After a 64-player open qualifer and a 24-player group stage, we're left with just twelve players as we head into the most unforgiving phase of IEM Katowice. The playoffs are upon us, with thousands of dollars and hundreds of EPT points on the line in each single-elimination round.
Round-of-24 recap
Group A: Business as usual
Dear surprised many fans and experts alike by narrowly clinching the group A's RO8 spot over bigger stars like Dark and Stats. But despite eating a clean 0-2 loss to Dark, Dear made sure that was the only set he ever lost two-zip, showcasing dominating form to dismantle Has, Stats, PartinG and Special
WCS Global Champion Dark suffered a surprise 0-2 loss to PartinG's all-ins to open the group, but otherwise looked red hot as he chased the #1 seed. Ultimately, his initial loss to PartinG made a big difference, and he was forced to settle for the #2 spot in the group. Foreign Terran hope SpeCial's history of heartbreak continued at IEM, as once more he finished just below the RO12 cut-off with a 2-3 record (losing to the top three of Dear, Dark and Stats). Stream star PartinG also fell short at 2-3, ultimately wasting a strong first impression against Dark. Has came, cheesed, and didn't really conquer (he went 0-5), but at least he entertained us by pushing Stats to the verge of defeat with cheese before losing 1-2.
Group B: Manner, please
The most prominent story in Group B was the rise and fall of BlizzCon runner-up Reynor. After taking out ShoWTimE and Armani to jump out to an early lead in the group, he declared that he'd be favored to defeat the remaining Korean Zergs as well. Unfortunately for Reynor, he was thoroughly schooled by the veterans from Korea, suffering losses to Rogue, soO, and not-even-a-Zerg Zest. His losses to Zest and Rogue could be excused, however, as they ended up being the top two players in the group. Rogue took the #1 spot with a record of 4-1 and tournament-best 9-2 map score, while Zest also put up a 4-1 record (with a more modest 9-4 map score).
Instead of Reynor, ShoWTimE ended up being the European player who shined in the group. He followed the opposite trajectory: after losing his first two matches to Reynor and Rogue, ShoWTimE reeled off a streak of wins against Armani, Zest, and soO to qualify for the RO12 in dramatic fashion.
Rogue's performance may not have been a surprise, given his Code S win and top-eight BlizzCon finish last year. But Zest's strong showing was a welcome surprise for Protoss fans, as he bounced back from a tepid 2019 where he struggled to be more than a middling player for a few weeks at a time. On the other hand, 2019 champion soO struggled to rediscover last year's magic, and joined Reynor and Armani in the elimination zone.
Group C: Terran Terrors...
Group C was the group that followed popular predictions most closely, with three Korean players advancing—two of them being the greatest Terrans of the modern era. INnoVation looked to be the favorite to advance in first place after three consecutive victories against Patience, Solar and Elazer, but his narrow loss in a TvT brawl against Maru was a turning point. Maru, after suffering an early loss to Trap, kicked things into overdrive, and notched four consecutive victories to overtake INnoVation and finish in first place.
Speaking of Trap, the Jin Air Protoss managed to both impress and disappoint. He defeated both of Group C's top finishers in INnoVation and Maru, but his strong PvT fell in heavy contrast to his weak PvZ as he lost to both Solar and Elazer. Unfortunately, Trap was unable to defeat last-place finisher Patience in his 'neutral' match-up, and was eliminated with a 2-3 record. That left Solar to claim the the third ticket out of the group, scrapping by with a 3-2 match record and 7-6 map score.
Group D: Rock you like a Hurricane
Group D turned out to be the most closely contested group of the RO24, with five players unsure of their fates headed into the final round of games. Serral looked like he might take the only 5-0 of the group stage after winning his first three matches against Lambo, sOs, and Cure, but he was struck by lightning out of nowhere—a 0-2 jolt from a roaring Hurricane. Still, the Finnish Phenom managed to survive that brief scare, defeating TY in his final match to secure a 4-1 record and first place.
Hurricane's upset against Serral wasn't just a cute underdog story—it was a vital win in a scrappy run that saw him rise from the losers' bracket of the RO76 and reach the RO12 playoffs. His wins against Serral, combined with wins against sOs and Lambo, allowed him to barely edge out TY for #3 in the group (IEM's controversial tie-breaker rules where # of total map-wins takes precedence over head-to-head came into play).
Online darling Cure got off to a solid start by defeating Lambo and Hurricane, but his IEM group began to look more like a GSL group as time went along. After losing his third match to Serral, Cure had to endure a tiring, marathon TvT against TY which ended in a painful 1-2 loss. Perhaps exhausted by that series, Cure then lost his final match to an opportunistic sOs, who was ready to snatch away the RO12 spot from his former teammate.
This bracket is terrible. The bottom half is extremely stacked while the top half is basically a free trip to the finals for Serral. Hope Dear or Zest surprise me. I have almost no faith in Innovation upsetting Serral.
soO was so closed to qualified, I actually thought he could repeat last year's story. All he need is a 2-0 against showtime, but showtime performed better than he usually does. I also thought ty locked his place, but esl's irule s a bit weird, therefore he need a win against serral to lock his place. Looking forward to sOs and the terrans to perform well and win it all
On February 29 2020 08:07 sneakyfox wrote: I'm as happy as the next guy to see Harry Kane advancing, but honestly it makes no sense that he advances over TY.
TY both has the higher map win percentage as well as winning 2-0 against Hurricane in their match.
Really hope ESL fixes this in the future.
Yeah it's kind of a bummer, this should be adressed :/. But it's hard to have a fair system tho.
On February 29 2020 08:07 sneakyfox wrote: I'm as happy as the next guy to see Harry Kane advancing, but honestly it makes no sense that he advances over TY.
TY both has the higher map win percentage as well as winning 2-0 against Hurricane in their match.
Really hope ESL fixes this in the future.
Totally agreed. The rules are the rules, but the rules are dumb. Hurricane had 1 more win in 2 more games played, counting statistics should not be the basis for evaluation unless the sample size is the same.
On February 29 2020 08:11 JJH777 wrote: This bracket is terrible. The bottom half is extremely stacked while the top half is basically a free trip to the finals for Serral. Hope Dear or Zest surprise me. I have almost no faith in Innovation upsetting Serral.
Am I the only one who thinks this isn't entirely true? One side of the bracket is always gonna be stronger, but I really don't think it's very drastic in this scenario. Showtime looked really strong in his games, Hurricane literally beat Serral, and Innovation, Zest, and Dear all look like they are back around top form, which says a lot because they all had ridiculously strong peaks.
On February 29 2020 08:11 JJH777 wrote: This bracket is terrible. The bottom half is extremely stacked while the top half is basically a free trip to the finals for Serral. Hope Dear or Zest surprise me. I have almost no faith in Innovation upsetting Serral.
Am I the only one who thinks this isn't entirely true? One side of the bracket is always gonna be stronger, but I really don't think it's very drastic in this scenario. Showtime looked really strong in his games, Hurricane literally beat Serral, and Innovation, Zest, and Dear all look like they are back around top form, which says a lot because they all had ridiculously strong peaks.
The most recent big event was Blizzcon. The top half of the bracket has 1 player that made top 8 in Blizzcon. The bottom half of the bracket has 3. The bottom half of the bracket has Stats and Maru who are the only non Zerg players to have won a premier event in the last 11 months.
Showtime did impress in his group and a Protoss beating Serral is always impressive. Those results don't suddenly make them comparable to Stats/Maru/Dark/Rogue though.
On February 29 2020 08:11 JJH777 wrote: This bracket is terrible. The bottom half is extremely stacked while the top half is basically a free trip to the finals for Serral. Hope Dear or Zest surprise me. I have almost no faith in Innovation upsetting Serral.
INno beat Serral at the height of Serral's powers in last year's high-stakes WESG finals - I think the stakes are high enough now and he's been practicing hard enough that an INno victory is possible again. Also, Hurricane just beat Serral in the group stages and they're both on the same side of the bracket...wouldn't call it a free ticket for Serral.
On February 29 2020 08:11 JJH777 wrote: This bracket is terrible. The bottom half is extremely stacked while the top half is basically a free trip to the finals for Serral. Hope Dear or Zest surprise me. I have almost no faith in Innovation upsetting Serral.
Am I the only one who thinks this isn't entirely true? One side of the bracket is always gonna be stronger, but I really don't think it's very drastic in this scenario. Showtime looked really strong in his games, Hurricane literally beat Serral, and Innovation, Zest, and Dear all look like they are back around top form, which says a lot because they all had ridiculously strong peaks.
The most recent big event was Blizzcon. The top half of the bracket has 1 player that made top 8 in Blizzcon. The bottom half of the bracket has 3. The bottom half of the bracket has Stats and Maru who are the only non Zerg players to have won a premier event in the last 11 months.
Showtime did impress in his group and a Protoss beating Serral is always impressive. Those results don't suddenly make them comparable to Stats/Maru/Dark/Rogue though.
All fair points, but that was also like 4/5 months ago
I hope they changed the rules regarding ties after this event. TY absolutely got robbed. It makes zero sense that map score takes precedence over head to head results. Basically he got punished because he played fewer games. Either look at head to head first or change total map wins to win percentage.
On February 29 2020 08:11 JJH777 wrote: This bracket is terrible. The bottom half is extremely stacked while the top half is basically a free trip to the finals for Serral. Hope Dear or Zest surprise me. I have almost no faith in Innovation upsetting Serral.
Yeah the bottom bracket is hell, this is just terrible.
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/ept2020_21/katowice2020/ro12bracket1_0.png)
Dear surprised many fans and experts alike by narrowly clinching the group A's RO8 spot over bigger stars like Dark and Stats. But despite eating a clean 0-2 loss to Dark, Dear made sure that was the only set he ever lost two-zip, showcasing dominating form to dismantle Has, 
