For Team Acer, the second time was the charm. After losing to Team MVP in the first season of the TeamStory Cup, the team in green came back with a vengeance in the second season of the tournament. Finshing the regular season with an 8-1 record and the #1 seed, Acer blitzed through the live playoffs at Take's flat in Germany to win the championship.
Taking out Team Liquid on the back of an MMA all-kill in the semi-finals, Acer survived a close call against partner team Axiom in the winners' final with Scarlett coming through in a critical ace match. When Axiom made their way back up from the losers bracket to force a rematch in the Grand Finals, Acer would have a much easier time of it with INnoVation and MMA combining to clinch the title with a 5-1 victory.
Despite the absense of key player Nerchio, the trio of Scarlett, INnoVation, and MMA proved to be enough to deliver the title to Acer (Bly participated, but did not win a game). MMA's performance in particular was MVP-worthy, going 7-2 in the regular season and an incredible 10-1 in the playoffs.
Although Axiom lost a one-sided series to GSTL co-champions Acer in the grand finals, they proved to be a step above the third and fourth place teams Liquid and Western Wolves. While their long time veterans Ryung, Crank, Alicia and Heart performed well as expected, they got a surprise contribution from new recruit Impact who impressed with an all-kill of TeamLiquid in the loser's final.
On the other hand, Liquid and Western Wolves were left to regret to the poor performances of their aces (and in WW's case, the total absense of their regular season mercenary San). TaeJa was unable to bring the kind of form that had Liquid called "Team TaeJa" by some, while Western Wolves' regular season ace Check was unable to step up his game in his first live international event.
In the end, it was not surprising to see ATC2 end with the GSTL champions Axiom-Acer standing on top. Having continuously shown great form against the best teams of the eSF, the foreign scene was no match in comparison.
On December 16 2013 14:01 rkshox wrote: I was going to comment on the title typo, but realized I was reading it wrong, it was not written wrong.
MMA so beast!
Results different if HerO was included in TL line up?
TL would have probably done better, but last season MMA was able to all-kill Liquid in the playoffs as well, and he beat Hero twice that match.
On December 16 2013 13:22 QCD wrote: Team Acer just destroying everyone. I'm surprised axiom went out like that however.
Well, Axiom was easily the 2nd best team. They were the only team to take a game in the regular season against Acer, and in the playoffs they managed to push Acer to the limit. It if wasn't for Scarlett's comeback in Game 9, Axiom would have beaten Acer.
Also, Axiom went 10-1 against non-Acer teams in the playoffs. That's pretty good.
Was really well deserved by Team Acer. Axiom also fought hard but were clearly second best. Liquid and WW were simply no match. No wonder Axiom-Acer crushed it in the GSTL. It really would be interesting to see how Axiom-Acer would do in the Proleague. Another reason why SC2 really could do with a unified team league.
On December 16 2013 23:15 farnham wrote: wasnt even funny how much better Acer was compared to Axiom and how much better Axiom was compared to the rest.
That's not true at all. Axiom played a brilliant first series vs Acer in the winner bracket, but in the final they just couldn't get any momentum going and Acer cleaned up. I'd say the two teams are much closer then it looks, but Acer was the better that day. However both teams looked like they where leaps and bounds ahead of the rest, that much I agree with.
Really proud of Acer, there are only good things to be said about them. They've steadily been improving not only skillwise but also on the marketing side. MMA showing his strength again is so great and I can't wait for their performance in 2014!
On December 17 2013 19:49 True_Spike wrote: Easily the best two foreign-based teams out there, so no surprise here. The two most likeable teams as well, in my opinion.
Yeah, the format of the Teamstory Cup and the special tournament really allowed the Axiom-Acer players to showcase their personality. Like all of the Axiom guys seem like such fun people
Congratulations to Acer on this one, well deserved win. The old curse continues, the semis were way better than the finals since it was such a close series that went to 9 games. I'm glad we had the opportunity to play in this event since it gave Impact his breakout performance and showed Ryung back in his old form.
On December 19 2013 17:05 TotalBiscuit wrote: Congratulations to Acer on this one, well deserved win. The old curse continues, the semis were way better than the finals since it was such a close series that went to 9 games. I'm glad we had the opportunity to play in this event since it gave Impact his breakout performance and showed Ryung back in his old form.
Hope we get to continue our partnership in 2014.
Great to here, i think most people hope the same
Also: you should totally get Hyaaa if you can kinda irrelevant now
EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/ATC/atc2finalfinal.png)
