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If Scarlett wasn’t the highlight of IPL4, she certainly was of the NASL Season 3 finals weekend. True, she was only playing in the WCS and not in the NASL finals, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t steal the show.
Scarlett’s run started to make waves in the second round when she knocked Evil Genius’s HuK, the presumptive WCS champion, flat with a 2-0 victory. “I was a little surprised by that, but [ZvP] is her best matchup,” commented LivinPink, one of the upcoming female pro players and prominent member of GoSC. Perhaps in a moment of prophecy, she continued, “It would be a big step for the girl community if she wins. It proves if you practice hard enough, it doesn’t matter who you are, you can make it.”
Continuing her run, Scarlett dropped her only game of the weekend in her next match when she defeated It's Gosu's Ostojiy 2-1. Her following victim, in the upper bracket semi-finals, and her last match for day one, was Root Drewbie. The match was marked by the wholly one sided nature of the games. The exchange heard over and over that night and the next morning went something like this: “She had the starcraft headphones on, so you could see her APM drop to zero all the time,” “Yeah, and you could see her turn her head during the game to watch the MC [vs Stephano] match on the main screen”.
After her effortless slaughter of Drewbie, Scarlett stood for pictures, handshakes, and signings for no less than 45 minutes. It wasn’t until the final fan had gotten their picture or autograph that she retired from the stage for the evening. Only the superstars of Starcraft like Day[9], EG iNcontroL, and SK MC have such a demand from fans which begs the question, what will the fan response be once she wins something?
When asking spectators what they thought of Scarlett at the end of day one, the crowd was pretty divided. Half thought she was going to take the whole thing, and the other half wasn’t watching the WCS and didn’t know who Scarlett was - by the end of the weekend, you couldn’t find someone who wasn’t a Scarlett fan. The sea of support for Scarlett was so strong that the dissenting opinion was a guy who said, “I think Scarlett’s going to win. I always like to root for the underdog.” Perhaps Chris of Ottawa summed up the fan stance on Scarlett the best when he said, “She’s an up-and-comer, I think she has a future here.”
Opinions about Scarlett’s chances and her level of play change a bit when you start talking to esports professionals. “I’d really like to see [Scarlett] play the NASL winner for all the money” one member of the press core laughed. Everybody else half chuckled and nodded their heads in agreement that the idea Scarlett could take on the NASL champ wasn’t all that far fetched. There were even rumors that Saturday night, the other canadians of WCS held a strategy session to figure out how to beat her.
Her next opponent, DdoRo, claimed Scarlett to have the second best ZvP outside of Korea, while Kennigit of TeamLiquid.net proclaimed Scarlett to be “Number two in Canada after HuK,” and “Easily top 10 NA, maybe top 5.” NASL’s Gretorp was more optimistic, saying, “[She is] one of, if the not best, NA players...She’s a Code A / S zerg.” Liquid HerO smiled and struggled to find the right words to describe Scarlett, settling on “She’s really good”.
Going into day two and her match against Quantic’s DdoRo, this feeling of Scarlett’s inevitable dominance of WCS had spread, and fans that were once only optimistic, now took a Scarlett championship as a given. “I just wanna see her mop the fucking floor with him” and “I don’t think anybody in their right mind thinks Ddoro is going to win” was just some of the rhetoric being passed about. Scarlett was happy to oblige, destroying DdoRo in the winners bracket finals, and then slapping GoSu Ostojiy around again in the Grand Finals.
With this outstanding performance from Scarlett, it’s looking like Acer made the right call in picking her up last month. Perhaps even more so when you realize that one of the defining moments of this weekend, the whole of the crowd rising and singing the Canadian national Anthem, was after a Scarlett game. Both Clutch, the MC of the event, and Barbie, director of marketing at NASL, called it one of the highlights of the weekend. “I was overcome with emotion and even got a little misty eyed” said Barbie.
Perhaps Rotterdam best summed up Scarlett when he nodded his head saying “She’s pretty fucking good”.
Neal 'Koibu' Erickson
Editor: Alan LaFleur from eSports Business
  
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Brilliant article. Really does justice to what transpired last weekend. Scarlett is North America's new hope. As it stands, she is starting to represent what's best about eSports and our community(whether she likes it or not. heh)
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Good article, Scarlett indeed is making a good run in NA scene. I was watching the finals and chatting in the TL channel on NA server and some people were saying that she is being BM against Ostojiy with the lings and brutalisks dances all over the place lol.
That's not bm imo, she is happy to win such an event.
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A very enjoyable read 
5/5
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But but but girls cant play starcraft 
Hah, who am I kidding, the story of the underdog is allways amazing to hear about, whether or the underdog is a female or not
Question is, is she a female starcraft player or a starcraft player who is female? Will be interesting to look at
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Canada156 Posts
I ambushed her after that game vs Drewbie to get an autograph. She handled him so well, her creep was right up to his natural's ramp. Watched the entirety of her series with Ostojiy and Drewbie on the first day (Player POV only and no sound? No problem!), plus her main stage play on Sunday. I think she did a /dance almost every game. 14-15 minute hive ZvZ seemed to be the theme most games, so weird.
I really hope she does well at WCS North America, Starcraft needs more girls
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the finalswere great to watch, the roach sandwich and then her ling infestor game. amazing player
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Wow, i didnt follow sc2 for quite a time, and now Scarlett rolls on everyone ? I would never have predicted that. I rly hope she'll go far.
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It really was awesome to see that epic run throughout the weekend, and also when she was crushing nerds on the big screen at the back of the venue.
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That was a sick run. Scarlett op yo
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And by that I mean she is gonna dance on the faces of her opponents in the WCS finals. She is an amazing player
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Hm.
she knocked Evil Genius’s HuK, the presumptive WCS champion, flat with a 2-0 victory.
HuK's recently lost 0:2 to Mana in TSL4 Q4 (semis), 0:1 to Memph (Q5 Ro512), 1:2 to Forsen (Q6 Ro32),
0:1 to nomatch353 (Q7 Ro256), 1:2 to Bly (Q8 Ro32), 0:1 to the Chinese Sleeep (Q9 Ro64), 0:1 to Dayshi (Q10 Ro256).
Not to take away from Scarlett's achievement, well done there, just saying that there have been many Canadian players who have done better than HuK lately, so calling him the presumptive champion seems a bit facetious.
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It'll be interesting to see how far she ends up getting in the SC2 scene.
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Compared to the NASL finals and the very tired story line of MC and Stephano doing really well, with some other Koreans mixed in, Scarlett's run was very refreshing.
I have to say the Bo3 between her and Ostojiy was thoroughly more enjoyable than Stephano 4-0'ing Alicia.
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Nice to see a lady pwn some lesser nerds :D
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This was definitely the main "story" I was following last weekend. Especially after the only game she lost until the finals was to Ostojiy and then had to face him in the finals. I liked NASL finals too, but honestly the single elimination format isn't my favorite.
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Canada156 Posts
On July 17 2012 06:32 Dagobert wrote:Hm. Show nested quote +she knocked Evil Genius’s HuK, the presumptive WCS champion, flat with a 2-0 victory. HuK's recently lost 0:2 to Mana in TSL4 Q4 (semis), 0:1 to Memph (Q5 Ro512), 1:2 to Forsen (Q6 Ro32), 0:1 to nomatch353 (Q7 Ro256), 1:2 to Bly (Q8 Ro32), 0:1 to the Chinese Sleeep (Q9 Ro64), 0:1 to Dayshi (Q10 Ro256). Not to take away from Scarlett's achievement, well done there, just saying that there have been many Canadian players who have done better than HuK lately, so calling him the presumptive champion seems a bit facetious.
She also said in an interview she always beats HuK on the ladder. That's impressive when (a few days ago) he had #1 and #2 NA ladder accounts.
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“It would be a big step for the girl community if she wins. It proves if you practice hard enough, it doesn’t matter who you are, you can make it.”
I have been saying this since BW, glad someone finally agrees with me haha. I know everyone likes to drop the "ESPORTS" bomb, but this isn't really a traditional sport in that someone's gender limits their abilities. Watching her live was awesome, she really just facerolled everyone.
Second the above post about the Scarlett/Osto series being one of the highlights of the weekend.
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Scarlett was brilliant...can we now pls see her a little bit more than once every 3 months!
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EPT
