WCS EU Season 2 Finals

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

After more than a year in Europe as one of its earliest adopted Koreans, StarDust can finally say that he has conquered the continent. Despite his surprising triumph at DreamHack Summer 2013, StarDust had always been considered a stylistic player capable of knocking out players but unable to make a sustained tournament run. Now, he finally has another trophy to keep his initial title company.



His opponent, Yoe Flash Wolves San, had just overcome a nervy series against Golden, winning 3-2. After handily winning the first game with mass zealots off a San Gate, San suddenly feel in two straight games. Golden rallied from his loss on Frost with impressive victories, mostly using hydras, lings, and roaches in the mid game while transitioning into mutalisks. His presence of mind to never stay in one tech tree and constantly keep the Protoss guessing allowed him to move into slight advantages. Down 1-2, the once impervious (at least, in PvZ) San looked lost and lacking confident. Desperate, San attempted a cannon rush on King Sejong Station only to have it blocked; Golden was once again at an advantage. With a hidden spire, the once retired Zerg attempted to catch San off guard, but San hit the one timing he had available to strike before there were enough Mutas to base trade. It was the type of cut throat attack we had become used to with San, and it was enough to tie up the series. The two players looked even, and their last game would only continue that as it would come down to a base trade. This time however, San was prepared and had been chronoboosting phoenixes. Though it looked closer than many had expected, San was into the finals.

The other semifinal also proved to be an exciting one which saw mid-game colossi timings, proxy gate defences, gold base plays and a chaotic final game. It all started standard, however, as their initial game on Frost was a drawn out affair with tons of drops, runbys, and upgrades, but StarDust was able to take the map after hitting with a strong Colossus attack when ForGG had yet to amass enough vikings. No amount of micro could have saved the Terran, and StarDust claimed the early lead. Intent on drawing things even, ForGG opened with a Gangnam Terran on Habitation Station, but his aggressive followups were held easily by StarDust on two bases. Unable to break the Protoss defense, ForGG had no choice but to concede and fall to 0-2. Smelling blood, StarDust would try a proxy gate on King Sejong Station, but ForGG somehow blind counters the build and holds easily to finally claim a win. It was a ray of hope for the Millenium Terran, but StarDust would not be denied his finals berth. A proxy oracle was his build of choice, and the game would descend into a scrappy slugfest with a contain, pulled probes, and burning buildings lighting StarDust's 3-1 path to the grand finals.

And, after two close and nerve wracking semi finals, the Grand Finals ended up being a one sided affair. StarDust displayed varying Protoss styles, winning each of his four games in different ways.

Game 1 on King Sejong Station: StarDust decides to open the series with a fairly common build for the map - a proxied stargate. San, after not getting full scouting information, drops a twilight council but smartly sends out his mothership core and finds the stargate. StarDust is aware of this and decides not to invest too heavily in his set up aggression, instead opting for phoenix production to scout San's base and give him added safety against counterattacks while falling back on an expansion. The game stabilizes from here as neither player has the necessary tools to break the other. StarDust shows a better positional game with his mass colossus/archon army and manages to swing the game heavily in his favor with a big zealot runby aided by DTs, pulling San's army out of position while sniping the crucial fourth base and recalling to safety. A simple followup attack with a mothership lets him trade well enough to take the first game.

Game 2 on Waystation: Giving the casters flashbacks of the first game, a proxy stargate for StarDust and twilight council for San show up on the production tab as the yoe Flash Wolves player vigorously scouts the map for any hidden tech - without being rewarded. After sacrificing his two oracles for eleven probes, StarDust's stargate is found and shut down as he pulls the next rabbit out of his hat – a warp prism to take the island expansion, where he also hides a dark shrine. Fate seemed to swing back in San's favor as he seemingly sets up a perfect hard counter by proxying two stargates, pumping out double phoenixes that quickly find the island expansion and the dark shrine, but not before StarDust's dark templar manage to snatch a few probe kills to even up the game. San looks to set up a decisive victory with a seemingly stronger army supported by phoenixes and a warp prism inside StarDust's main base to draw enough of his opponent's army away for him to attack. StarDust however sees right through it and quickly constructs a gateway wall at the front to block out San's units for long enough while he deals with San's units in the main. When StarDust is finally able to leave his base, his army is monstrous - 145 army supply in chargelots, immortals, archons and even a few templar for storm come crashing down on San right as he's transitioning to double robo colossus. Unable to hold against StarDust's insane army, San is forced out of the second game.

Game 3 on Frost: Things are looking bad for StarDust right off the bat in the next game, as he forgets warpgate research for a while - with a 1gate expand into robotics facility. San's 3gate/stargate opener was looking deadly, especially because of StarDust's early mistake that gave him even fewer units to defend with. Adding a stargate of his own, StarDust manages to hold San's attacks initially while killing both oracles and keeping an immortal and a few units alive, but he does eventually get forced up the ramp as San kills the nexus, expands himself and starts blink. StarDust is content to expand again while using a warp prism to keep San pinned back and even out the economic deficit. Realizing San's potential lack of corner-cutting, StarDust makes a daring but brilliant move: he throws down a second robotics facility while taking an early third base, still keeping San contained with his warp prism. As San scouts the third, he is forced to do one of two things: expand himself and accept that he falls behind in the game or attack and cancel it. San decides for the latter and makes a game ending mistake by mistakenly move commanding his only two colossi right into StarDust's active blink stalkers and losing both of them. With the colossus count now heavily in favor of StarDust, cleaning up San's massively weakened attack is a walk in the park and San taps out as his army dies.

Game 4 on Merry Go Round: One game away from a flawless victory, StarDust decides to open with an early warpgate rush, followed up by a robotics facility. San blindly opens with a dark shrine that allows him to barely hold the attack with only a few probes lost. The game stabilizes from here, with a slight upgrade advantage for San while StarDust has a group of blink stalkers constantly poking in, picking off what they can. Colossus tech is started for both and as neither player can break the other while they both defend only two bases, both expand. San, realizing his slight upgrade advantage, decides to hit a timing attack. He starts +1 armor to rush out another upgrade, making his army stronger during the fight he's looking to take. Meanwhile, StarDust starts a second robotics facility and +3 attack. Even though San's timing hits when he wants it to, he's still picked apart very easily by StarDust who splits off his group of stalkers to ravage San's third base while simultaneously engaging in a favorable position, destroying San's army and economy at the same time. With nothing to fall back on, San congratulates his opponent and GGs, completing StarDust's perfect sweep.

Writers: Zeweig, lichter, DarkLordOlli.
Graphics: ESL.
Editor: lichter, DarkLordOlli.