EPT
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WCS America Challenger League concluded today with three more North Americans making it to Premier League. The Gimli Terran iaguz also qualified as the lone Australian representative in Season 3 at the cost of caster-in-the-making qxc.
WCS America Challenger League - Day 3 Results
qxc 1 - 3 iaguz
Illusion 3 - 0 
Gemini
HerO 3 - 0 
Ian
Jim 3 - 1 Believe
puCK 3 - 0 
Balloon
Sen 2 - 3 Scarlett
qxc 1 - 3 iaguzIllusion 3 - 0 GeminiHerO 3 - 0 IanJim 3 - 1 BelievepuCK 3 - 0 BalloonSen 2 - 3 ScarlettThe first series of the evening turned out to be one of the closest as two foreigners faced off in an enjoyable TvT. The series may have ended in iaguz's favor 3-1, but qxc's play was not without its merits. Each game was a back and forth hemorrhaging bloodsport, and the loser ends up being an unfortunate casualty of Challenger League.
Another foreign terran was victorious in the second set when Illusion swept the mysterious Gemini. The better player on the night was without a doubt the ROOT Gaming Terran, and there was little to take from the series other than the result. That makes it 4 foreign terrans in Premier League, during a time when the race has had a dearth in foreign hopefuls.
Jim continued his good vein of form from IEM Shenzhen to reach Premier League once again. He did lose a map to Believe that ended up being the most fun game of the evening. Jim's blink stalker opening without a robo was blind countered by Believe's DT tech, and the game would descend into madness. A hidden robo for Jim gave him a chance to crank out an obs, and the game came down to 1 archon and 1 DT against 3 stalkers. Archons are actually only .1 MS slower than stalkers, which allowed Believe to eventually win the fight. Game 4 was a throwback into War of the Worlds style PvP with colossus counts comparable to the amount of zealots, but Jim's greater number of gateways and a warp prism drop in the main forced Believe into a poor engagement, closing out the series.
HerO never had to break out of first gear against Ian, as just about anything he did ended up killing the Taiwanese Zerg. Whether it was a warp prism drop, an early gateway attack or DTs after expand, all his plans seemed to line up as he swept his opponent with ease. puCK's series against Balloon was similarly straightforward despite playing against a random. Balloon rolled protoss in games 1 and 2 but could not make his stargate openers work even though he had the element of surprise. In game 3, Balloon drew terran but was unable to make his marine hellion drop work on one base. His follow up 1-1-1 with SCVs failed to break the natural, and puCK earned his way back to Premier League.
In the final series of the day, Scarlett elected to play Zerg against Sen. For those unaware, Scarlett had recently been considering race picking PvZ. Unfortunately for fans of her protoss, race picking is disallowed in most preparation based leagues. This almost proved to be a stumbling block for her as she narrowly won the series 3-2 in similar yet atypical ZvZs. A 9 pool in game 1 earned her a big advantage in the early game and she closed things off with mutas. Both players would choose that same tech tree in game 2, but Scarlett's advantage in gas and Sen's failed attempt to eliminate her third allowed her to take the muta advantage, and it was checkmate from there. Sen was able to draw things even however with better play on the next two maps. Mutalisks were once again key, but a transition into roach hydra as Scarlett's tried to get to Brood Lords gave Sen the win in game 4. Scarlett would return the roach hydra favor on Merry Go Round to close out the series, hitting with a stronger army against ling bane muta. Though Sen was able to eliminate all the anti air, there was no way to stop the roaches from going on a rampage through his bases. With no economy left, Sen was forced to gg. Scarlett returns to Premier League but it was not without a scare.
WCS America Premier League Players
Seeded from Season 2 (16)
Pigbaby, Oz, Alicia, ArthurBomber, TaeJa, Heart, Polt, MajOrRevival, NesTea, viOLet, Check, HyuN, TooDming, XiGuaChallenger League Winners (16/16)
HuK, Shana, MacSed, Arium, Seed, Jim, HerO, puCKNeeb, iaguz, Illusionhendralisk, Guitarcheese, Slam, Jaedong, ScarlettRace Distribution (change from last season):
Protoss
12 (+1)Terran
8 (-1)Zerg
12 (0)
