EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/hVIdi.jpg)
June 11th
A New Hope:
Has the MLG hungover worn off and you’re ready for another tournament with big names, big prize pools, and new drama? Well then I have good news for you!
What if I told you there was a tournament with Dimaga, TLO, Nestea, MVP, Fruitdealer, Idra Genius, MKP and more? You’d be psyched right?
I’m gonna keep throwing names at you. Boxer, Fruitdealer, Jinro, Sen, HuK, Ret, Nada, and plenty more.
How stoked are you right now?
Remember that excitement. Hold onto for a brief second more.
That unfortunately, was a long time (six weeks) ago, in a land far far away. But it’s not over. Now before you get angry, start pounding away on your keyboard saying “Why Dougler, why oh why you selfish jerk did you get our hopes raised and dashed them like that!? We get it, we saw MLG Columbus, Koreans are better at starcra--”
They’re eliminated. You see that first bunch of names I mentioned? Those were all eliminated by three Chinese Protoss: Xiaot, LoveCD, and LoveTT.
Well it’s China right? So surely with all those awesome names I listed there must have been a zillion Chinese players which cheesed their way through our heroes right?
12 non-Korean invites
TLO
SjoW
Jinro
White-Ra
HuK
ToD
SaSe
Ret
Sen
IdrA
MorroW
Dimaga
14 Korean invites
Mvp
BoxeR
Nada
MarineKing
Lyn
MC
Ace
HongUn
Genius
San
NesTea
FruitDealer
Check
Moon
6 Chinese qualifiers
Loner
xiaOt
Lovecd
LoveTT
Comm
Revtime
...Six. They had SIX players, three of which have now reached the quarter finals. So, are we gonna let the Chinese Starcraft community say they’re better than us? Hosting their own tournament, inviting the best of the best foreigners and Koreans alike and beating them?
I say, HELL NO!
It would be an insult to the quality of our players if the Chinese Pros annihilate the competition in their first tournament. It’d be like they didn’t have to feel the agony of an IEM, an MLG Columbus, a TSL 3 --oh right we still dominated that one... high fives all around-- still, winning your first tournament as a new force in the Starcraft Metagame? No way. If only we had a fan favorite to rally behind. Someone who is good enough to go toe to toe with these newcomers and put them in their place, if only we had the self-proclaimed best protoss in the world.
Thankfully, we do.
The Min Chul Strikes Back
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/9/93/Mcclawgslmay.png/200px-Mcclawgslmay.png)
A mere week after defeating Naniwa and dubbing himself the best protoss in the world, oGsMC, last of the non-Chinese in the tournament is going to have to earn his title.
Think about that for just a second. He’s going up against the players that eliminated Nestea, MKP, and Idra. If MC is the best protoss in the world, then these are the players he has to beat. Don’t get me wrong, Naniwa is good, 35 BO3s in a row is amazing... But taking out MarineKingPrime, HoSeoSan, and Idra all in one tournament? That’s goddamn unbelievable.
Which brings me at last to the first of our Chinese competitors in this tournament.
XiaOt
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/1/14/Xiaotchinagamer.png/200px-Xiaotchinagamer.png)
Beating MKP, San, and Idra, is no easy feat, but it’s safe to say XiaOt will have his toughest challenge yet in his match against MC. In the beta XiaOt participated in the Starcraft 2 World Cup, beating Cezaane who recently took a ZvZ game off of Nestea, before losing to Dimaga. Since then he’s been active, participating in weekly cups and other small tournaments, but this will be his first shot at true fame, one of the major factors in this tournament, especially for players like our next player:
LoveCD
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/e/ee/Lovecd.jpg/200px-Lovecd.jpg)
While writing this short bio I couldn’t help but start humming the song Jesus' Brother Bob. You know why? This guy right here, LoveCD. Well, who is LoveCD? Yeah... Some guy you haven’t heard of. How bout his brother: Sky. That’s right. Even if you --like me-- haven’t ever followed the Warcraft 3 Scene, if you’re a fan of e-sports then at some point in your travels you’ve heard of at least three WC3 players: Grubby, Moon, and Sky. Nowadays you’ve probably heard of Lyn as well ‘cause he’s often taking mischievous wins off of people in the GSL. So THIS is LoveCD’s big chance. He can look his parents in the eye and say hey remember me? I TOO can make it big in e-sports. High five bro, you better start practicing your SC2 skills because nobody follows Warcraft anymore, comere I’ll show you the ropes.
So does he have what it takes to make it to the top?
So far he’s taken out Nestea, TLO, and Dimaga. I’d say so. But first he needs to beat our next pro:
LoveTT
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/7/7d/Lovett_2.jpg/200px-Lovett_2.jpg)
LoveTT was one of China’s best during the Brood War days, placing fourth at WCG 08. Now he’s tearing it up in SC2. Some of his ladder games against Nestea and against Zenio were casted by Husky so he’s beginning to make a name for himself, taking out Fruitdealer, Genius, and Morrow so far this tournament.
So wait...
You’re telling me its two PvPs leading to a PvP finals? I care, why?
Because history will be made and I can almost guarantee the metagame will shift.
If this was a month ago, I wouldn’t have volunteered to write this. Endless amounts of PvP? Who would want that? That was then, this is now. Already we see Archons in the mix in most PvP matches. A week ago in the NASL we saw a PvP game on shattered temple that ended up 4 bases against 4 bases. This is now. And it’s not just a BO3 where we’re gonna see one guy dance his way to the other’s base and then gape in horror at the DT slicing his probes in twain followed by a 4-gate. This is two BO5’s and then a BO7 finals. As the world asks “what IS the future of PvP?” these four players WILL answer.
Korea versus China.
A shot at fame.
A man who claims to be the best protoss in the world against three other protoss.
Six thousand dollars for the winner.
If you’re not excited for this, there is something wrong with you.
Meanwhile the rest of us are gonna get our popcorn and brews and watch history be made.
June 11th
Official Thread
Liquipedia of Tournament Information and Brackets
Some insight on the guys:
On June 09 2011 19:19 FletcherChristian wrote:
Here's some analysis from me about the mysterious Chinese players. I haven't seen a lot of replays from these guys, but just from what I've seen:
XiaoT - Undoubtedly the strongest player in China right now. He's just solid all around, especially when fast expanding against zerg and defending the "great wall" as one caster dubbed it, with a brilliant combination of forcefields, cannon placement, and replacing the buildings as they get get destroyed with new ones in real time. Don't know how his PvP is though. He might try some weird thing we've never seen before, or some warp prism trickery, White-ra style.
LoveTT - Extremely good blink stalker micro, the best I've ever seen, but he goes for them almost every game so he might be a little predictable.
Lovecd - Very similar style to LoveTT, heavy blink stalker usage. In fact, a lot of people thought he was the same person as LoveTT because of that. He's even on the same team.
Here's some analysis from me about the mysterious Chinese players. I haven't seen a lot of replays from these guys, but just from what I've seen:
XiaoT - Undoubtedly the strongest player in China right now. He's just solid all around, especially when fast expanding against zerg and defending the "great wall" as one caster dubbed it, with a brilliant combination of forcefields, cannon placement, and replacing the buildings as they get get destroyed with new ones in real time. Don't know how his PvP is though. He might try some weird thing we've never seen before, or some warp prism trickery, White-ra style.
LoveTT - Extremely good blink stalker micro, the best I've ever seen, but he goes for them almost every game so he might be a little predictable.
Lovecd - Very similar style to LoveTT, heavy blink stalker usage. In fact, a lot of people thought he was the same person as LoveTT because of that. He's even on the same team.
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