The fourth and final day of the KeSPA Cup Group Stages was also the day with the most intrigue surrounding it. Classic and Patience were in direct competition for the final KR spot at BlizzCon; Maru’s up-and-down form over the year was difficult to read; while Nerchio’s year-long campaign against Korea was about to kick off in earnest.
In the end though, the group played out much like the others we’ve seen previously. We saw Patience crush through the group with ease, taking out Maru 2-1 before following up with a clean 2-0 over Nerchio, making it 5/7 for protoss in the competition.
With the stakes ramped up, Classic failed to deliver. Patience advancing meant that Classic needed to place 2nd to keep his BlizzCon dreams alive, but the two-time starleague champion looked off his game. His year-long struggles in PvZ came back to haunt him for one final time, looking powerless against a dominant Nerchio, before falling to Maru in the losers’ match.
It fell to that latter pair to define the storyline of the group. Would it be Nerchio, the dominant force of EU, to take the final win and advance to the Ro.8, making it 2/4 for WCS? Or would it be Maru, the pride of Jin Air, who would emerge victorious?
Eventually, Maru came out on top in a tight series. Game 1 was a particular highlight, with Maru taking first blood on a mined-out King Sejong Station, before Nerchio struck back with a strong defence on Frost. Map 3 though was a perfect showcase for the talents we’ve seen Maru display over the years. Excellent abuse of Galactic Process’ terrain allowed him to siege Nerchio’s third with a small tank / marine force. The Polish zerg managed to push back, breaking down the rocks and catching Maru overcommitting, but the strong economy that the terran had built up behind the harassment allowed him to roll through the zerg’s fourth with his next attack. Mules rained down from the sky, as Nerchio tapped out.
KeSPA Cup will continue on Sunday with four quarterfinals. Stats and Maru will face off in a rematch of their 2015 SSL semifinal; Neeb will take on an unexpected challenger in Pet; while TY and Zest will play out Round 2 of their GSL title bout from earlier in the year. Patience and Trap will round out the evening with a PvP.
Nice writeup. Shame nerchio didnt make it, the babyrager in me want to blame the map pool but in reality Nerchio couldve won vs patience had he played slightly better.
Nerchio played very well as far as I am concerned. Yes, he talks trash often and some people dont like him for it (reminds me a bit of Idra), but the games he played were good. I wish him luck in next games.
Group D it was, and close for Nerchio. I wasn't surprised that much that he 2-0ed Classic. Since the beginning of sc2, top foreigners were always fighting back top Koreans. Even last year 2015, I've seen Snute beating both GSL champion Rain (2-0) and SSL champion Classic (2-1) and winning as 1st place in group in IEM. And Koreans called him Snutegod at that time.
In the WoL, top foreigners like Stephano showed winning a lot against Koreans, but problem was after Kespa pros transitioned to sc2 since 2013, foreigners were start struggling hard at winning a single premier offline events vs those Kespa Koreans. (I totally left this scene 2012-2014 so only watched few VODs later how foreigners performed well against Koreans)
Sen and Lilbow. only 2 premier tournaments they won against Koreans since 2013 until now. Even those tournaments were where all the best Korean players at that time didn't participate.
Beating Koreans is not a big deal, they have to win a Cup in premier offline where every top Korean pros attend to prove they can fight equally to Koreans. Will Neeb do it 1st time for foreigners? We also have blizzcon left. And in WESG only 2 Koreans are available, and new patch coming, so foreigners might have good chance there.
It's funny to see how Maru 1-base all-in Protosses, cause he knows he'll lose to them in late mid-late game.
On September 30 2016 23:06 thecrazymunchkin wrote: Just to check; can anyone see the embedded liquipedia brackets? Something in the HTML's going wrong and I can't figure it out
I don't think Nerchio has anything to be ashamed of. Beating Classic 2:0 is an impressive feat, so is taking a game in a series vs Maru. And even the games he lost were so head to head till the final moments. All in all he's still going home with valuable experience.
Well done Nerchio, creating a great emotional story for everyone to follow and fuzz about. And then showing impressive games against one of the best. I remember Flash in BW just making fun of foreign zergs. Good stuff!
I love it when Nerchio Shit talks before matches and then doesn`t deliver... no BM When he doesn`t do it he performs better maybe putting to much pressure on himself.. Sad story would have love to see him crush'em all
On September 30 2016 23:26 WhosQuany wrote: I love it when Nerchio Shit talks before matches and then doesn`t deliver... no BM When he doesn`t do it he performs better maybe putting to much pressure on himself.. Sad story would have love to see him crush'em all
I wish people would stop complaining about players who have the bollocks to put their character forward. It's a sign of quality entertainment. People love to hate someone. I for one think we need more competitors who are not afraid to speak their mind.
I wish people would stop complaining about players who have the bollocks to put their character forward. It's a sign of quality entertainment. People love to hate someone. I for one think we need more competitors who are not afraid to speak their mind.
EPT
Classic and 
Maru’s up-and-down form over the year was difficult to read; while 
Nerchio’s year-long campaign against Korea was about to kick off in earnest.
We also have blizzcon left. And in WESG only 2 Koreans are available, and new patch coming, so foreigners might have good chance there.
