The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational's Starcraft tournament is one of the rare occurrences outside of the World Cyber Games when the upper echelon of professional gamers and top amateurs get to battle it out.

The majority of the invitees (five to be exact) currently reside in South Korea, living the life of an professional gamer. The other three are some of the best known amateurs in the world. Included in the field are the World Cyber Games gold and bronze medalists from 2007.

Even with visa problems preventing one player from attending and changes in the brackets, the event is shaping up to be very exciting.

I will give those who are not familiar with players the opportunity to learn some about the competition within this tournament.

sAviOr[gm] vs MYM.Dreiven:
On paper this is a match that looks undoubtedly in sAviOr's hands. However, with his recent demotion to the "B Team" of CJ Entus, his time in the spotlight appears to be dwindling. To his credit though, he is playing in what is statistically his best match-up against a much lesser experienced player.

The Polish WCG 2007 champion known as Dreiven will have his hands full with the maestro. While several question the organizers judgment in choosing him as a replacement for Strelok, Dreiven is more likely than any of the other attendees to cause an upset. Back in Razer TSL he was the player who managed to eliminate the number one seeded player Mondragon when the majority thought he had no chance.

ToT)Mondragon( vs Sea[Shield]:
For years, Mondragon has been considered the strongest player in all of Europe and his results speak for themselves. At the World Cyber Games in Seattle he managed to earn a bronze medal, an accomplishment that only a chosen few have earned. With all of his achievements under his belt, he has shown poor results against the professional gamers that have faced him in the past.

Sea will have the opportunity to play in his first big event outside of the Korean mainland. This youngster has been dominating the pro scene since he was only 15 years old. Having a zerg opponent will also play in to his favor because that is statistically his best match-up.

Siz)KaL vs MYM.F91:
KaL is the youngest and perhaps least experienced out of the four Koreans attending. However, don't let his young age fool you. In the past year or so, he has shown some very strong results especially against his zerg opponents.

The Chinese zerg F91 might very well have the highest chances in advancing out of all of the non-Koreans. He's a very aggressive, micro-oriented player that can sometimes to tough to predict for any opponent.

IdrA[Media] vs Stork[gm]:
Stork is the defending World Cyber Games 2007 gold medalist who has earned his right as one of the best professional gamers of all time. This match should be a cakewalk for him, but with some rather lackluster results recently he is certainly not invincible.

IdrA is currently the only non-Korean competing in South Korea as a professional gamer for eStro. Several months ago, he moved to Korea to live out his dream where he seems to be improving slowly. He has stated that his play against protoss has improved greatly since coming to South Korea.