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ByuN’s grand victory on the BlizzCon stage, sixteen challengers from around the world descended on California in hopes of being crowned the next WCS world champion. First up were the competitors of Group A and B, two of whom would be sent home by day’s end. The surviving six would have to wait until Sunday for a chance to book their ticket to the Round of 8.
2017 WCS Global FinalsSpeCial’s proxy liberator opened the action on Acolyte with a pair of probe kills. 
Stats began colossus production and his third at the same time, but SpeCial's third had long since finished. SpeCial's pushed out, killing Stats' fourth before diving into his pocket base, sniping it as well. Ranged liberators continued to zone Stats out, who scrambled to build tempests as SpeCial reduced him to one base. Stats managed to hold, but SpeCial, who had only lost SCVs to harass, not bases, assembled a large enough force to wade through Stats' storms and take game one.Stats led off with a stargate on Ascension to Aiur, only to lose his oracle to a mine. SpeCial transitioned into mine drops, but Stats suffered minimal losses even as a liberator denied mining in Stats' main while bio pushed into the Splyce Protoss' third. Stats proceeded to push out, killing SpeCial's fourth base while taking out more than 60 SCVs with constant waves of adepts. His economy shattered, SpeCial attacked with ghost/bio/liberator but didn't have enough to weather Stats storms, sending the series to the rubber match.
Stats' pylon rush fell flat on Catallena as SpeCial was able to kill both probes while pushing back Stats' oracle and delaying his natural with an engineering bay. Stats scrambled to assemble an economy and army, but SpeCial gave him little time to breathe. Having negotiated a field of stasis wards, he sieged Stats' natural. Stats shaded his adepts past SpeCial's army, killing more than twenty workers and SpeCial's third, but was unable to defend back at home. He lost his third and the game soon after as marauders charged in to give SpeCial the 2-1 victory.
Snute opened pool first on Abyssal Reef. Unable to do damage with a zergling run by, he macroed up to three bases. TY applied pressure with mines, drops and ravens, keeping the worker count even as Snute went for roaches. Snute managed to get up to brood lords, but by the time he did he had a vastly inferior economy. TY chipped away at the Norwegian Zerg with bio/tank the entire game, eventually bringing him below 20 workers. TY lost his army to corrosive biles and fungal growth, but was able to salvage a big enough force to quash Snute’s final desperate attack and take a 1-0 lead.Having defended hellions, marines and cyclones, Snute took an early lead on Interloper. He went for a quick hive, but TY's bio/tank army forced the Liquid Zerg to make ravagers and infestors instead of a greater spire. Brood lords finally came out and forced TY back, only to be wiped out by vikings soon after. TY and Snute expanded across the map while countering one another's techs and, while both players lost workers and bases, Snute’s immobility allowed TY's bio to snipe key bases, and eventually outlast Snute's fungal/bile combination to take the match.
soO opened the match with a 13/12 on Ascension to Aiur, but Nerchio managed to block his ramp with queens to hold on two bases. soO made no attempt to expand and, despite flooding zerglings across the map, he was unable to pierce Nerchio's defenses who amassed enough queens and banelings to go up 1-0.Down a game, soO kicked things off with a 12 pool on Abyssal Reef. His zerglings were able to kill Nerchio's natural as well as three workers and a queen before delaying Nerchio's expansion. While this was going on, soO had taken his own second base and a 20 worker lead. Nerchio tried for a +1 carapace ling flood off three bases, but soO had more than enough roaches to see the players through to a third game.
Both opened hatchery first on Odyssey, but soO made the first move with a faster baneling nest. He canceled Nerchio's third while setting up his own. soO prevented Nerchio from expanding over and over while widening his lead with the addition of roaches. Up a base, ahead on army and workers, soO moved across the map and took the series 2-1.
Neeb opened nexus first into stargate, but was unable to scout Rogue's nydus worm. Rogue established a contain with ravagers, spores and queens before eventually adding on lurkers. Neeb squirreled away a hidden base at seven o’clock while trying to pressure with blink stalkers. Rogue held the attack, though, which forced Neeb to recall his whole army to the hidden base and attempt to trade bases, giving up his natural and main. He tried to break into Rogue’s natural, but found no purchase against lurkers, roaches and lings, putting him down 0-1.Neeb dictated the pace of game two from start to finish. One stargate became three on Abyssal Reef as Neeb massed oracles. Rogue responded with corruptors, but Neeb was already moving into double upgrades and blink stalkers. Rogue tried to get something done with ravager/ling, but stasis wards made it slow going as Neeb, despite losing a base to corruptors and another to zerglings, reached five bases and a mothership. He pushed out, losing the capital ship, but not the battle, evening the series.
Game three devolved into a stalemate as neither player proved willing to engage the other as they reached their ultimate lategame armies. With the map nearly mined out, Neeb sacrificed all his workers bar one, building up an ungodly skytoss army worth 199 supply. Rogue brought infestors, corruptors, brood lords and ultralisks to bear in a final encounter, but fell short as the last of his army was wiped out in an unwise engagement, setting up an elimination match between the Jin Air Zerg and Nerchio, while sending Neeb straight through to Sunday where soO awaits him.
Stats' three stargate opening bought him a thirty supply lead on Mech Depot, with his oracles even managing to snipe Snute's morphing hive. Stats teched into carriers, high templar and archons while expanding freely as Snute cobbled together a hydra/ling/bane army. He added in brood lords and corruptors, but, finding himself staring down Stats' army, Snute ceded the map, putting Stats up 1-0.Stats killed twelve workers early in game two, but Snute took advantage of Catallena's close confines with a hydra/ling/bane push that caught Stats as he tried to transition into charge and high templar while taking a third. The third fell and archons offered little resistance as Snute stormed into Stats' natural, forcing a third game.
Following a tepid stargate opening, Stats went for glaives before taking his third. His first wave of adepts didn't accomplish much against Snute's hydra/ling/bane at all, as the Liquid Zerg opened up a 30 supply lead. A secondary squad, however, gunned down a good amount of drones. Snute was unable to capitalize on his worker and base lead, however, as continued zealot warpins dragged him below thirty workers. Snute elected not to re-drone, instead constantly producing hydralisks and zerglings and trying to starve Stats out on three bases. He found success for a while, but ultimately ran out of steam against seemingly never ending storms that wiped out his irreplaceable forces, eliminating Snute from the Global Finals.
Rogue's 13/12 was met by a hatchery first from Nerchio on Ascension to Aiur. Rogue's zerglings found themselves stalled by a pair of queens and a spine crawler, but, having eliminated Nerchio's natural, they pounced on the migrating spine crawler. Banelings killed thirteen of Nerchio’s drones, with the game coming to an end soon after in Rogue's favor.Rogue opened pool first on Odyssey before going for a ling/bane attack from which the players emerged on even footing despite Nerchio's hatchery first opening. Nerchio's lair and attack upgrade were faster, but the game equalized with both players on three bases. Rogue kept getting the better end of trades and steadily built an army supply lead, which he immediately put to good use as he marched across the map with a superior roach count after shutting down Nerchio's attempts at finding a way past his defenses. Rogue crashed into Nerchio's natural and eliminated his opponent's army , keeping his BlizzCon dreams alive while ending Nerchio's tournament run.
