EPT
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The Big Gabe Weekly is back! While
HeroMarine managed to score another back-to-back victory in the EU server cup, the Korean server also saw Cure win back-to-back cups. Meanwhile, on the NA server, Bly elevated himself from being the king of silver to finally to taste gold.Continuing his dominant online performances from all around the scene,
Cure achieved his second victory in a row in the Korean ESL Open Cup. Just as a few days prior in NeXT 2020 Spring, Cure struggled against Chinese Terran TIME, but managed to take revenge for the loss dealt to him in the team competition. Cure faced Astrea in the American Protoss players' first finals appearance since Cup #3, and Cure delivered a typically solid performance to secure the championship. This is only the second time a player managed to win two Korean cups back-to-back, the first instance being Solar's runs in weeks one and two. Will this motivate Zest, the final member of the Korean online trinity, to rejoin the ESL Cup wars and knock his rivals down a peg?Showing himself more excited and relieved than usual after an online cup victory on his stream,
HeroMarine declared the official return of the Big Gabe Weekly on the European server. Once again overcoming his French rival Clem to reach the finals, HeroMarine faced an unexpected opponent there in the form of fellow German GunGFuBanDa. The Protoss had an impressive run behind him, leaving Lambo, SKillous, and Harstem (Game 2 between them was an absolute nailbiter) in the dust. However, his momentum was not enough to deal a blow to Big Gabe, who in his giddy mood even brought out a proxy 3-Rax build against him—truly a rarity for the Terran, who is well known for his belief in standard macro play. We'll see next week if Europe will enter another long reign by the German Terran, or if we'll see the crown change hands again in the ESL Weekly's most competitive server.Finally, we the American server cup had a result that was a long time coming. After reaching second place five times (more than any other player on any server)
Bly finally managed to claim gold in the ESL Open Cup NA. The Ukrainian Zerg battled a strong field of contenders, narrowly eliminating the previous week's winner uThermal and fellow NA cup regular PtitDrogo to reach the finals, where a tough opponent awaited him in SpeCial (making a very rare appearance in the tournament). The Mexican beast had overcome Clem, dealing the second TvT semi-finals elimination to the young Frenchman on that day. SpeCial almost made it look easy by taking a 2-0 lead over Bly in the finals, but the tenacious Ukrainian showed his famous fighting spirit and managed the difficult reverse-sweep to claim his first ESL Open victory. The games were, well, special, as one has come to expect with Bly being involved.ESL Open Cup winners earn $100 in prize money and 10 ESL Pro Tour points. Players who finish second earn 5 ESL Pro Tour points. Week #18 of ESL Open Cups is set to take place on May 10th.
by TheOneAboveU
European Server Cup #17 (Click for full bracket)
Americas Server Cup #17 (Click for full bracket)
