EPT
by Malafice
The GSL Super Tournament you say? Too mainstream. We know why you’re here. You want that down and dirty, hip online SC2 action. Well my friends, you’ve come to the right place! The Roundup of Online Tournaments Thing Number 3 is here to give you all that coffee drinking, skinny jean wearing SC2 coverage you’ve been craving all week long. Put on your beanies and flannels and let’s dive right in!
Top Prize Money Earners of the Week
- #1:
Solar - $300 - Tie #2-3: Elazer and KeeN - $150
- #4: Namshar - $116
- Tie #5-6: Stats and Trap - $100
- #7: Reynor - $75
- Tie #8-11: herO, Hurricane, Leenock, aLive - $50
Best Games of the Week:
OlimoLeague #135: Trap's Consolation Prize (Sept 25)
While he may have been eliminated from Blizzcon contention this week at the hands of Stats,
Trap can at least take solace in the fact that he took home some pizza money from another online tournament win. In fact, Trap will be able to buy a lot more than a mere pizza due to his recent swell of success in online cups. Two weeks removed from his victories over soO and Rogue in KungFu Cup 17, Trap and
soO met again this week in the OlimoLeague. I’m going to have to start highlighting all of their matches on my calendar going forward because they delivered another kick-a** series this week. Game 3 was pure StarCraft ecstasy as soO and Trap went late game with their massive air armies. soO showed he is taking well to the rise in popularity of mid-game Mutalisks against Protoss, which he seamlessly transitioned into Brood Lord-Corruptor. His BL-Corruptor army somehow managed to pass right by Trap’s Carriers and Void Rays, and the game devolved into one of the sillier base races I’ve had the pleasure of watching. With both players’ bases all but destroyed, Trap's Carriers circled around and managed to finish off soO’s Brood Lords before they could focus down his few remaining gateways. Trap showed he’s more than just an online PvZ god as he took down the upward-trending aLive in the finals. As mentioned before, unfortunately Trap drew neither Terran or Zerg in the Super Tournament and has since been eliminated from WCS competitions until next year. But hey, at least the pizza money is still flowing.
Ballistix Brawl: Season 4, Week 2: The Phantom Rogue (Sept 26)
Rogue’s tournament woes continued this week. The reigning world champion appears to be no more than a husk of his former self as he failed to win another online tournament that looked to be his for the taking. Don’t get me wrong, his mechanics are still S-tier but some of his decision making just seems… off. In Game 4 of his series against KeeN, he opted for swarm hosts against bio play. Spoiler alert, Marines absolutely murder Locusts. Granted, Rogue did scout an armory which could have indicated mech play, and maybe KeeN just won the mind games. Nonetheless, Rogue got outplayed again and found himself, like many of his fans, scratching his head after losing another series that he probably should have won. Maybe it’s not too late for him to give his Blizzcon spot to Trap? Jokes aside, Rogue has some serious soul searching to do if he wants to have any hope of defending his BlizzCon title.While the Rogue v KeeN series was fun, the Leenock v Keen series was even better! Both players had been eliminated from BlizzCon contention so there was nothing else to read into here—it was just pure, unadulterated, awesome SC2! Both players fought like they were in the GSL finals. Between beautiful multi-pronged harass and delightfully goofy mistakes (Leenock literally Baneling-ed his own spawning pool to death), this series was a true nail-biter that went the distance. If you like StarCraft at all, even just a little bit, please check this series out!
WardiTV Invitational 4: Solar's Consolation Prize (Sept 26)
Solar proved he is primed and ready for offline success by taking down Stats in the WardiTV Invitational. Unfortunately for him, he would have preferred a victory over sOs in that fancy mainstream tournament.Still, Solar looked absolutely dominant in his match with Stats. He showed the true strength of ZvP Mutas as he utterly overwhelmed Stats’ meager amount of anti air, simultaneously picking off Templars and Immortals alike. Personally, I hope more Zergs give Mutas a shot in ZvP. Sure, they're absolutely terrible when they don't catch the Protoss off-guard, but they can produce some fast-paced, entertaining games.
As good as Solar looked, Stats looked just as bad, especially in game 4. After fending off a fearsome Ling-Bane-Hydra attack at his fourth base, Stats went for what could have been a game ending counter. Unfortunately he took his eye off the prize and proceeded to A-move his whole army head on into ten Lurkers, thus losing everything. To be fair, "online-Stats" has been one of TL's running jokes in 2018, and it's more a friendly jab considering the fact that he's made multiple finals runs in offline GSL tournaments.
Despite Solar’s recent prowess in online events, he will not be moving on to BlizzCon, which is great news for us over here in the online section! Without anything major to practice for, Solar will have nothing to do but give us more awesome online games! BlizzCon can have their boring, mediocre Stats (jkjk we love Stats too).
TMS;DW (Too Much StarCraft; Didn't Watch) - Other Notable Tournament Results
Ting Open Online - Preseason Cup #6
- Elazer 3 > 2 Reynor in the finals
ESL Go4SC2 Cup #817
- Namshar 2 > 0 Nerchio in the finals
Proxy Tempest EU Open #167
- Cham 2 > 1 Kas in the finals
OSC JEC Weekly #20
- uThermal 3 > 0 Guru in the finals
Ultimate Series - Swiss Style Groups
- Kas 3 > 2 Bee
- DIMAGA 3 > 2 Brat_OK
- Hellraiser 3 > 1 Bly
- Rail 3 > 1 SKillous
- InZaNe 3 > 1 souL
- MaNa 3 > 0 PappiJoe
- Serral 3 > 1 Reynor
- uThermal 3 > 0 Elazer
- Neeb 3 > 1 TRUE
- MaSa 3 > 1 Scarlett
- Future 3 > 0 Jardozer
- puCK 3 > 1 Cuddlebear
OSC Masters Cup #115 Qualifier
- Raze and Silky qualified.
OSC Allstars #62 Qualifier
- TRUE and MaNa qualified.
Underdogs Season 49
- PtitDrogo, Clem, Administration, and Abbadon advanced to the RO8
