herO returns to IEM on Day 1 of the IEM Gyeonggi Qualifiers
The first of three qualifiers for the Intel Extreme Masters in Gyeonggi, Korea, has been played out today and provided four players with spots in the tournament, which will be held from December 14th to 18th and start off the 2017 season for WCS Korea.
In the first bracket ByuL destroyed one foreigner dream after another, before being taken out himself by his former CJ Entus colleague herO, who was determined to attend another of “his” IEM events—they just don’t feel right without the Protoss player.
Chaos and confusion spread around in the second bracket as TAiLS—yes, MVP’s once-upon-a-time GSTL hero with the funny hair—eliminated a huge favourite in soO and went on to also defeat Super, before Pet of all people put an end to his run. In the end, of course, none of this really mattered as Solar swept in from the other side of the bracket to claim the spot in Gyeonggi.
The third bracket saw relentless aggression triumph, as Losira beat Ryung, the reigning HomeStory Cup Champion Patience and Rogue in a surprising run to qualification.
In the last bracket another Protoss was successful in securing a ticket to Gyeonggi, as Classic showed a dominant and flawless run, not even dropping a single map to his opponents. Some of his fellow top players fared not so well: Maru and TY were defeated by Cell and Leenock respectively in two big upsets.
herO, Solar, Losira and Classic will join ByuN, Dark, Zest and Stats, who have been invited based on their success in the 2016 season. There are still more spots left up for grabs though, so do not despair, Terran fans!
The qualifiers will continue tomorrow, on the 27th of November, so tune in to one—or several—of the various streams broadcasting the games.
I've seen tons of Korean pros losing to random guys on ladder, but this is IEM qualifier. I can't see any other surprising results, only except soO and Maru lost to TAiLS and Cell. lmao