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Americas Server Qualifier #1: Clem, Elazer, PtitDrogo qualify
The first American server qualifier for TeamLiquid Starleague 5 ended up being rather European, as the trio of Clem, Elazer, and PtitiDrogo took all three qualifying spots.
American Protoss Neeb was the lone shining for his home server—as has often been the case in his career—making it all the way to the final four (Taiwan's Nice did his best to represent the global faction by reaching the top eight). However, Neeb was vanquished by France's PtitDrogo in the qualifying match of the losers bracket, being overpowered in the Zealot-Chargelot-Archon wars of PvP.
The highlight of the first NA qualifier was certainly Clem and Elazer's unofficial best-of-five series, played across two best-of-threes in the upper bracket. Poland's Elazer drew first blood by prevailing 2-1 in the winners bracket final. The series was a real treat for fans of TvZ—Elazer might be infamous for the way he mixes in cheeses and all-in's, but this time around he was determined to take down Clem in straight-up macro games. Clem seemed more than willing to oblige Elazer, leading to three bloody wars where Ultra-Ling-Bane clashed with Terran bio all across the map. At certain points in the series, it almost felt like the two were fighting for the love of fighting, with winning being a secondary concern. Elazer ended up just barely outlasting Clem in the series with a 2-1 victory, sending the French Terran down to the losers bracket to face PtitDrogo.
For at least one game, the viewers got the PvT equivalent of the prior series, with Clem defeating PtitDrogo in an-extended macro game on Eternal Empire (featuring some late-game BattleCruiser harassment). However further psionic bloodshed would be minimized, as Clem closed out the series in quick fashion in game two, earning a rematch against Elazer with a first-round bye in the main event on the line.
The first game was another brutal slog between Terran bio and Hive-tech Zerg, making it seem as if the two players were really going to deliver six games of marathon-macro. However, it was not to be, as things ended more quickly this time around. After Clem outlasted Elazer in game one, Elazer finally made a major strategic change in game two. Instead of looking to the late game with Ling-Bane into Hive tech, he opted for Hydra-Ling-Bane to try and crush Clem in the mid-game. Unfortunately for Elazer, change of plans not have its desired effect, and he conceded the 0-2 defeat after his wave of Hydralisks broke upon Clem's Planetary Fortress.
Two more American Server qualifiers remain: qualifier #2 will conclude on Saturday, May 02 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00), while qualifier #3 is scheduled for Monday, May 04 9:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00).
Korean Server Qualifier #2: Trap, PartinG, DongRaeGu qualify
Stay-at-home measures due to Covid-19 might be messing with our chronological rhythm, but no one expected to straight-up time travel during the TeamLiquid StarLeague 5 qualifiers. But that's exactly how it felt when Korean server qualifier #2 concluded: DongRaeGu and PartinG both qualified for the main event. However, we were reminded we still live in 2020 by the first place finisher in the qualifier: it was Trap who earned the first-round bye in the main event.
Former Code S champion DongRaeGu had a strong showing that proved his recent Code S qualification was no fluke, taking down Hurricane, Creator, and even Trap in their upper bracket match. However, Trap quickly bounced back to take his revenge in the grand finals (thanks to PartinG forfeiting after winning his qualification match), holding off DRG’s Speedling flood on Nightshade after a tense defence, and then playing a hyper aggressive second map, where he constantly applied pressure until DRG finally broke down. DRG wasn't the only Zerg who went on an impressive underdog run: China's Silky scored big upsets over Patience and TaeJa before eventually going down against DRG and Bunny, two places outside of qualification.
Trap enjoying a Bile shower while winning the game.
As for PartinG’s run, his loss to Trap and subsequent fall to the lower bracket didn’t prove to be a huge problem, because he had everything under control against both Super and Bunny. In the qualifier match, he dominated Bunny with Blink Stalker based play in both their games. Just like in GSL against Dream, PartinG even brought out the MaxPax build, once again succeeding in crippling his opponent early on and forcing him into a desperate and suicidal all-in attack.
Just one more Korean qualifier remains to be played on [date]May 7 03:00 EDT[/]date, which will award two spots in the TSL5 main event.
