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!
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.
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.
Strong performance from the terran players today. I was really not expecting Bunny to beat Sascri even considering the fact that Sascri didn't beat any terrans of note during his Dreamhack run.
Happy with all the results today. Congrats Bunny especially on taking down such a difficult opponent, although it does kinda suck that a player as good as Sacsri won't be in Premier
AMAZING performance by Bunny, EUROPE IS ALIVE! TERRANS ARE ALIVE! Big Congrats man! I am so thrilled that Europeans are finally showing that Koreans can be beaten, and it doesn't all have to be Korean dominance. This, combined with the sproadic but precious wins in ATC (TLO, MaNa, Starbuck vs Innovation, Snute vs MMA, Sjaak vs the whole team Axiom, Snute again vs the whole team Acer with Innovation and MMA) shows that Europeans are finally fighting back. Maybe, maybe, hoping against hope, we will have a European WCS EU champion.
Why were these players even in challenger anyway? Highly unlikely anyone from challenger would ever beat them. No surprises really. Good to confirm that there's not only 2 Terrans in premiere.
On July 30 2014 16:25 swag_bro wrote: This is proof that Sacsri is a one hit wonder. MC deserved the win for that finals.
Hahahaha
Sacsri beat him, therefore he deserved the win. That's how it works. Also it is pretty harsh to say someone is a "one hit wonder" after losing one bo5 to a very good player. MC himself has lost to several foreigners in Bo5's and has even been banished to Code B before!
On July 30 2014 16:34 Foreverkul wrote: Why were these players even in challenger anyway? Highly unlikely anyone from challenger would ever beat them. No surprises really. Good to confirm that there's not only 2 Terrans in premiere.
I'm going to assume that it's because they lost in Premier last season prior to the Ro16 or they got in through the Challenger qualifiers.
On July 30 2014 16:34 Darkhorse wrote: I'm going to assume that it's because they lost in Premier last season prior to the Ro16 or they got in through the Challenger qualifiers.
Yes, I get that they lost. Its a repeat of GSL Korea.
On July 30 2014 19:33 JacobShock wrote: prefer Innovations play over his teammate's, I see how it is Bunny :b
Actually its a sign of respect, as he says no one can copy TaeJa's or Maru's style. Or at least that his personal style leans more towards that of Innovation's.
On July 30 2014 16:25 swag_bro wrote: This is proof that Sacsri is a one hit wonder. MC deserved the win for that finals.
Funny. MC has very crappy win ratio in finals of premier events. After his 2nd GSL crown, he won 4 tournaments in 14 finals. It's actually mind blowing how frequently he grabs silver considering how many finals he is playing. He is no YellOw by any means, but he has more "silver medals" in premier events than anyone and by huge margin.
On July 30 2014 19:33 JacobShock wrote: prefer Innovations play over his teammate's, I see how it is Bunny :b
Actually its a sign of respect, as he says no one can copy TaeJa's or Maru's style. Or at least that his personal style leans more towards that of Innovation's.
He said that TaeJa's play is not appealing to him, while Maru's style is harder to copy.
On July 30 2014 19:33 JacobShock wrote: prefer Innovations play over his teammate's, I see how it is Bunny :b
Actually its a sign of respect, as he says no one can copy TaeJa's or Maru's style. Or at least that his personal style leans more towards that of Innovation's.
He said that TaeJa's play is not appealing to him, while Maru's style is harder to copy.
Hmm, if you read it that way, it might be a diss indeed .
Bunny confirmed INno as a better role model than TaeJa.
Seriously though, Im very impressed with Bunny, that comback vs Sacsri was phenomenal. Sad for Namshar, losing to TLO in the way he did. Also. MMAcer on the rise again.
Also I have an explanation for Bunny's recent successes available:
[17:24:19] Victor "Zealously" Lloyd: I don't know what you've fed Snute and Bunny [17:24:22] Victor "Zealously" Lloyd: but I'd like some [17:25:16] Victor Goossens: well snute drinks a lot of coke and bunny sometimes goes running does that h elp [17:25:38] Victor "Zealously" Lloyd: so drinking coke while running would maximise my chances? cool [17:25:47] Victor Goossens: i believe it would
I was about to say that Bunny is the first foreigner to win a premier tournament in forever but then I saw that TL lists Gfinity as a "Major" not "Premier" tournament. How come? It's a Tier 2 event with a $30,000 prize pool, that took place offline, it should be Premier.
On July 30 2014 19:33 JacobShock wrote: prefer Innovations play over his teammate's, I see how it is Bunny :b
Actually its a sign of respect, as he says no one can copy TaeJa's or Maru's style. Or at least that his personal style leans more towards that of Innovation's.
He said that TaeJa's play is not appealing to him, while Maru's style is harder to copy.
What are the distinctive characteristics of TaeJa's playstyle?
On August 04 2014 12:02 Yakikorosu wrote: I was about to say that Bunny is the first foreigner to win a premier tournament in forever but then I saw that TL lists Gfinity as a "Major" not "Premier" tournament. How come? It's a Tier 2 event with a $30,000 prize pool, that took place offline, it should be Premier.
i was asking this during Hyun vs Bunny G3 (before Bunny even won the final game), and people just said that cause of various reasons such as only 12 player tournament, and that its mostly an invite tournament (75% were simply invited into the tournament) etc
On August 04 2014 12:02 Yakikorosu wrote: I was about to say that Bunny is the first foreigner to win a premier tournament in forever but then I saw that TL lists Gfinity as a "Major" not "Premier" tournament. How come? It's a Tier 2 event with a $30,000 prize pool, that took place offline, it should be Premier.
i was asking this during Hyun vs Bunny G3 (before Bunny even won the final game), and people just said that cause of various reasons such as only 12 player tournament, and that its mostly an invite tournament (75% were simply invited into the tournament) etc
I can see that but if you compare it to other Major tournaments it doesn't really belong. Most "Major" tournaments have prize pools in the $5,000 - $15,000 range. No other Major tournament has a prize pool close to $30,000, and there are only two with prize pools above $20,000 in 2014: E-Sport SM and Fragbite Masters, and the former is only for Swedish players while the latter is an online tournament.
It's probably too late to retroactively change it anyway without seeming like you're just doing it to accomodate this record, so I'll just cut the Gordian Knot and say:
"Bunny is the FIRST foreigner EVER to win a tournament that awards WCS points!"
That's even more impressive than arbitrarily deciding whether a tournament is "Major" or "Premier"
On August 04 2014 12:02 Yakikorosu wrote: I was about to say that Bunny is the first foreigner to win a premier tournament in forever but then I saw that TL lists Gfinity as a "Major" not "Premier" tournament. How come? It's a Tier 2 event with a $30,000 prize pool, that took place offline, it should be Premier.
i was asking this during Hyun vs Bunny G3 (before Bunny even won the final game), and people just said that cause of various reasons such as only 12 player tournament, and that its mostly an invite tournament (75% were simply invited into the tournament) etc
I can see that but if you compare it to other Major tournaments it doesn't really belong. Most "Major" tournaments have prize pools in the $5,000 - $15,000 range. No other Major tournament has a prize pool close to $30,000, and there are only two with prize pools above $20,000 in 2014: E-Sport SM and Fragbite Masters, and the former is only for Swedish players while the latter is an online tournament.
It's probably too late to retroactively change it anyway without seeming like you're just doing it to accomodate this record, so I'll just cut the Gordian Knot and say:
"Bunny is the FIRST foreigner EVER to win a tournament that awards WCS points!"
That's even more impressive than arbitrarily deciding whether a tournament is "Major" or "Premier"
well i wanted it to be known as a premier
but if u look at the number of players and invites well...i dont think any other premier tournament has 75% of a 12 player be invite only
all the premier with low players, are all players who qualified through qualifiers, not simply invited in
EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Meru/2014/WCS_EU/Season2/WCS_EU_s2_3races.jpg)
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)
TLO took the series 3-2. 
BlinG
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