|
4 Posts
With the top eight players of the 2017 WCS Circuit all but decided heading into Montreal, the question on everyone’s mind was if players like  Neeb or  Nerchio would continue to hoard points or if a fan favorite like Has or Scarlett could pull an upset and steal a last minute spot at BlizzCon.
In the first group stage, things went about as expected. Players like TLO and PtitDrogo advanced with little trouble, while the rest of the big names avoided embarrassment.
Surprises began to crop up in the second group phase as some favorites fell early. NoRegreT was bumped by Lambo in the final match of his group, while  MajOr suffered the same fate against Zanster. ZhuGeLiang also stumbled on the final hurdle after losing 2-1 to the Polish Terran, Ziggy.
The field was narrowed even further in the always ruthless group stage 3. 32 players entered, but only 16 earned spots in the playoffs. Local boys Semper, Jig and Boice were early casualties, while uThermal was also a casualty. Serral, Snute and Neeb all topped their groups, with Scarlett and Has among those who sneaked by in second place.
With the brackets drawn, Neeb and SouL met to kick off the Ro16. The American Protoss won 3-0, while his North American counterpart Scarlett had more trouble with Harstem. She managed to win, 3-2, however, as did TRUE who defeated DnS 3-0. Nerchio set up a ZvZ quarterfinal by taking care of Cham 3-1. Serral reached the quarterfinals with a clean sweep of MaNa, while Elazer did the same against MaSa. Snute won 3-1 against Has’ endearingly cancerous skytoss, becoming the sixth Zerg to make the quarterfinals. Last up was Kelazhur and ShoWTimE, with the Brazilian getting the better of the German, 3-2. Given no time to rest, the final eight returned to the stage for the quarterfinals. Neeb eliminated Scarlett 3-1, with TRUE advancing by an identical score over Nerchio. On the bottom half of the bracket, Elazer eased past Serral 3-1 in a battle of European wunderkinds, while Snute took care of business against Kelazhur to finalize the Ro4.
With the final day of the 2017 WCS Circuit having finally arrived, Neeb and TRUE squared off in the first semifinal. Employing supposedly outdated builds like phoenix/adept and a cannon rush on Mech Depot, Neeb utterly dominated TRUE in an easy 3-0.
Elazer and Snute took a full five games to decide a winner, with everything coming down to the final game on Catallena. Snute lost his hatchery to Elazer’s aggression, but emerged from the fight with a much greater roach count. Elazer soon left the game, sending the Team Liquid Zerg to the finals.
That set up a meeting between two fan favorites and storied players.
Game one swung back and forth, but Neeb's oracles and zealots eventually came out on top. Snute bored into Neeb's main with hydralisks, but he had lost more than 48 workers back at home, putting him virtually all in. Having lost his army outside Neeb's fifth, Snute conceded game 1.
In the next game, Snute was forced into roaches by Neeb's archons drops, a move that put him at a disadvantage going into the midgame. Unable to build a proper hydra/ling/bane army, Snute lost 12 workers at home to zealots before running into a psionic storm/immortal buzzsaw.
Neeb again went for archon drops on Abyssal Reef, but this time his dark templars killed Snute’s natural before fusing into archons. There was no coming back from that position for Snute, who left the game after a failed attack with hydralisks on Neeb’s building fourth.
With the tournament on the line, Neeb's dark templars weren't nearly as effective in game four, but he still navigated his way to three bases ahead on supply. Snute attacked, but his banelings were caught while morphing, and his hydralisks were cleaned up soon after. All Neeb had to do was walk across the map to claim the WCS Montreal championship.
With three WCS titles this year, Neeb has cemented his place as the unanimous best WCS player of 2017. This is perhaps the best year a foreigner has ever had in StarCraft 2, and Neeb should be considered a contender as the first seed in WCS come BlizzCon. We know from his KeSPA Cup title in 2016 that he can beat anyone on the planet, and he has once again proven that everyone in StarCraft should fear him.
|
Wcs welfare are bringing so much money to Neeb.
|
On September 11 2017 16:45 Mun_Su wrote:
Wcs welfare are bringing so much money to Neeb.
Do you consider the GSL to be Korean Welfare? Why do Koreans have to have their own tournament that has an offline qualifier and that spans several months making it absurdly difficult for non Koreans to participate in it?
If the GSL were modified to make it easier for non-Koreans to participate then they could allow Koreans into the WCS Circuit.
I'm sure you have some justification though for why its okay for Koreans to get 9 tournaments this year with either offline qualifiers in Korea or online qualifiers on the Korean server. But clearly the problem is that non-Koreans got to have 4 measly tournaments just for them. Clearly that is just terrible that that happened.
|
On September 11 2017 17:28 Clevername02 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2017 16:45 Mun_Su wrote:
Wcs welfare are bringing so much money to Neeb. Do you consider the GSL to be Korean Welfare? Why do Koreans have to have their own tournament that has an offline qualifier and that spans several months making it absurdly difficult for non Koreans to participate in it? If the GSL were modified to make it easier for non-Koreans to participate then they could allow Koreans into the WCS Circuit. I'm sure you have some justification though for why its okay for Koreans to get 9 tournaments this year with either offline qualifiers in Korea or online qualifiers on the Korean server. But clearly the problem is that non-Koreans got to have 4 measly tournaments just for them. Clearly that is just terrible that that happened.
Yeah I'm sure players like Innovation/Stats/Dark would be glad to grab not only Korean but also foreign money.
|
He trampled on all opponents. Well done. Best protoss.
|
|
|
Competition that ends up with only zergs and few toss are so boring ....
Pointless tournament
User was warned for this post
|
So how long before we region lock Neeb? His dominance this year has been Stephano like, it almost doesn't seem fair anymore to keep putting him in the WCS tournaments when he's such an obvious favorite all of the time.
|
On September 11 2017 17:28 Clevername02 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2017 16:45 Mun_Su wrote:
Wcs welfare are bringing so much money to Neeb. Do you consider the GSL to be Korean Welfare? Why do Koreans have to have their own tournament that has an offline qualifier and that spans several months making it absurdly difficult for non Koreans to participate in it? If the GSL were modified to make it easier for non-Koreans to participate then they could allow Koreans into the WCS Circuit. I'm sure you have some justification though for why its okay for Koreans to get 9 tournaments this year with either offline qualifiers in Korea or online qualifiers on the Korean server. But clearly the problem is that non-Koreans got to have 4 measly tournaments just for them. Clearly that is just terrible that that happened.
Oh please, the GSL tournaments have global qualifiers that anyone can enter. Literally anyone, any time.
WCS is specifically designed to limit the participation of players not living in the countries they are playing from.
Don't act like they are the same thing.
|
|
|
On September 11 2017 17:51 7milesJourney wrote:
SoOnute
LOL :D
|
clips are loading even if i didn't click to play. I don't like it.
|
On September 11 2017 18:00 Vindicare605 wrote:
So how long before we region lock Neeb? His dominance this year has been Stephano like, it almost doesn't seem fair anymore to keep putting him in the WCS tournaments when he's such an obvious favorite all of the time.
Just wait, it will happen. Neeb has everything that is required for a region lock - better than everyone else and no "fun" personality.
|
On September 11 2017 18:00 Vindicare605 wrote:
So how long before we region lock Neeb? His dominance this year has been Stephano like, it almost doesn't seem fair anymore to keep putting him in the WCS tournaments when he's such an obvious favorite all of the time.
Or maybe the other players need to step their game up. This is in no way meant as an insult either, they are all very talented as well.
|
On September 11 2017 18:02 Vindicare605 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2017 17:28 Clevername02 wrote:On September 11 2017 16:45 Mun_Su wrote:
Wcs welfare are bringing so much money to Neeb. Do you consider the GSL to be Korean Welfare? Why do Koreans have to have their own tournament that has an offline qualifier and that spans several months making it absurdly difficult for non Koreans to participate in it? If the GSL were modified to make it easier for non-Koreans to participate then they could allow Koreans into the WCS Circuit. I'm sure you have some justification though for why its okay for Koreans to get 9 tournaments this year with either offline qualifiers in Korea or online qualifiers on the Korean server. But clearly the problem is that non-Koreans got to have 4 measly tournaments just for them. Clearly that is just terrible that that happened. Oh please, the GSL tournaments have global qualifiers that anyone can enter. Literally anyone, any time. WCS is specifically designed to limit the participation of players not living in the countries they are playing from. Don't act like they are the same thing.
They are not the same thing, but they are identical in the fact that none of them are welfare ^_^
No one should be surprised that hyperbole get answered with hyperbole. Both are half right and half wrong so lets stop beating the dead mule.
|
On September 11 2017 18:02 Vindicare605 wrote:
Oh please, the GSL tournaments have global qualifiers that anyone can enter. Literally anyone, any time.
And I was here thinking that you need to live in Seoul to attempt to qualify to GSL, it's stated repeatedly that it's a big barrier for many people. You think it's not? Of course it technically changed with basetrade house being established, but you still need to be there for qualifiers/the duration of your tournament run.
If there were online qualifiers for GSL like for Circuit events the best non-koreans would be there much more often, it's obvious
|
Neeb so gosu, looking forward to seeing him at blizzcon
|
I have the feeling that for the first time there is a little chance that a foreigner can go far at the blizzcon and even win it. We will see !
|
The only way we can have a competitive WCS circuit is either region locking the players that go korea to practise or let the koreans back again to these events. 
|
On September 11 2017 17:28 Clevername02 wrote:Show nested quote +On September 11 2017 16:45 Mun_Su wrote:
Wcs welfare are bringing so much money to Neeb. Do you consider the GSL to be Korean Welfare? Why do Koreans have to have their own tournament that has an offline qualifier and that spans several months making it absurdly difficult for non Koreans to participate in it? If the GSL were modified to make it easier for non-Koreans to participate then they could allow Koreans into the WCS Circuit. I'm sure you have some justification though for why its okay for Koreans to get 9 tournaments this year with either offline qualifiers in Korea or online qualifiers on the Korean server. But clearly the problem is that non-Koreans got to have 4 measly tournaments just for them. Clearly that is just terrible that that happened.
We have been talking for ages about the region-locked problem. You can call GSL, SSL, VSL Korean welfare if they ban non-Korean and if they didn't, which is the case, the non-Korean would come and win all the Korean trophies.
On other hand, if pretty sure if guys like InnoVation, Dark, TY, Stats, herO ... were allowed to freely participate in all the WCS Circuit, they would win all the titles, that's why we call it WCS wellfare.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
2017 WCS Montreal
