EPT
While Day 3 had given us two tough groups, each featuring four top quality Koreans and two underdog foreigners, Day 4 had the potential for our first foreign participants to qualify for the playoffs.
Group C was, in many people’s eyes, by far the weakest of the lot, featuring three Koreans who have been shaky in the past couple months (
Zest, Patience, and 
TRUE), two foreign up-and-comers (Serral and PiLiPiLi), and the long-time foreign star Nerchio. Unlike the other three groups, there were no real distinct favourites here, and that bore out over the five sets of bouts. Serral was undoubtedly the star of the show, progressing in 1st to the Ro.8 with a 4-1 record, and only impressive ZvZ from Nerchio kept him from notching the competition’s second flawless group record, displaying solid macro play in a group otherwise characterised by mistakes.Take PiLiPiLi, for instance. The Kazakhstani rookie has been one of the highlights of the competition so far, impressing in his run through the open brackets, and demonstrated in his PvZ wins over Nerchio and TRUE that, once again, making carriers is a useful talent toi have. Unfortunately though, it’ll take a while before his blunder against Patience will be forgotten. With the score at 1-1, in a crucial series that would’ve sent him to a 3-1 series record, PiLiPiLi botched a sentry / immortal attack at Patience’s natural, before GGing out despite his massive worker lead. He can only take comfort from the fact that even with that win, Nerchio and Zest would still have eliminated him on map score.
While PiLiPiLi came in as a distinct underdog, TRUE and Patience were both huge disappointments here. TRUE looks to have regressed since his WCS Summer championship last year, as has Patience since HomeStory Cup, even if their similarly chaotic aggressive styles are inherently a little hit and miss.
As the two favourites coming into Day 3, both Nerchio and Zest will have to up their games if they expect to progress much further in the competition. Both players alternated between looking near their best—Zest vs Nerchio was one of the best series of the group, while Nerchio’s win over Serral showed again why he’s been a cornerstone of EU zerg play for so long—with looking near their worst. Zest once again came second in a mind-game battle with Patience, while Nerchio’s consistent ZvP woes against the foreign carrier-centric style will be an issue that he’ll need to solve before the next WCS event.
From one of the easiest groups to the hardest—Group D was arguably the most interesting of the four.
INnoVation and Dark obviously headline the group—the best terran and zerg in the world respectively—but to mix in one of the best foreigners over the past year in ShoWTimE, two utterly unpredictable terrans in GuMiho and uThermal, as well as a hometown hero in MaNa was a tempting prospect.As it turned out, everything played to pre-tournament expectations… mostly. INnoVation got off to a flyer, stomping over ShoWTimE and MaNa with ease. His match against Dark meanwhile featured one of the games of the tournament so far on Abyssal Reef—a proper bio vs MLB slugfest for the ages. It all looked to be going so well for him, but GuMiho emerged from the shadows to shake up the group, taking him down 2-1.
It all led up to an anticlimactic final round of matches; with all three Koreans safe on 3-1 (and, importantly, with good map scores and head-to-head records to boot), our 12 qualified players were already decided. GuMiho had beaten INnoVation and lost to Dark, who himself had lost to INnoVation, while, uThermal emerged on top in the foreigner knife fight. The Dutch terran looked superb against MaNa, and perhaps surprisingly emerged on top in a tight 2-1 win over ShoWTimE too.
It didn’t stop there either, as he took out INnoVation to end on a 3-2 record, tied with the ex-SKT terran. Whether through complacency or a genuine TvT weakness, INnoVation had thrown away all his early work, and must now be slightly worried by the prospect of a Ro.12 match against TvT expert Ryung tomorrow.
Dark too emerged victorious, beating ShoWTimE in an entertaining 2-1, but it was GuMiho who topped the group, beating MaNa in the final round of games.
That leaves us with a completed bracket for the rest of the tournament. Join us tomorrow as we kick off the playoffs and the Ro.12.
Written by: munch.
