EPT
by Malafice
The conclusion of the GSL Super Tournament last week finally marked the end for all of those pesky premiere offline tournaments! With no major money left to play for and BlizzCon still a few weeks out, it appeared that the pros would have no choice but to duke it out online and show us all of their super juicy, cutting edge builds, and The Roundup of Weekly Tournaments that Happen Online would be here to cover it all! Muahahaha perfect! Wait… players are hiding builds for Blizzcon already? But it’s still… oh come on… that guy’s not even going to Blizzcon... just give me one week! Bah! Anyway, let’s take a look at this week’s action!
Top Prize Money Earners of the Week
- #1:
Solar - $1650 - #2: Elazer - $900
- #3: GuMiho - $500
- #4: HeRoMaRinE - $400
- #5: Rogue - $350
- Tie #5-6: Neeb and Reynor - $300
- Tie #7-8: Bunny and uThermal - $175
- #Bly - $35
Best Games of the Week:
- GuMiho vs Zest - Olimoleague Monthly Finals (September)
- Solar vs Zest - Olimoleague Monthly Finals (September)
- Reynor vs Rogue - WardiTV Summer Championship
- uThermal vs Rogue - WardiTV Summer Championship
- Impact vs Bunny - WardiTV Summer Championship
OlimoLeague September Finals: Cheese Clinic (Oct 2)
The OlimoLeague is quickly becoming a staple of this post with its high octane GSL caliber action, and this week is no exception. Well actually, it was a bit of an exception. The end of the month meant it was time for the OlimoLeague’s Monthly Finals. Every month the top 8 players from the OlimoLeague get seeded into a bracket and given the chance to fight for a little extra prize money. I hoped this extra money during the GSL drought would be incentive enough for the players to go all out and give us some epic games. Instead we got some really high quality ladder matches.
Fortunately
GuMiho was in this tournament, and he rarely delivers a dull game. He showed some extraordinary greed in his first match against Zest, going for a super fast 3rd CC while simultaneously going for 1-1 and getting concussive shells. Did he lose his 3rd? Oh absolutely, but 1-1 Marauders cut through mass Stalkers like a hot knife through butter and GuMiho was able to pull out the win against a questionable strategy from Zest. This lone win marked the end for our beloved GuMiho however. He decided that scouting was an optional endeavor in Game 2 and wound up going for a Ghost Academy rush against a proxy Gateway in Game 3. It was okay though because Zest advanced, and we all know Zest is capable of cooking up some equally crazy sh**.Apparently Zest’s PvZ cookbook never made it to his desk. Out of the 10 PvZs he played in this tournament, he went for, the dated, DTs into double-Prism Archon harass 5 times (and we haven’t even talked about the WTV Summer Championship yet).
Solar played Zest fairly close, going for the Spire style he’s been favoring in the past few weeks. The Zest vs Rogue series was truly comical though. Rogue, who had just finished Roach/Ray all-in-ing SpeCial to death, proceeded to Roach/Ling all-in Zest in Game 1, subsequently killing Zest before his Dark Shrine could even finish. Zest went for the same build in the next two games and got utterly bopped. Finally, games 4 and 5 produced some macro games that are worth a watch. This week’s OlimoLeague left us with more questions than answers regarding Rogue and Zest’s form going into BlizzCon. The two games that progressed late were both hotly contested, and Zest is not typically known for his late game play. Does this mean Rogue is still slumping? Has Zest gotten better? Who knows? But still, we have to give credit where it’s due and applaud Rogue for winning an unquestionably stacked tournament.
WardiTV Summer Championship: GSL vs. the World, Part 2 (Oct 1, 3)
Since we’re on the topic online staples and exceptions, let’s go ahead and segue right into the WardiTV Summer Championship and it’s penultimate week. Both the Korean and European finals concluded last week, and the top four players from each region, along with two invites, qualified to participate in a Grand Finals event that began this week.
Group A:
Rogue and Reynor squared off in what is undoubtedly my favorite game of the week. Things got sloppy quick in this marathon ZvZ that ultimately boiled down to 3 of Rogue’s Hydras against a handful of Zerglings at the 27 minute mark. Definitely check this one out! Rogue proceeded to tear through the rest of the group, with the exception of uThermal, and served to restore some faith in his fans heading into Blizzcon.Now, I know online
Stats is a bit of a meme here, but come on, just how long can this go on before we have to start holding him accountable? Dear was unable to participate in this event and ceded his spot to Stats in hope that Stats could defend the honor of well rounded macro based Korean Protosses everywhere. Just like GSL vs the World, Stats blew it again against the foreign invaders (too soon?)! He was a heavy heavy favorite to make it out of this group with Rogue but he lacked any semblance of a killer instinct as he plummeted all the way to the bottom of the group, but hey, maybe foreigner vs Korean gap really is closing… or maybe Stats should just be thankful BlizzCon is an offline event.Of course, we can’t wrap up Group A coverage without mentioning
uThermal, who played out of his freaking mind in this group! uThermal showed that 2-1-1 is still in style as he dealt crippling damage to Reynor before finishing him off with a crisp marine/tank push in Game 1 of their series. He even managed to plant the foreigner flag atop the corpse of Rogue as he showcased his versatility with mech play and his ability to stave off Rogue’s vaunted aggression, thus earning him first place in the group. While uThermal may have finished 9th place in the WCS standings, he showed skills worthy of making it to BlizzCon.Group B:
Zest returned to his aforementioned DT into Archon play as he fought his way to the top of Group B. This build in particular saw mixed success against his Zerg opponents, but the fact that he was still able to come out on top of this group without revealing any potential Blizzcon builds bodes well for the Korean Protoss.The most fun series of this group was definitely the one between
Impact and Bunny, particularly Game 1. This game started off with some fairly standard ling bane hydra play against a marine tank comp from Bunny. From there, things accelerated quickly into a late game filled with ghosts, infestors, and multi pronged attacks from both sides. Ultimately the fungal growth from one brave infestor was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for our Zerg hero as it ensnared literally all of Bunny’s ghosts. Regardless of their awesome series, neither player managed to make it out of the group against the foreigners Denver and Nerchio. More gap closing evidence? I think so.You heard it here first folks, there will be no Koreans in the GSL vs the World semifinals next year!
TMS;DW (Too Much StarCraft; Didn't Watch) - Other Notable Tournament Results
Take's Penthouse Party #4
- Solar 4 > 3 Elazer in the finals
ESL Go4SC2 Cup #819
- DnS 3 > 1 souL in the finals
Ballistix Brawl Week - Season 4, Week #3
- Rogue 3 > 1 Cure in the finals
Proxy Tempest EU Open #168
- Scarlett 2 > 1 uThermal in the finals
Proxy Tempest EU Open #169
- Guru 2 > 1 uThermal in the finals
Proxy Tempest NA Open #115
- Cham 2 > 0 Future in the finals
OSC JEC Weekly #21
- Bly 3 > 1 souL in the finals
QCL: Power Overwhelming Pro Teamleague
- TitanEX1 (aLIve, Bunny, Impact) 4 > 0 Group Assignment (Fantasy, TaeJa, PartinG)
- INnoVation One Man Team (INnoVation, soO, Zest) 4 > 1 ByuN and the kids (ByuN, GuMiho, Patience)
- Kim-do/Seong-ho (Trap, Cure, Classic) 4 > 2 94fam (Dear, Rogue, TY)
Ultimate Series - Swiss Groups
- Brat_OK 3 > 0 Bee
- Bly 3 > 1 DIMAGA
- SKillous 3 > 2 Kas
- Rail 3 > 2 Hellraiser
- Bly 3 > 1 SKillous
- Kas 3 > 0 DIMAGA
- Hellraiser 3 > 2 Brat_OK
- Kas 3 > 1 SKillous
- souL 3 > 0 PappiJoe
- Reynor 3 > 0 InZane
- Serral 3 > 0 uThermal
- MaNa 3 > 0 InZane
- uThermal 3 > 2 Reynor
- Cuddlebear 3 > 1 Jardozer
- Scarlett 3 > 1 TRUE
- Future 3 > 2 puCK
- MaSa 3 > 2 Neeb
- Scarlett 3 > 0 Cuddlebear
- Future 3 > 1 Neeb
- puCK 3 > 1 TRUE
OSC Masters Cup #115 Qualifier
- puCK and JimRising qualified.
OSC Allstars #62 Qualifier
- Namshar and MacSed qualified.
