EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mZnRH.jpg)
WCS Combined European Nationals Impressions
Blog by Kaelaris - Knight of Esports
Ah yes, another weekend, another WCS. This time though with twists and turns that I partially expected, but some not so much. The Combined European Nationals had the potential to showcase some of the highest level play thus far from the WCS, as the culminated might of several nations came together to battle it out for the top 2 spots. Of course, Germany was an extremely strong field in its own right, but this weekend we saw an equally high frequency of top competitors gathering to duke it out. For me personally, it was another opportunity to work in our fantastic main studio! Two amazing things about that.. 1. I get to sleep in my own bed of a night instead of a hotel bed and 2. Interacting with players and the audience alike in a condensed environment is as rewarding as it is fulfilling.
Day 1 for me had its ups and downs. As we geared up for the cast everything was as normal, however one of the most important things I want to address and talk about here is the schedule in terms of matches selected to broadcast. Now I don’t know 100% if matches were picked based on availability once a series had finished, in order to keep downtime low, however at the very beginning of the schedule there’s little excuse in my mind to skip over our valuable commodity, the 1 Terran participating. Despite being eliminated in round 1 of winners and losers, it would have still been nice to have a little more variety than we had considering the predictable frequency of PvZ we would end up having. Aside from that for the first Day of games, me and Hasu had one or two things to sort out with our casting but that was easily fixed and we were able to go into Day 2 very strongly. Again after the Day 1 broadcast had finished, I yet again ended up in my socially inept situation since for me, after a cast especially, language barriers are bigger than ever. I do want to overcome this somehow but at the moment I don’t really have the time or even the FULL desire to rush to it, since really for me, i’m somewhat content in my own little world! If I had to peg a “best” moment in Day 1, it would definitely be the ZvZ and then game 1 of biGs vs NightEnD - Definitely one to go back and watch.
Day 2 was smooth, crisp and clean, apart from a little miscommunication about a map for NightEnD which was sorted eventually. All the games were very solid though and I was extremely surprised to see the cannon rush on Antiga from monchi, even though it can be notorious for that kind of thing on Ladder in the matchup. Two big stories emerged for me during this though. The first, was the unpredictability of the relative unknown, Giantt. Originally knocked down to the lower bracket early on, he played his way through in phenomenal fashion, with extremely strong and solid play. This man, despite not qualifying for the EU Final, encompasses the WCS philosophy entirely. The second story? LoWeLy being an absolute monster, but humble and shell shocked all at once. Me and Soe had our bracket predictions on the Friday, and while she’d pegged biGs to take it (and perhaps I wanted to agree since i’m mouz :D), I couldn’t doubt the current strength of LoWeLy and had to go with him. He didn’t disappoint, didn’t drop a map and finally, couldn’t believe he’d won.
So WCS moves onto the UK, and for me, having been part of 7 of the WCS Nationals thus far, i’m extremely sad that I won’t be able to attend my own countries WCS, even just as a spectator. Alas, it shall be a fun tournament to watch, and i’ll be back with more WCS stuff in the future!
As always you can check me out @mouzKaelaris on twitter, and www.facebook.com/Kaelaris!
P.S. Oh forgot to say, our map veto section/overlay ROCKED so much.
Previous Blogs and Articles on WCS by myself:
WCS Spain
WCS Germany
WCS So far
Pictures from WCS Combined European Nationals can be found at the following links:
Day 1
Day 2
P.S. Oh forgot to say, our map veto section/overlay ROCKED so much.
Previous Blogs and Articles on WCS by myself:
WCS Spain
WCS Germany
WCS So far
Pictures from WCS Combined European Nationals can be found at the following links:
Day 1
Day 2
