Day two of the IEM World Championship group stages saw 12 more players take part in round robin action with the final six spots in the Round of 12 on the line.
Group C turned out to be a bit of a scrum, with four players failing to manage more than two wins. Neeb wound up with a 2-3 mark, but he was a central figure to a pair of exciting ZvPs against Serral, and Nerchio in the first match of the day. Nerchio failed to get anything going from there, finishing 1-4. Zest ended the day with an identical record despite earning a win over Nerchio early on. Meanwhile, Serral got off to a hot start and didn’t cool down, going 5-0 to top the group. Rogue was Serral’s first victim, but the Jin Air Zerg did not lose again, ending the day in second place at 4-1. Impact lost two of his last three matches, but he still finished 2-3, good enough for third place and a spot in the Round of 12.
The group stages wrapped up with Group D. HeRoMaRinE 2-0’ing Elazer at the very start of the group was a surprise, but the Polish Zerg failed to win a match all day. HeRoMaRinE also had a tough time after his first victory, as he was unable to add to his tally, winding up at 1-4. Trap and Ryung battled for third place, but Trap, who had lost his first two matches to Classic and sOs, rallied back to finish 3-2 to Ryung’s 2-3. sOs made a valiant charge for first place, but his 0-2 loss to Classic doomed him to second place. Classic, meanwhile, posted the the best map score of any player in the group stage, going 10-1 to finish in first place.
These quick result reports are nice, but tbh they don't say anything that isn't apparent from reading the game results on Liquipedia. It'd be useful if they had a little more such as highlighting which games were the most interesting to watch.
On March 03 2018 08:18 Obamarauder wrote: did you guys catch elazer's booth reaction in game 2 vs trap? he looks so damn frustrated. rough day for him
Yup. We've seen him have that kind of reaction a couple of times after rough losses.
Best and worst of Elazer tonight. On one hand, going 2-4 against sOs and Classic is no joke, and he played those first two games against Classic extremely well. On the other hand, his ZvT (especially vs mech) is an absolute mess right now, and he collapsed hard against Trap too. Frustrating night. Summarizes foreigners (minus Serral, who is a god) at the tournament sadly well.
Really?! Maru vs sOs again?!?! Wow, these JAGW boys really have some terribad luck this year having to face off vs each other so often... This makes me extremely sad not only having to see one of them go out in the GSL ro8, but again here and now at IEM
On March 03 2018 10:50 Vutalisk wrote: Serral vs Dark Impact vs Classic Rogue vs TY sOs vs Solar
Dark vs Classic Rogue vs Solar
Classic vs Solar
As much as I love Dark, it is hard to see Serral dropping a ZvZ right now. Either way, I think they both will have a hard time against Classic. I really feel like it will come down to how many ZvPs Classic can win in a row to determine whether or not he will get the big dollars. My bet is that he eventually falters either vs Dark/Serral towards the end of the series or at the finals.
Pretty good tournament so far Interesting thing is that I kept being impressed by foreigners performance thinking how they are trading blows with Koreans. However as I look at the bracket there is only 1 Finnish flag among the Korean rest. Seems like the Gap is saved once again although if Serral would be able to advance even further it would be fantastic run for him. Also sad that Jin Air boys are meeting again. I wonder how it will impact the mind games in gsl
On March 03 2018 17:36 egrimm wrote: Pretty good tournament so far Interesting thing is that I kept being impressed by foreigners performance thinking how they are trading blows with Koreans. However as I look at the bracket there is only 1 Finnish flag among the Korean rest. Seems like the Gap is saved once again although if Serral would be able to advance even further it would be fantastic run for him. Also sad that Jin Air boys are meeting again. I wonder how it will impact the mind games in gsl
Trading blows? In group A and D no foreigner won a series vs a korean. Serral is the only competitive foreigner and Neeb when he's in better form. Uthermal managed to catch a few koreans offguard with his aggressive strategies but once his approach was known he couldn't do anything anymore.
Serral looked so strong, although that last game vs Neeb got me worried. I think he just safed that one, to not do a stupid attack and lose. Hopefully he can keep up his games vs strong Koreans
EPT
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IEM Season XII - World Championship![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Olli/katowicegroups.png)
Neeb wound up with a 2-3 mark, but he was a central figure to a pair of exciting ZvPs against 
Serral, and 
HeRoMaRinE 2-0’ing 
