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Perhaps the last week wasn't news-heavy enough for you. Perhaps the last week wasn't filled with enough triumphs and glory. Perhaps the events of the last weekend haven't quenched your thirst for starcraft, only set it aflame.

Welcome to the Year of Liquid. Where there is no rest, where there is no sleep, where there is only starcraft, and after that, more starcraft.

This weekend, Liquid` will divide across three continents to compete in two of the first major offlines on the 2012 schedule. In New York, HayprO, Ret and Sheth will gather for the MLG Winter Arena (more on that in a few hours) and in Helsinki, HerO, Jinro and TLO will meet up at Assembly Winter. With three representatives at each, the opportunities are golden and the stakes are high. It's time to back up all of those amazing online performances with some solid offline results.

Assembly first.



For Liquid`, there's a ton of cause for optimism, as there always is before these major LANs. But each of the groups for the team have potential pitfalls. For HerO, the danger is d.SeleCT, an expert TvP player who has notched a few wins against HerO already. But while top two advance, HerO will also need to be on his game against Ai.Seiplo, who was huge at Dreamhack Winter, killing a number of famous protoss players. HerO beat him twice then, but in close games.

For Jinro, his group is an unfortunate one. The opponent in his best match-up happens to be SlayerS_TaeJa, a Code S-level terran, who many have picked to win the event. And the remaining members are Acer.elfi- and Mill.Adelscott, two cheesy protosses, which have been Jinro's kryptonite for essentially ever. For Jinro to advance here, he will need to take his much improved recent form, and look his past demons straight in the eye. But if he's on his game and does this, the field will take note. Jinro is a dangerous opponent by any measure.

Finally, for TLO's group, the primary danger is TSL_Polt, but TypePhoenix and d.BlinG are also super opponents who have competed at the top of Europe. It's not going to be an easy task for the German zerg. But neither was beating MarineKing, Creator, and AnnYeong in the IPL Team Arena, or defeating ReaL, Grubby, and Tarson in the Heat Charity Invitational. TLO is looking closer and closer to his 2010 form. Could he break out here and record his first major LAN triumph in a long time? Like Jinro, just getting out of this group may be indication that something special is up.



The event kicks off at 04:00 CST with Group A, but the first Liquid` appearance is scheduled to be at a much more reasonable time for Europe and America, as HerO plays SeleCT at 09:00 CST on stream 2. At 10:00 CST, Jinro makes his way onto the main stream for a bout against elfi. He'll stay on after that, to face TaeJa. Rounding out the evening for Liquid` will be TLO as he meets TSL_Polt on the main stream at 13:00 CST.

Listed below are the full schedules:
SETT TV #1
+ Show Spoiler +

SETT TV #2
+ Show Spoiler +

There's no doubt it's going to be a sick event. It'll be even sicker if Liquid` shows the same form offline that we've shown this month online. Only one thing to do now.

Lets Go.