WCS America - Season 3

Ro32: Group H Recap
Scarlett and Crank advance

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Scarlett and Crank advance to Ro16

by Waxangel

Acer's Scarlett kept the hope of having a non-Korean player at the Blizzcon finals alive by advancing from the final group of the Ro32. Coming back from a break of several weeks, there didn't seem to be much rust on Scarlett as she took care of business against ROOT.puCK and AX.CranK to advance as first place in the group. Though Scarlett is still outside the top 16 in WCS points, advancing to the Ro16 keeps opportunities open for her to earn the requisite points.

Unfortunately for American fans, no American player was able to make it to the Ro16. Last hope ROOT.Minigun was unable to repeat as sole US representative as he had in season two, getting eliminated by fellow American puCK. However, puCK could not represent the red, white and blue in Minigun's stead, getting eliminated in the final series of the night by Korea's CranK.



Scarlett started off the night with a 2 - 1 win against puCK. Game one went smoothly for Scarlett, as she was able to end the game quickly with a hydra-ling attack on the notoriously wide open Derelict Watcher. However, busting the Protoss third turned out to be much more difficult on the second map of Bel'Shir Vestige, and Scarlett was forced to tap out once puCK put together a massive stalker-immortal army.

With the series tied 1 - 1, puCK opted to put on heavy gateway pressure in game three. Scarlett was forced into a very defensive posture off two bases while teching up to infestors, eventually forcing puCK to back off and try to transition to the late game. Unfortunately for puCK, Scarlett's faster tech allowed her to go up to ultralisks very quickly. Caught with just a couple of immortals against an ultra-queen-infestor army, puCK had no choice but to surrender the series.

Scarlett moved onto the winner's match where she was met by Axiom-Acer housemate CranK, who came in off a 2 - 1 victory against Minigun. In the first game, Crank tried to channel his inner Woongjin_sOs by going for a fast third into void-ray zealot, but didn't quite have the defensive skills to survive against Scarlett's ling-hydra timing. In game two, Crank channeled another KeSPA player in PartinG by going for a Soul Train immortal-sentry all-in. However, things went poorly for him yet again, with Scarlett's rush to infestors on two bases easily dismantling the all-in and giving her the 2 - 0 win.

With Scarlett through in first place, that left the three Protoss players to fight for the second space spot. Since no one wants to read about PvP's, it will suffice to say that the games were close, colossi suck against immortal-archon, and that Crank narrowly came through in the end.

Writers: Waxangel.
Photos: GHOSTCLAW.
Editor: Waxangel.