss (3-4) against mYinsanity during the groups - if you met them in the finals do you think you could take them down?
RvSon : The games will show, but I think we have a couple of surprises for them.
Wardi : Cascade has an extremely strong line-up, as proven in the groups through the incredible map score gained. Who are your three players we should look out for in the playoffs and why?
RvSon : I think no one will surprise if I say: Adonminus, Minato and Des. Adonminus - our most famous player who participated in the first season WCS in this year. Minato in our opinion one of the best players in Europe, and Des - ... each team must have its own Joey Barton (scandalous English footballer)! Good player, good trolling, fun and epic games =)
Wardi : What are your goals as a team for 2014?
RvSon : First of all – continue to evolve. Naturally, we will make every effort to win this league, but do not forgot others leagues. This year in Russia will DreamHack and we will try to introduce on it the team to the maximum. There is another project in the summer, but this is a secret.
Wardi : Thanks for your time, if you have any special mentions/shout outs then please feel free to make them!
RvSon : Sending Greetings to all our fans, thank them for their support, and also thank our general sponsor 1xbet.
As always it is great to hear what the teams have to say and its awesome to see that Cascade will not be taking any of their opponents in the playoffs lightly. I probably shouldn’t show any favorites as the league organizer - but I personally think Cascades performance in Group A alone should qualify them for the final! Here is to hoping they make it, or at least give us a few more amazing series before then!
Cascade - Group A - Position : 1st - Wins : 11 - Losses : 2 - Map Wins : 47 - Map Losses : 13 - All-kills : 8