|
4 Posts
With the WCS circuit having reached the halfway point, players took to Valencia for the third stop on the road to the WCS Global Finals. Up for grabs was an automatic invite to the year end tournament, precious WCS Points and a pay day worth writing home about.
The first group stage consisted of 64 players.  Stephano,  Harstem, Zanster and more trotted on into the next stage, but MaNa was outpaced by HateMe and RiSky, making him the first notable elimination.
The second phase of groups was a more bloody affair. Namshar failed to advance, as did one of the powerhouses of 2016, ShoWTimE. Meanwhile, Snute and PtitDrogo were among those who moved on.
With only 16 spots available in the elimination rounds, heads really began to roll in the final round of groups. Top players like Nerchio, Serral,  SpeCiaL and Elazer made it through, but contenders like Cham, uThermal, Dayshi and Bly were sent home.
With only 16 players remaining, the field gathered on Friday in hopes of keeping their tournament hopes alive. First up was Serral who took out Cloudy 3-1. TRUE matched that score in his victory over PtitDrogo. Nerchio did not drop a game against Stephano, while Elazer required four to take down Has. Kelazhur went to a full five games against MaSa, while Scarlett was only able to pick up one map as she fell to Snute. Neeb survived despite being brought to the brink by the Australian Probe and SpeCial closed out the day with a swift 3-0 over Zanster.
TRUE became the first player to reach the semifinals with a surprise 3-1 victory over Serral. Countrymen Nerchio and Elazer battled to determine who would face off against him, with Elazer coming out on top 3-1. Patience was paramount as Snute swept Kelazhur, while SpeCial finally got the best of Neeb in an excitingly close 3-2 series to lock up the final Ro4 spot.
Elazer took a 2-0 lead against TRUE on the back of ling/bane micro. TRUE got on the scoreboard by shutting down Elazer’s attempted nydus worms, but dropped the match 3-1 as Elazer’s 12 pool expand bought him a lead that only widened as the players went into roaches.
After conquering SpeCial's mech, Snute booked a spot in the finals with expert ling/bane/muta play in games two and three. He weathered SpeCial's aggression long enough to reach hive tech and roll to decisive wins on the back of ultralisks.
The finals started off on Ascension to Aiur. Elazer canceled Snute's third with early pressure, but his mutalisk switch was met by a massive roach push that gave Snute a supply advantage. He added hydralisks as Elazer reverted to roaches, but in the end, it was Snute who took the lead.
Having reached three bases, Elazer cut drones for a roach timing on Snute who was taking Proxima’s gold as his fourth. Elazer crashed in, but Snute had enough to not just repulse Elazer, but drive him back to his third, where he wiped him out to go ahead 2-0.
Elazer got back into the series on Odyssey. Having canceled Snute's third, Elazer continued the attack. Zerglings and ravagers streamed across the map, overwhelming Snute, who had dedicated too many resources to teching to marshall a proper defense.
Elazer went for a blind spine crawler with his hatchery first opening, but Snute took a third rather than attack. Behind on bases, Elazer went for a roach/queen push. Snute's concave and reinforcements overcame Elazer’s +1 attack, putting him within a game of the title.
Both players remained passive while teching into roaches and infestors on Blood Boil. Ultimately, Elazer's decision to research attack and carapace upgrades proved vital. Elazer won the initial fight and, largely due to his upgrades, those that followed, to force a sixth game.
Elazer went for a zergling flood on Sequencer, but Snute held, taking a worker lead. Having scouted Elazer's spire, Snute went for a roach/queen nydus, only for it to be shut down by roaches and ravagers. Elazer barreled into Snute's third with superior numbers, making Defender’s Landing the site at which the finals would be decided.
Having seen his lead evaporate, Snute went for a 13gas/12pool on Defender's Landing. Elazer opened with a gas/pool/hatch and met Snute's zerglings with his own. Snute appeared to have an advantage, but instead of adding a baneling nest, he took an expansion. Back at Elazer's base, Snute was shooed away before he could finish off Elazer's natural, with his second attempt being thwarted by a timely transfusion. Elazer and Snute continued making zerglings, but Elazer sniped Snute's queens before marching across the map with his own. With his zerglings slaughtered and Elazer charging into his main, Snute typed out, yielding Valencia to its newest Zerg champion, Elazer.
Elazer's victory, his first in a Premier Event, earns him $25,000 and the all-important automatic invite to the WCS Global Finals.
|
First of all, congratulations to Elazer, who deserved the championship for outclassing every zerg in a mostly zerg tourney.
Also, wp Snute, Major, and True.
But can we talk about player fatigue? I think it deserves a thread of its own.
I'm not discrediting the players who advanced when I state that from the semifinals (Ro.4) onwards all the players who lost ... well, their games looked really tired and more sloppy than should be allowable at that level. And it was more like they lost the games more than the opponent won them. I'm not going to mention all the examples, but here are some:
TRUE: I don't know what this guy was doing. First, a hatch first on a rush map, then a rush on a macro map. But whatever.
SpeCiaL: He looked soooo tired after the match vs Neeb. And it showed in the match vs Snute. Seiging multiple tanks in clumps = nono. Losing multiple medivacs after drops by being careless about unloading marines on their way out of base = uncharacteristic.
Snute: Too much to talk about. But THAT HATCHERY! Like, lol, but seriously, why run the lings up the ramp at that time when he had more lings, no queens were in transfuse range, and the hatch was like 2 seconds of zergling attack away from falling. It was more than game pressure, there.
The above does not just apply to the last WCS event, although it was in Valencia that it really showed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
A modest proposal: Change Semifinals and Finals to be all best of seven (Bo7) like GSL and push it (Ro4 and Ro2) to another day or a long delay. I think we'll see more quality games, higher quality games, and better-prepared games with less slopiness at the end of the brackets this way, and it would be fun. Yes, I understand from the weekend tournament perspective, adding another day is kind of expensive. But guess what: Most people aren't drawn to esports by money in the first place. It's about game quality. Let's keep the quality of matches at the highest level going strong.
|
On July 17 2017 02:59 KR_4EVR wrote:
First of all, congratulations to Elazer, who deserved the championship for outclassing every zerg in a mostly zerg tourney.
Also, wp Snute, Major, and True.
But can we talk about player fatigue? I think it deserves a thread of its own.
I'm not discrediting the players who advanced when I state that from the semifinals (Ro.4) onwards all the players who lost ... well, their games looked really tired and more sloppy than should be allowable at that level. And it was more like they lost the games more than the opponent won them. I'm not going to mention all the examples, but here are some:
TRUE: I don't know what this guy was doing. First, a hatch first on a rush map, then a rush on a macro map. But whatever.
SpeCiaL: He looked soooo tired after the match vs Neeb. And it showed in the match vs Snute. Seiging multiple tanks in clumps = nono. Losing multiple medivacs after drops by being careless about unloading marines on their way out of base = uncharacteristic.
Snute: Too much to talk about. But THAT HATCHERY! Like, lol, but seriously, why run the lings up the ramp at that time when he had more lings, no queens were in transfuse range, and the hatch was like 2 seconds of zergling attack away from falling. It was more than game pressure, there.
The above does not just apply to the last WCS event, although it was in Valencia that it really showed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
A modest proposal: Change Semifinals and Finals to be all best of seven (Bo7) like GSL and push it (Ro4 and Ro2) to another day or a long delay. I think we'll see more quality games, higher quality games, and better-prepared games with less slopiness at the end of the brackets this way, and it would be fun. Yes, I understand from the weekend tournament perspective, adding another day is kind of expensive. But guess what: Most people aren't drawn to esports by money in the first place. It's about game quality. Let's keep the quality of matches at the highest level going strong.
The problem with your proposal is that we don't have an extra day. Our events go the entire length of DH events. Also, having a delay will help with fatigue, but it also really kills all our momentum in terms of viewership and interest.
|
The problem with your proposal is that we don't have an extra day. Our events go the entire length of DH events. Also, having a delay will help with fatigue, but it also really kills all our momentum in terms of viewership and interest.
Maybe. I wish something could improve, though.
|
On July 17 2017 03:19 Parrek wrote:Show nested quote +On July 17 2017 02:59 KR_4EVR wrote:
First of all, congratulations to Elazer, who deserved the championship for outclassing every zerg in a mostly zerg tourney.
Also, wp Snute, Major, and True.
But can we talk about player fatigue? I think it deserves a thread of its own.
I'm not discrediting the players who advanced when I state that from the semifinals (Ro.4) onwards all the players who lost ... well, their games looked really tired and more sloppy than should be allowable at that level. And it was more like they lost the games more than the opponent won them. I'm not going to mention all the examples, but here are some:
TRUE: I don't know what this guy was doing. First, a hatch first on a rush map, then a rush on a macro map. But whatever.
SpeCiaL: He looked soooo tired after the match vs Neeb. And it showed in the match vs Snute. Seiging multiple tanks in clumps = nono. Losing multiple medivacs after drops by being careless about unloading marines on their way out of base = uncharacteristic.
Snute: Too much to talk about. But THAT HATCHERY! Like, lol, but seriously, why run the lings up the ramp at that time when he had more lings, no queens were in transfuse range, and the hatch was like 2 seconds of zergling attack away from falling. It was more than game pressure, there.
The above does not just apply to the last WCS event, although it was in Valencia that it really showed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
A modest proposal: Change Semifinals and Finals to be all best of seven (Bo7) like GSL and push it (Ro4 and Ro2) to another day or a long delay. I think we'll see more quality games, higher quality games, and better-prepared games with less slopiness at the end of the brackets this way, and it would be fun. Yes, I understand from the weekend tournament perspective, adding another day is kind of expensive. But guess what: Most people aren't drawn to esports by money in the first place. It's about game quality. Let's keep the quality of matches at the highest level going strong. The problem with your proposal is that we don't have an extra day. Our events go the entire length of DH events. Also, having a delay will help with fatigue, but it also really kills all our momentum in terms of viewership and interest.
Easy solution is to start semis/finals later in the day to give people more time to rest.
|
With one more tournaments more before Global finals (actually 2- however IEM Shanghai will only have 2 Chinese players vs 14 Koreans), look at the standings and see who is going to represent for WCS Circurt (beside Neeb and Elazer):
- Serral (around 4000 WCS points) - 99% going to Blizzcon. He has 1000 points more than Nerchio and nearly 2000 points more than True. I dont see any chance Serral get out of top 8. However, I hope that he can win Montreal before coming to Blizzcon.
- Nerchio and Special (both have around 3000 WCS points) - 95% going. The only ways they drop out of top 8 will be they earn no points in Montreal (that's mean they not qualified for R32) AND Kelazhur & Snute & TRUE are all in top 4 of Montreal.
- Kelazhur, Snute & True. Well, to be truth I cannot estimate their percentage precisely. They have 600 points more than Charm, and 1000 points more than anyone behind, therefore I guess their chance is around 70% (meaning the 1 of current top 8 win Montreal). They will be dropped out, ex Kelazhur, if one of the player below them (such as Charm, uThermal, PtitDrogo and Showtime) win Montreal AND the other two (in this case Snute and True) out - do them in the final WCS rounds.
- And for the remaining players of top 15, to go to Blizzcon, they have to get at least to the final of Montreal. To be honest, I really think the only one can pull it off here is Showtime. I hope he can do it like Snute has done in Valencia.
Link to the standings: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2017_StarCraft_II_World_Championship_Series_Circuit/Standings
|
Norway839 Posts
I didn't have a long break between semi and the final, wish it was longer personally. Elazer got more rest and also some more thinking time. but that's just luck of side and schedule - top bracket players get a nice warmup like that. Main reason for fatigue overall is probably loud audio levels at venue taking its toll and personally I woke up many times to partying in the streets and hotel rooms. Even if you take a lot of precautions it's still hard to reach home tier level. Just gotta accept that level will drop sometimes
|
Cham would need ro4 at montreal to get it. Ptitdrogo, Scarlett, uthermal, iAsonu, and ShoWTimE will all need to get to the finals.
So in other words, there are only 3 potential new players that can enter top 8. Special, Nerchio, Serral, Neeb, and Elazer are garanteed blizzcon places
Kela is 99% through, only way he doesn't make it is if Cham gets ro4 at Montreal, someone like uthermal gets 2nd, and someone below gets 1st.
And this is assuming that the entire current top 8 don't play in challenger/montreal. Assuming they all reach ro16 and get 300 points, the only one that could potentially fall out is True.
|
On July 17 2017 05:23 Liquid`Snute wrote:
I didn't have a long break between semi and the final, wish it was longer personally. Elazer got more rest and also some more thinking time. but that's just luck of side and schedule - top bracket players get a nice warmup like that. Main reason for fatigue overall is probably loud audio levels at venue taking its toll and personally I woke up many times to partying in the streets and hotel rooms. Even if you take a lot of precautions it's still hard to reach home tier level. Just gotta accept that level will drop sometimes
The audio level is high on the stream also, as in mute or lower volume a lot in between games.
I've been to a couple of dreamhack open stockholm, I have no idea why it needs to be THAT loud, it's basically rock concert levels where you need to scream if you want to talk to someone.
But I guess it's along with screaming casters, someone in production believe it brings hype and quality.
|
Congrats Elazer. All of your hard work and dedication payed off! What a fierce competitor.
|
8 of 16 players played Z. 6 out of 15 matches were ZvZ. I didn't watch it, b/c there were 16 Z in the ro32, which already contained too much ZvZ for me.
Amazing how these players were able to secure first, second and third place, since we know Z is obviously underpowered. Z hadn't won any major tournament which is proof, isn't it.
I'm glad that the meta has finally been figured out and we can clearly see how beautifully balanced game actually is.
With Terran being the least represented race, again, it is obvious, that T needs to be nerfed: There was still a Terran who won non mirror match ups in ro16. Can't have T perform better than P.
|
On July 17 2017 08:04 QuinnTheEskimo wrote:
8 of 16 players played Z. 6 out of 15 matches were ZvZ. I didn't watch it, b/c there were 16 Z in the ro32, which already contained too much ZvZ for me.
Amazing how these players were able to secure first, second and third place, since we know Z is obviously underpowered. Z hadn't won any major tournament which is proof, isn't it.
I'm glad that the meta has finally been figured out and we can clearly see how beautifully balanced game actually is.
With Terran being the least represented race, again, it is obvious, that T needs to be nerfed: There was still a Terran who won non mirror match ups in ro16. Can't have T perform better than P.
please stop
Congrats to Elazer, gg's!
|
Nice recap, but
On July 17 2017 02:43 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote:
Elazer took a 2-0 lead against TRUE on the back of ling/bane micro.
That's not how you spell BO wins 
I gotta agree with the fatigue comment though, I felt like the quarters were more exciting than the rest of the playoffs.
Overall, very nice tournament, I'm pleased by the level of play
|
GG Elazer and great manner Snute in wishing him well for his first big win. Some players were slipping a bit but that's all part of the challenge.
|
Please put a link to the Liquipedia page somewhere in the article. Preferably at the very top or very bottom so it's easily accessible.
|
On July 17 2017 05:43 Fango wrote:
Cham would need ro4 at montreal to get it. Ptitdrogo, Scarlett, uthermal, iAsonu, and ShoWTimE will all need to get to the finals.
So in other words, there are only 3 potential new players that can enter top 8. Special, Nerchio, Serral, Neeb, and Elazer are garanteed blizzcon places
Kela is 99% through, only way he doesn't make it is if Cham gets ro4 at Montreal, someone like uthermal gets 2nd, and someone below gets 1st.
And this is assuming that the entire current top 8 don't play in challenger/montreal. Assuming they all reach ro16 and get 300 points, the only one that could potentially fall out is True.
I agree with most of your ideas, except that Kela will still out in this case: someone not top 8 get 1st in Montreal, AND True and Snute gain enough points to overcame Kela, such as Kela failed R16 and True and Snute get to R8.
|
On July 17 2017 08:04 QuinnTheEskimo wrote:
8 of 16 players played Z. 6 out of 15 matches were ZvZ. I didn't watch it, b/c there were 16 Z in the ro32, which already contained too much ZvZ for me.
Amazing how these players were able to secure first, second and third place, since we know Z is obviously underpowered. Z hadn't won any major tournament which is proof, isn't it.
I'm glad that the meta has finally been figured out and we can clearly see how beautifully balanced game actually is.
With Terran being the least represented race, again, it is obvious, that T needs to be nerfed: There was still a Terran who won non mirror match ups in ro16. Can't have T perform better than P.
I really don't understand your arguments. Z players overflowed WCS playoffs happen in the past 3 WCS tournaments. Actually, of top 16, the numbers of zerg players are 10/10/8 in Austin/Jokoping/Valencia. That's prove to me foreigner Zerg scene much better than Terran and Protoss right now.
And Terran not being the least represented race. Again look at standings and playoff results: the only Protoss on the top now is Neeb. Terran at least still have Special and Kela.
|
You put this thread into spoilers and the interview that was posted 1 day ago not.
Well played TL, well played.
|
Gratz Elazer, the kid is playing good StarCraft these days and it was only a matter of time for him to lift a big trophy... However a little sad for Snute, this was his series to take.
As for the comments in this thread, well for me personally, what was really iritating was not the level of play but the absurd number of zerg players in the final rounds of playoff. I don't want this to be a balance whine or anything, but my interest in watching the tournament always decrease accordingaly to the number of ZvZ matches that are coming ahead. I mean, in Valencia, there was 8 Z payers in Ro 16, 5 Z players in Ro8, 3 Z players in Ro4 and the finale was ZvZ. Top 8 WCS Circuit Standings contains 5 zergs, 2 terrans and 1 protoss, while 9th position is again zerg. Seems like foreign players can't play T and P, or at least don't know how to play those races properly. Someone may like watching tons of ZvZ's every big foreign tournament, but I know quite a lot of my friends just didn't watch the finals because they were so disgusted by the amount of zerg players and ZvZ matches that were played before that. It's nothing personal againt any of those zerg players (it's not their fault), but it's really not fun to watch BO5 ZvZ leading to another BO5 ZvZ leading to a BO7 ZvZ finals...
Offtopic question, since there is no article about HSC XV - does anyone know, why no TeamLiquid player (except for Bunny) is attending?
|
It's EU, will always be a ZvZfest. Dreamhack probably rig the brackets to try and avoid a ZvZ finals, but it happens anyway lol
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
