TaeJa takes second DreamHack title with a spotless run in the Round of 16

by stuchiu

The Summer of Liquid`TaeJa 2013 continued as the Liquid ace continued his championship winning world tour in Bucharest. Just one day after a clutch performance in the finals of SC2L that ensured his team's victory over Acer, he one-upped himself on Sunday by cruising through his Ro16 bracket at DH Bucharest without dropping even a single map. He capped off a brilliant tournament by defeating Acer.INnoVation—a player he had taken down in the SC2L finals as well—by a one-sided scoreline of 3 - 0 in the grand finals.

Group Stage 2 2 - 0 vs. Basterd 2 - 1 vs. SjoW 2 - 1 vs. Welmu

Group Stage 3 2 - 0 vs. Grubby 2 - 1 vs. Avenge 2 - 1 vs. Symbol

Ro16 2 - 0 vs. YugiOh

Ro8 2 - 0 vs. sOs

Ro4 2 - 0 vs. Life

Grand Finals 3 - 0 vs. INnoVation

TaeJa put on an especially impressive performance in the grand finals, looking as if he had put the practice time he gained after the WCS Season Finals to very good use. The first game was a demonstration of how to beat mech with bio, a match reminiscent of TaeJa and INnoVation's epic clash at the WCS Season 2 Finals. However, this time it was solely the Taeja show, with Innovation left no breathing room to stage a comeback. TaeJa's bio outmaneuvered Innovation's mech forces, and INnoVation was suffocated as TaeJa took half the map. The Liquid Terran then transitioned into Sky Terran, to which INnoVation reacted cleverly with widow mines. While the mines defeated the air fleet, Taeja's bio forces were able to easily clean up INnoVation's weakened ground force and take the game.


The series moved onto Neo Planet S for game two, where TaeJa took his second win by goading INnoVation into a poor base trade. Finally, to close it out, TaeJa showed he was perfectly fine playing mech vs. bio as well. Although his gas first opening was punished by Innovation's cc first build, TaeJa was able to take the game long and build up a powerful mech composition. TaeJa held firm against INnoVation's attempts to disorient him, and marched to victory with a frontal attack after maxing out.

With the 3 - 0 victory, Taeja became the second member of Team Liquid and second player ever to win two StarCraft 2 championships at DreamHack. It was also his third championship of the year, after HomeStoryCup 7 and ASUS ROG Summer.

Leessang woes, the Finnish phenom, and the other stories of DH

by Waxangel

Stacked Roster

DreamHack Bucharest was the most the most stacked tournament in DreamHack history, with an unprecedented number of great Korean players showing up to play.

KeSPA players like Flash and sOs would normally be bound to domestic competition, but the end of the Proleague season seemed to entice them to give the European tournament a shot. And while eSF are usually strapped for cash, there was an unusual amount of expenditure for DH Bucharest as Life, Symbol, Avenge, sC, SuperNova and Hurricane joined the tournament.

Combine those players with the usual suspects from foreign teams such as TaeJa, HerO, ForGG, Jaedong, INnoVation and many more, Bucharest ended up having a roster that challenged Code S for sheer quality.

Leessang Woes

KT_Flash didn't inspire much fear at the Code S Group Selection, with several players expressing their desire to play against him. At DreamHack, we got to see exactly why.

Flash began the tournament by losing in a shock upset to Roccat.DIMAGA, whose well prepared mass ling-bane-OVERSEER style caught Flash off guard and allowed him to win a one-sided 2 - 0 victory. While Flash managed to advance from his group despite the loss, the Brood War legend suffered even more embarrassment in the next group stage. In a group together with AX.Ryung, Acer.MMA, and ROOT.YugiOh, Flash suffered losses against MMA and YuGiOh to be eliminated from the tournament in the Ro32.

Things didn't go that much better for Flash's old rival EG.Jaedong, who came into the tournament on the back of four second place finishes (the last one at the WCS Season 2 Finals). Unfortunately for Jaedong, he made no progress toward breaking his Kong curse, getting eliminated in the Ro16 by a fellow WCS runner-up player in Woongjin_sOs.

Elfi the Finnish Phenom

So, who was the top placing foreigner at this terrifyingly Korean tournament? Why, it was none other than the Finnish Protoss Ence.elfi, who finished the tournament in sixth place. Though rarely a championship contender in European competition, Elfi's affinity for cats, talent at PvP, and penchant for creating upsets gave him a unique cult following.

Elfi had a most elfi-esque run at Bucharest, getting by Oz and TLO in the Ro32, and then defeating the DH: Summer champion StarDust in the Ro16. While elfi was predictably mauled by INnoVation in the quarter-finals, he scored yet another elfi-upset by defeating ForGG in the placement matches. Elfi even had a chance to secure a seed at DreamHack Winter as he headed into a showdown for 5th place against sOs. However, his vaunted PvP failed him at the most crucial hurdle, and he fell to sixth place after a 0 - 2 loss. Even though Elfi won't be headed to DreamHack Winter, he still gets enjoy being able to say he finished higher at a tournament than Jaedong and Flash.

Shoutouts: Other Notable Performances

Acer.Nerchio: Nerchio was the second highest placing foreigner of the tournament, reaching the Ro16 before getting eliminated 2 - 1 by Life. Word has it that he is actually pretty well-mannered IRL, even shaking Stardust's hand. How shocking!.

Ence.Serral: The 15 year old Zerg from Finland impressed everyone by giving Code S player Azubu.SuperNova a fight he'll certainly remember. Their second game on Whirlwind may have been the best of the tournament.

ROOT.YugiOh: "Street cred" probably isn't a word we should be using in StarCraft 2, but if any player has it, it's YuGiOh. He's the player with a ghetto version of the "Nestea" award for playing in eleven consecutive Code A tournaments. He's the player who successfully made it into WCS Korea's Premier League, despite ROOT Gaming giving him an opportunity to flee to WCS America. And now, he's also the player who eliminated Flash from DreamHack Bucharest.

Roccat.DIMAGA: He beat Flash, but lost to Harstem and White to be eliminated from his group anyway. A greater travesty than elfi defeating TaeJa but still getting eliminated from DH: Summer.

David Kim: We had 5/5/6 racial distribution in both the Ro16 of Code S AND DreamHack Bucharest. Blizzard should take care that his smugness doesn't grow too large, or it might start distorting time-space around Irvine, CA.

Writers: stuchiu and Waxangel
Editor: Waxangel.