The semifinal round of the WCS Europe/America joint playoffs ended with Acer.MMA and MC advancing to the grand finals of the European region, while Roccat.HyuN and Oz earned the right to play for top honors in WCS America.
WCS Europe
The first semifinal series of the night pitted European newcomer mYi.jjakji against two-time WCS Europe runner-up MC. Staying true to his reputation, the BossToss assaulted jjakji with a barrage of all-ins ranging from a gold-base powered void ray-gateway attack, to an unusual colossus-drop into 4-colossus timing. jjakji was helpless in the face of such varied attacks, and could even have suffered a 0-3 sweep if MC had not carelessly lost his oracles against a widow-mine based defense in a game on Yeonsu. As it was, MC took the 3-1 victory and advanced on to the finals.
The second semifinal match in WCS Europe seemed like it would be similarly one-sided as defending champion Acer.MMA took a quick 2-0 lead against yoeFW.San. However, San was able to tie up the series with solid macro play, forcing a fifth and final game on Yeonsu. Though San fought hard to complete his comeback, the attrition from MMA's widow mines proved to be too much to handle and he surrendered the finals spot to the Acer Terran.
MMA and MC are now set to meet in a rematch of the WCS Europe Season 3 2013 finals, where MMA won a 4-2 victory.
WCS America
Roccat.HyuN brought his broom to the first semifinal match of WCS America, sweeping AX.Alicia aside 3-0. HyuN's personal style was on full display, with seemingly endless waves of roaches and hydras crashing into Alicia's defenses. Each time Alicia began to stabilize or gather some momentum, HyuN seemed to conjure an army from nowhere. HyuN was even able to inject some old-school flair into the series, closing out game three with the roach drops that had been his signature tactic of old.
Following the pattern in Europe, a one-sided semifinal match was followed by an exciting match as former teammates Oz and CMStorm_Revival fought for the last remaining finals spot. Oz jumped ahead to a 2-0 lead after winning an ugly scrap on Alterzim and hitting an immortal-stalker timing on Polar Night. However, Revival forced his way back into the series with two consecutive wins of his own, gnawing through Oz's defenses with swarm hosts on Habitation Station and hitting with a deceptively strong hydra timing on Frost.
Facing a reverse-sweep, Oz was able to gather himself for the final game on Heavy Rain. Going up against Revival's swarm hosts once more, Oz maneuvered around until he was in position to take a perfect engagement. Oz pounced once he saw an opening, decimating Revival's swarm hosts to receive the final GG of the night.
The grand finals for WCS Europe and America will be played out tomorrow, beginning with MMA vs MC at 19:30 GMT (+00:00).
As much as I like to watch Taeja and Polt I have to say It is awesome to see how well Hyun has opened in 2014 and am excited to see if he can pull through in the finals!
As much as I still dislike matchups with protoss, I'm pretty happy seeing Oz and MC get to the finals. Hyun is quickly becoming one of my favorite players too. I just hope the games are good though...
I'm pretty hyped about another MMA vs MC finals. I'm also really happy with the terran lineup for the global finals, makes me feel like terran has a good chance of winning something big after a bit of a dry spell.
MC finals don't really do it for me anymore. For some unknown reason he keeps getting to the finals of tournaments before his opponents prepare to be cheesed. Think MMA has this. And while the America bracket didn't turn out the way I wanted it to (meaning Bomber isn't gonna win), I think Hyun and Oz have been through a lot and it's a testament that they're able to make it to finals still
Why on earth do players not prepare for MC's all-ins? It's like they don't expect him to do it until he gets to the finals and then he loses. I understand he has a lot of different variations of what he can do, but you would think the best players in the world could figure out some kind of defense while preparing.
Sad San and Jjakji lost, but it's good to see MMA back in a final as well. Oz and Hyun have been through a lot this past year so it's good to see them coming through big time. I guess all of that stuff has motivated them to prepare and not take the opportunity's they have for granted. Well done!
On April 13 2014 13:29 ArTiFaKs wrote: Why on earth do players not prepare for MC's all-ins? It's like they don't expect him to do it until he gets to the finals and then he loses. I understand he has a lot of different variations of what he can do, but you would think the best players in the world could figure out some kind of defense while preparing.
The way I think of it is like this:
Have you ever watched Gaulzi play his cannon rushes? The number of different ways he has to do them are incredible, and you might think you have it defended, but he'll sneak a probe in sideways. It took a year or two for pros to figure out how to defend all the angles on just one type of all-in.
Now think of MC's colossus drop play. Jjakji did defend against the initial push, he had stim in time to keep the warp prism out. So MC looked for a back-door and attacked the third CC instead, finding small holes to attack into. Then the giant attack came, which even the casters couldn't remember having seen before. If Jjakji had managed to hold it off, MC would have known the exact right follow-up to play.
Of course, Jjakji could play extremely defensive and defend against everything, but that is when MC switches it up and plays economical.
In other words, MC is extremely good at what he does. He reads his opponent very well, and knows how to trick them. He is as good at playing his style as Rain is at playing economically.
MMA will be a harder target though, because he doesn't just sit back and defend, he does counter-harasses and similar. So tomorrow's match will be a good one to watch.
I should also add that MC's execution is near-flawless. On a lot of the all-ins, neither race has an advantage: the winner is the one who has the best execution.
It disappoints me that everyone blames the players for not "preparing" for MC. MC executes everything perfectly, and uses the most amazing mind games to catch his opponents off guard. You can't just say that no one prepares for MC's allins, he just does them well and uses them in the weirdest and most effective was.
On April 13 2014 14:25 Soke wrote: It disappoints me that everyone blames the players for not "preparing" for MC. MC executes everything perfectly, and uses the most amazing mind games to catch his opponents off guard. You can't just say that no one prepares for MC's allins, he just does them well and uses them in the weirdest and most effective was.
exactly! It's true that MC may not be "the best" skillwise, but among great starcraft players, he is THE best at winning, and that is as much a skill as any other. Also don't forget that everyone expects MC to cheese, and he still manages to pull it off everytime, so for me that is 200% more impressive!
On April 13 2014 13:57 phantomfive wrote: I should also add that MC's execution is near-flawless. On a lot of the all-ins, neither race has an advantage: the winner is the one who has the best execution.
Protoss all-ins tend to vastly favour Protoss. If they didn't, there would be no point in doing them and Protoss players wouldn't have the successes they do currently.
On April 13 2014 13:57 phantomfive wrote: I should also add that MC's execution is near-flawless. On a lot of the all-ins, neither race has an advantage: the winner is the one who has the best execution.
Oh come on. Protoss has by far the most and powerful allins. Thats a fact. I dont want to take credit away from MC, he does them perfectly. And everyone likes him, cause hes not that "random korean guy", he's a big personality in SC2, and a funny guy as well...
On April 13 2014 13:57 phantomfive wrote: I should also add that MC's execution is near-flawless. On a lot of the all-ins, neither race has an advantage: the winner is the one who has the best execution.
Apparently you didnt see Stephano on EG-time. Utterly bad execution/plan but "king of engagement" (as he showed during Millenium-time).
honestly, I dont like to watch "who has a better execution" I only care to watch how they are fighting. Build-order wins or advantage are always so boring to watch.
I'm ok with anyone of those four to get their respective trophies but it would be Oz's first so go him. And MC might as well take EU just for the fuck of it.
Am I the only one who feels that the two winners should just play another Bo7? It's kinda wierd to have the two brackets play out next to each other in the same studio while furoisly pretending that they are two different tournaments. They should just call this season WCS Atlantic and find the one true winner!!!!
On April 13 2014 20:32 opisska wrote: Am I the only one who feels that the two winners should just play another Bo7? It's kinda wierd to have the two brackets play out next to each other in the same studio while furoisly pretending that they are two different tournaments. They should just call this season WCS Atlantic and find the one true winner!!!!
That would actually be a nice idea, if only for a showmatch.
On April 13 2014 14:25 Soke wrote: It disappoints me that everyone blames the players for not "preparing" for MC. MC executes everything perfectly, and uses the most amazing mind games to catch his opponents off guard. You can't just say that no one prepares for MC's allins, he just does them well and uses them in the weirdest and most effective was.
uh mc does not execute everything perfectly, he a moved several times his army up a concave on yeonsu and was still able to crush MMA army, Terran really has to micro their heart out, MMA had to play amazing to even come back and win on that map.
MC exuctes stuff fairly well. The new maps for season 2 are not Blink Stalker friendly thank god. Season 1 lets be honest was pretty terrible to watch PVT and Blink stalker all ins in every best of series in TVP.
EPT
Acer.MMA and 
MC advancing to the grand finals of the European region, while 
Roccat.HyuN and ![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/WCS2014/Europe_1/ro8bracket_3.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/WCS2014/America_1/ro8bracket_4.png)
