With two weeks of group play concluded, it's time to move onto the playoff phase of the ESL Pro Tour Winter regionals.
A number of major changes have been made since EPT Summer. First, the playoff format has been changed from single-elimination to double-elimination. As this has increased the number of playoff games, the duration of the playoffs has also increased from one week to two weeks (total match days: 5 -> 8). Also, the number of main event seeds awarded in the Asia region has increased from one to two.
Schedule & Format: All three regions are played using a double-elimination bracket (8 players for Americas and Asia; 16 players for Europe). All rounds are best-of-5 until the grand finals. Grand finals are best-of-7 with the winners' bracket player having a one map advantage.
Week 1 - November 9-12: Double elimination brackets. Half the players from each regional competition are eliminated in week one.
Week 2 - November 16*-19: Remainder of double-elim bracket is played until all regional champions are decided.
EPT Asia start time:12:00 GMT (+00:00)
EPT Europe estimated start time:14:00 GMT (+00:00) (begins after EPT Asia concludes)
*One additional day of EPT Europe will be played on Thursday, Nov 16 4:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) due to its larger bracket.
EPT Americas estimated start time:18:00 GMT (+00:00) (begins after EPT Europe concludes)
Watching the PvT make me realize another change for Protoss, make observer cheaper on gas so that Protoss can build more of them (maybe). Its sickening to see they are losing units to drop, and the invisible mine keep getting to shot again and again.
If Harstem stop making Phoenix and get out just 2-3 Carriers it would help him so much, or just 4-5 Archons would also be huge. Either way it was great match.
Edit: Great news for IEM 2024 as well as the World Championship middle of the next year. SC2 is alive.
I know I'm apparently the only one that gets bothered by it, but that weird "Note" over the group-stage on Liquipedia is still bugging the hell out of me. SC2 is really the only community who has to be "uhm ackchually" about the swiss-format, which is used everywhere else and everyone understands how it works and what it means?
Three great brackets around the world, but even though I'm rooting for my boy Serral, I'm really mostly interesting in the Asian Bracket. If there was ever a chance for anyone (Firefly) to overcome Oliveira, it definetly should be about right now.
On November 10 2023 02:24 tigera6 wrote: Watching the PvT make me realize another change for Protoss, make observer cheaper on gas so that Protoss can build more of them (maybe). Its sickening to see they are losing units to drop, and the invisible mine keep getting to shot again and again.
Playoffs by race
EU 7 Protoss, 3 Terran, 6 Zerg
Americas 3 Protoss, 2 Terran, 3 Zerg
Asia 5 Protoss, 2 Terran, 1 Zerg
What happens if your change goes through? Do we have too many Terrans?
On November 11 2023 01:52 Balnazza wrote: I know I'm apparently the only one that gets bothered by it, but that weird "Note" over the group-stage on Liquipedia is still bugging the hell out of me. SC2 is really the only community who has to be "uhm ackchually" about the swiss-format, which is used everywhere else and everyone understands how it works and what it means?
Yeah, that note was appropriate when ESL first introduced the current version of the Swiss format into ESL Pro Tour, but keeping it there for every edition of the tournament is pedantic and distracting.
On November 11 2023 01:52 Balnazza wrote: I know I'm apparently the only one that gets bothered by it, but that weird "Note" over the group-stage on Liquipedia is still bugging the hell out of me. SC2 is really the only community who has to be "uhm ackchually" about the swiss-format, which is used everywhere else and everyone understands how it works and what it means?
Three great brackets around the world, but even though I'm rooting for my boy Serral, I'm really mostly interesting in the Asian Bracket. If there was ever a chance for anyone (Firefly) to overcome Oliveira, it definetly should be about right now.
After game 1 of showtime vs maxpax I knew showtime wasn't playing around and came super prepared. He was always one step ahead in the sky wars. A bit sad to not have the top 4 of Europe in the semis though, but super well deserved by showtime.
To be honest, Clem has made a couple of mistake like missing upgrade and getting himself trapped by the Fungal spell way too easily, maybe because he just play too much of a high pace that he cant manage everything. Maru was doing a better job in WTL with roughly the same style.
Edit: And Serral thought that he could play the same style of Roach-Queen Drop as before, the problem is the new Cyclone is menacing against this. They can kite and pick up unit all day long against slow Roach/Ling.
Showtime keep committing to Archon/Immortal despite knowing its BLord and mass Lurker was painful. He could have made 5-6 Disruptor or even Carriers with his tech. And with that army instead of countering, he fight the units head on.
MaxPax not playing well per his high standard, multiple times hes taking a 4th base against the Terran that still not yet having a 3rd running. And die to the 2 base Terran push because he didnt have enough army to defend.
Honestly: I'm glad MaxPax got knocked out, otherwise we would again have gotten a LC-qualifier for EU... Also happy for Showtime, feels like ages that he showed up like that. Hope he can keep it up for Atlanta
^ Yeah, not to be a butt or anything, but honestly don't think he should be allowed to play and qualify if he knows he's not going to attend. It just creates problems.
On November 19 2023 03:14 Charoisaur wrote: The same top 3 as always, EU is soooooooo interesting
Funny enough, this hasnt happened that many times recently, mainly because Reynor was the one who got knocked out early in the bracket stage a couple times.
On November 19 2023 03:14 Charoisaur wrote: The same top 3 as always, EU is soooooooo interesting
Funny enough, this hasnt happened that many times recently, mainly because Reynor was the one who got knocked out early in the bracket stage a couple times.
Yeah, it's actually only been twice out of the last 7 EU dreamhacks that we got this top 3 soooooo....weird criticism to say the least.
On November 19 2023 03:14 Charoisaur wrote: The same top 3 as always, EU is soooooooo interesting
After 2020, this is only the 2nd time these 3 are in the Top 4 together. And the top 4 you would expect (these 3+MaxPax) apparently didn't happen at all - ever. Feels pretty interesting to me, it is actually hard to go that far in EU. Of course, if we talk about winning, we basically can stop with Serral and Clem...
okay, I do NOT want to hear about any Protoss complaining after that game 4 performance from Firefly. Oliveira just simply need to siege up on his own base and wait for Firefly committing the suicide over and over.
They should consider losing the 1 point advantage thing. No one likes it. I know it's double elimination, but still, it doesn't feel right. Also, Clem deserves the crown today
Clem does his thing, but Serral delayed his Hive for more than 1 minutes, meaning late 3-3, late Adrenal and late Viper. He was on top of Clem until Clem catching up on upgrade and getting ahead in tech. I get that he was in lots of pressure, but Serral has been making rare mistake lately.
Its the Fungal from Burrow Infestor thats the problem, Ultra is strong but they are not efficient enough if the Bio Ghost can micro back to avoid the clump up.
On November 20 2023 02:07 bulldozer06701 wrote: They should consider losing the 1 point advantage thing. No one likes it. I know it's double elimination, but still, it doesn't feel right. Also, Clem deserves the crown today
It is very anti hype. A bo7 ending 3-3 is always dumb. The competitive integrity argument also doesn't make much sense to me. Staying in the upper bracket already allows you to make the finals in 1-2 less series.
The argument that all players should get a series loss is also poor imo because there's already a double standard there with group stages. It's entirely possible in most tournaments that a player with a significantly worse series/map score ends up eliminating a player with a better winrate and even the head to head lead in that very event. Competitive integrity would require every event be a full round robin and the player who finishes with the best map score is the winner. Anything short of that and you're compromising and the idea that not having a map lead in the grand finals is too much of a compromise over all the other ones that already happen is dumb.
On November 20 2023 02:50 tigera6 wrote: Its the Fungal from Burrow Infestor thats the problem, Ultra is strong but they are not efficient enough if the Bio Ghost can micro back to avoid the clump up.
Burrow fungal is a skill play so I don't mind it. On the old patch you couldn't continously build Ultras throughout the lategame against Ghost Liberator and end up even on resources lost.
On November 20 2023 02:50 tigera6 wrote: Its the Fungal from Burrow Infestor thats the problem, Ultra is strong but they are not efficient enough if the Bio Ghost can micro back to avoid the clump up.
Burrow fungal is a skill play so I don't mind it. On the old patch you couldn't continously build Ultras throughout the lategame against Ghost Liberator and end up even on resources lost.
The specific map allow the Zerg to tech up to Ultra early and get them out safely. The even trading was part of the Infestor Fungal/ Viper combo that hit Clem when he stay too aggressive. Yes its a skill play, but its the same thing as you give High Templar the Storm and Invisibility imo, even if you halve the damage of Storm its still worth it. You just spread them around enough to hit a jack pot, and there is no real counter against that unless Terran slow the game down and start building Turret/Ravens and keep replacing them. Only work if Zerg has a strong economy that can replace Infestor quickly though.
Eh TvZ lategame is kinda meh rn, feels like zerg is sorta banking on money fungals because ghosts are good and then these are just snowballing stuff too much.
On November 20 2023 03:20 darklycid wrote: Eh TvZ lategame is kinda meh rn, feels like zerg is sorta banking on money fungals because ghosts are good and then these are just snowballing stuff too much.
Eventually terran will learn to adjust to these fungals. I actually think it's a very exciting mechanic.
The late-game play with positional units being spread all over many bases and constant action is something I like a lot as well.
That said, I agree about the zerg snowball. Feels like Zerg can be in a 95%+ winning position for 5-10 minutes before being able to end the game. But in the grand scheme of things, that's a relatively minor complaint on my side.
Wow, Kelazhur lost the last game to Astrea the same way Firefly lost to Oliveira but from the opposite side. He kept attacking into the heaviest defended position with just Bio Viking, against Storm Disruptor Tempest.
EPT
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