Master's Coliseum 8 isn't the only Chinese scene tournament to keep an eye on—the LiuLi Cup 2024 Grand Finals is coming soon, featuring several of the SC2's scene's top players competing for a prize pool of $7,000+. The LiuLi Cup series of tournaments has mostly held showmatches in the past, making this a significant step up in terms of scale.
The tournament will be held from January 8th to the 25th, with a 16-player group stage (4x GSL-style groups) leading into a double-elimination playoffs.
Players and starting groups:
Match days: Monday, Jan 06 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): RO16 Group A Thursday, Jan 09 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): RO16 Group B Tuesday, Jan 14 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): RO16 Group C Wednesday, Jan 15 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): RO16 Group D Tuesday, Jan 21 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): Playoffs Day 1 Wednesday, Jan 22 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): Playoffs Day 2 Thursday, Jan 23 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): Playoffs Day 3 Friday, Jan 24 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): Playoffs Day 4 Saturday, Jan 25 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00): Playoffs - Loser's Final + Grand Final
Man, I know Dark's super scrappy and forces bad decisions from players, but watching Max stumble away from multiple chances at victory with baffling decision-making and control is painful.
Holy shit, Dark actually lost game 3 lol. I stand corrected, apparently. Stopped watching after Max was down 65+ supply toward the end but good on him!
Annnnnnnd when people wonder why there hasn't been a Protoss champion in forever, I can't help but look at this Hero game. How is it even possible to lose from that position if you're a top tier player?
WP Clem, super close games and Serral’s looking to have closed the pretty small gap Clem’s opened up over him in recent times a little more. Still not quite enough though!
Something tells me we may see this matchup again pretty soon. Another pretty solid MaxPax run maybe he can close it out, I’d be favouring Serral to set up the instant revenge rematch but not by nearly as much as I would have 6 months ago
On January 25 2025 23:15 WombaT wrote: WP Clem, super close games and Serral’s looking to have closed the pretty small gap Clem’s opened up over him in recent times a little more. Still not quite enough though!
Something tells me we may see this matchup again pretty soon. Another pretty solid MaxPax run maybe he can close it out, I’d be favouring Serral to set up the instant revenge rematch but not by nearly as much as I would have 6 months ago
Agree with this, good analysis imo.
It is a nice sign that Maxpax was able to beat Reynor in a Bo5, he has had trouble with him historically.
On January 27 2025 01:03 tigera6 wrote: Well, what da we know, seems like the game is perfectly balance now?
Balance Looks good state of the martchups Not too much imo. PvT Looks super volatile and pvz falls off a Cliff in being interesting as tempest Hit the field.
On January 27 2025 01:40 Waxangel wrote: MaxPax went through the entire EU trinity? sick run
Fair play to the lad. Sure it’s not Katowice but he is starting to put those consistent deep runs and beating the best more frequently outside of weeklies
Damn impressive run by Max. It's not just Serral, but it seems like MaxPax can make adjustments for a rematch too. The choice to go glaives in the final game vs Serral had balls of steel. He keeps growing as a player and I'm all for it. Protoss desperately needs a Serral/Reynor/Clem.
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/liuli2024groups.png)
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