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![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Meru/2014/WCS_EU/Season2/WCS_EU_s2_3races.jpg)
As was expected, WCS EU Challenger League delivered with exciting series and intense games. With fan favorites prevailing, ESL are sure to be raking in the dirty eSports money.
The day started with a showdown between sLivko and the Dutch Terran AT.uThermal. The Russian Zerg immediately stuck with his old habits, droning heavily in every game of the set. However, it was uThermal who set the tempo in the opening game, pressuring the Russian from several fronts. Though Slivko would win the next game with a well executed roach bane all-in, the strategy did not work a second time when he tried it on Nimbus in Game 3. uThermal adapted well by pre splitting his Marines and pumping out tanks to defend the high ground. In the final game, uThermal went for the jugular. Seeing a weakness in sLivko’s defense, with a severe lack of anti air, he pushed with a handful of Banshees, with Hellbat and Viking support. Quickly focusing Queens and Overseers,
uThermal sniped the base while wiping out sLivko’s entire army in under 2 minutes. The Russian Zerg would tap out immediately after, sending yet another Dutchman to the Premier League!![[image loading]](/staff/lichter/WCSEU/2014/Season3/wcseuclgrpa.jpg)
The day’s second set featured one of the fan favorites of the night, Liquid`TLO. After 2 games, TLO found himself in an uncomfortable place. Once a Ro4 contender, he was now sitting on the brink of elimination. His desperation showed itself in the raw intensity of his play against the equally hungry Swedish Zerg, Namshar.
Game 1 on Overgrowth took the fairly standard ZvZ route, with both player opting for a max roach approach. With superior concaves and burrowed roach runbys, Namshar found himself with a solid 1-0 lead. The next match was simply a story of too much too fast. TLO went for a quicker third and slightly greedier play with his droning, allowing Namshar to take some nasty trades. As the game drew on, Namshar continued to slowly press his advantage, taking engagement after engagement. After picking off TLO’s infestors in a fight, he seized the moment and went for the kill, pushing up into the German’s natural expansion, forcing out a gg.
With his back against the wall, TLO threw down the gauntlet in the next match. Tossing his usual play to the win, TLO let loose with an explosion of Zerglings on King Sejong Station. Namshar, expecting the same economy oriented play as the previous two games, was unprepared, relying on only a handful of a lings, a single spine and a queen for his defense. TLO’s rush shattered these defenses quickly, and he was now only 1 game behind after 7 minutes. The ensuing game looked to be one sided, as Namshar grabbed fast mutas against TLO’s roaches. However, with a fast reaction, TLO was able to get solid defenses at home, while getting infestors and hydras for aggression. After nydusing his way over to Namshar’s half of the map, the Liquid veteran grabbed chain fungals on the Swede’s mutas, and the things were even.
Game 5 was simply mindboggling. Exploiting TLO’s greedy play, Namshar went for a 9 pool into banelings, drawing TLO off of all mining for over a minute, killing all 4 of the German’s zerglings. With a single Queen and his drones, TLO microed his heart out, focusing morphing banelings, stutter stepping his queen, and finally getting out a few lings to help defend. As the micro continued, TLO somehow managed to come out ahead, getting some roaches of his own. TLO stormed into Namshar’s base, tearing up his defenses and outmaneuvering his army at every turn. Finally, the Swede conceded, and
TLO took the series 3-2. Terrans round the world rejoiced as the 3rd set of the day started. “We still exist!” came the cries from the masses, as HeRoMaRinE and jjakji entered the Arena. What followed was one of the most disappointing TvTs ever. HeRoMaRinE prepared poorly for
jjakji’s aggressive style, leaving his main open in the first game, for a doom drop that put the mYi Terran massively in the lead. The two following games, the young German simply fell to early pressure from jjakji, losing to two reapers in game 3. Making up for this lack of hype was Liquid`Bunny and mYi Sacsri. Coming off of the hype of his Dreamhack win, Sacsri was poised to pull off a strong win over Bunny. As the matches began, though Bunny was showing strong play, Sacsri edged out ahead. In game 1, better map presence and more efficient trades let him slowly take the win over the Dane. In game 2, the story was similar, with brilliant baneling connections at every turn.
In true terran fashion, with his WCS life on the line, Bunny went to Old Faithful: The 2 Rax. Throwing down immediate bunker pressure on King Sejong Station, Bunny sniped Sacsri’s natural, before backing off and expanding on his own. With well placed widow mines and fantastic marine control the Liquid Terran fought his way to Sacsri’s natural, where he would force the Korean into submission. The next two games were furious back and forths, as the two players duked it out for the sought after Premier League slot.
Bunny pressed into his opponent with an unrelenting force, tossing units after units against the Zerg. Eventually, not even Sacsri could maintain the intense trading, and he could do nothing but tap out to give the Dane the 4th slot of the day in PL. The last set of the day featured Acer’s famed Terran, MMA and Property’s StarNaN. The second Swede of the day had a tough match on his hands. MMA opened the series with a strong game 1 on Overgrowth. Playing on the safe side, MMA focused on securing the lategame. StarNaN tried to combat this with Zealot runbys, but with pressure from MMA denying him an economy greater than 4 bases, he simply couldn’t withstand the Terran onslaught. Game 2 was even more of a back and forth, with each player trading blow after blow. Eventually, MMA’s presence over the entire map was too much for the Swede to handle, forcing him to tap out after 40 hard fought minutes.
In the third game, MMA played as smoothly as his haircut from 2011. Opening with a fast 3CC build, MMA was able to get out early concussive shells, allowing him the chance to poke at the Property Protoss. Though he did little damage with the push itself, StarNaN’s response (a robo bay and a twilight council at the same time, off of two bases) was damaging enough. With a slowed down colossi count, MMA’s vikings looked mighty strong in comparison. After catching StarNaN out on the map,
MMA simply pushed down the Swede to secure the win on the last set of the day. WCS Europe Premier League Ro32 Players (5/32)
uThermal, jjakji, Bunny, MMATLONext: WCS EU Challenger League Day 2
Thursday, Jul 31 3:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Miniraser vs DeMusliMSerral vs FireCakeSortOf vs 
BlinGLilbow vs KrasSTargA vs ShoWTimEBunny Hops Up to Premier League
We spoke with Bunny after his match regarding his surprising victory over Sacsri.
TL: What was your mindset going into the match? Was Sacsri’s momentum from the DH win a point of concern?
Bunny: When he first was announced as my WCS opponent I thought “Well it’s pretty bad but I’ll manage” Then after watching him dominate at DH I didn’t think too highly of my chances to be honest. Still I was really pumped for the match since I got the strongest opponent and there wasn’t much pressure on me to win, that’s usually the most comfortable and fun condition to play in.
TL: After G2, you were definitely on the ropes. How did you prepare yourself for Game 3?
Bunny: I actually felt I had plenty of opportunities to win game 2, but I made several micro mistakes in a row and ended up losing too much army value. After that I just thought about not making the same mistakes in the upcoming games.
TL: You played a bit more aggressively today than you usually do. Why the slight change in style?
Bunny: Hm I feel like I’ve had an aggressive style for quite a while. I guess I just prefer to develop my style this way because I’m not a very patient player and I like fast games. But I should definitely learn to play more patient, if you’ve followed my matches you know that I like to throw games :D
TL: You’ve been integrating Thors into your TvZ a lot. Why this choice over more mines, especially considering the recent buff?
Bunny: Well it’s important to remember that thors got buffed as well! Also for my style with straight up pushes it’s nice to have a fast thor, since it allows you to poke with a few units without zerg just sending their mutas forward to deal with it. I did make some mistakes in my factory production today though (In my first game I made a 3rd factory instead of an armory and decided to just run with it)
TL: How do you feel going into WCS on the back of such a strong comeback? What’s your outlook on this season compared to season’s past?
Bunny: Well to be honest I didn’t really think I would get into Premier with the opponent I drew, so it’s just like a bonus I guess? But now that I’ve taken out the guy who was considered the best In Europe I guess I could get very far! It depends on if fate decides for me yet again to have a group with Korean terrans I guess
TL: In your opinion, who is the best Terran in EU right now? What other Terrans are you looking to, in terms of taking from their play?
Bunny: Hm the best terran In Europe is always a tricky question. In practice I hold a good record vs all the European terrans, but still nobody has significantly better results than the others. For another European terran I’ll have to pick Dayshi, his run at Homestory Cup was really impressive, and despite having low apm his mechanics are solid. I want to give some praise to Happy as well, but his weird builds and playstyles are keeping him back.
The terran I learned the most from would be INnoVation. I think his style is very solid and easy to copy, he doesn’t rely much on cute and tactical play like Maru, but more on solid timings and mechanics. Of course Taeja is always amazing, but for some reason his style never really appealed to me.
The terran I learned the most from would be INnoVation. I think his style is very solid and easy to copy, he doesn’t rely much on cute and tactical play like Maru, but more on solid timings and mechanics. Of course Taeja is always amazing, but for some reason his style never really appealed to me.
