DreamHack StarCraft 2 Masters: Summer
Week 3 Preview (July 7 - July 12)

by Soularion and Wax

DreamHack Masters Summer is approaching its grand finale, with Europe and North America set to crown their summer champions in week three. The four previous regional tournaments ended predictably, with SpeCial, Has, TIME, and RiSky coming out on top. Will things be any different in the last two regions?

Europe looks like it's headed to a similarly foregone conclusion, with Serral standing out as the prohibitive favorite to win. But the Finnish Phenom has shown some vulnerability in ZvZ as of late, so perhaps Masters Summer will end up being another lucky Zerg's tournament to take.

Meanwhile, North America looks like it may give us the most heated competition for the title. Neeb's form has fallen off, but his big-match prowess cannot be underestimated. Scarlett comes in fresh off RO16 qualification in GSL Code S, and looks to be in solid form. Rising stars Astrea and Future will certainly be looking to continue their strong 2020 campaigns and bring a changing of the guard to the NA scene.

Europe: Playoffs

The brackets has been seeded and prepped for playoff competition, which will be played out through July 7-July 12. To see when each round of the double-elimination bracket will be played, make sure to check up on the bracket schedule on Liquipedia.


The group stage went largely as expected, but it did deliver one shocking elimination in the form of Elazer in Group D. We were slightly concerned about Elazer's slow start at 1-2 in week one, when he took losses against MaNa and SorOf. Wasn't Elazer supposed to be one of the tournament favorites, coming off impressive runs at both StayAt HomeStory Cup #2 and TSL5, both in which he took series off Serral? Surely such a player would recover in week two?

But, as it turns out, Serral will have one less ZvZ hazard to worry about. Elazer ended up being one of the players who tied 3-4 in Group D, and was eliminated on map score. In a shining moment of competitive integrity, the 0-6 Goblin was the one who delivered the coup de grâce to Elazer, earning a victory with Airtoss and Blink-Stalkers despite not having a chance at advancing (okay, the $125 per-win bounty probably helped motivate him as well).

However, we can't just dwell on the negatives—a favorite being eliminated means someone else earned a major opportunity. Though goblin had a disappointing tournament, another RotterdaM favorite in Vanya continued his quiet rise through the European ranks by advancing to the playoffs. The Russian Zerg should already have been on your radar after his TSL5 qualification—we're eager to see if he can win a playoff match this time around. Seeing that he's going up against Bly, he'll have at worst a coin-flipper's chance.

Though perhaps not as big an upset as Elazer's elimination, Group B saw the veteran Harstem make way for Gerald. The Polish Protoss' playoff spot was especially well-earned, as he defeated Harstem in a direct qualification match in the final day of games, taking the deciding map at the end of an epic, Disruptor-Stalker-Blink DT war.

The other groups played out more or less predictably. In Group A, Serral quickly went up to 5-0 with a perfect map record, which let him advance in first place despite taking his foot off the gas and dropping a series to Lambo and a map to Stephano. The five way tie in the middle of the rankings broke in favor of MarineLorD, who secured fourth place in the group with a clutch win over souL. The competition was quite tight in Group A, and it feels like if you played the group back five times, you could see a different fourth place finisher each time around.

Group C gave us perhaps the most expected outcome, with Clem, ShoWTimE, Denver, and Bly finishing in the top four. The most notable thing was Clem's performance—the French Terran continued to be an absolute monster in online play, joining Reynor in advancing to the playoffs with a 7-0 match record and obscene 14-1 map score.

The playoffs will be getting off to an explosive start on July 7th, with all four of the initial winners bracket matches being played. While the entire upper bracket is stacked, one has to think that Clem has a particularly easy road. Not only does he have MaNa in the first round, but he gets to face the winner of Lambo/uThermal in the second. They're all great players, but it's no insult to say they compare unfavorably to HeroMarine, Reynor, ShoWTimE, and Serral. This will be another important trial for Clem, as he's really struggled in high-stakes matches so far. Another early elimination from Clem would make us wonder if he really just is a warlord of the weekly cups.

Of course, the bottom half of the winners bracket is an absolute bloodbath. Serral and Reynor could meet far earlier than seems appropriate for such a consequential match—let us remind everyone that the winner of Serral vs Reynor won every single WCS Circuit event in 2019. However, one must keep in mind that HeroMarine has been very competitive against Reynor in 2020, making it hard to say who's the favorite in this match. If HeroMarine can take out Reynor, it might be Serral who actually has the clear lane to the grand finals. It doesn't seem like Serral is sweating the outcome too much, as he used the one day break between the group stage and playoffs to go play 18 holes of golf.

The loser's bracket of the playoffs should be quite competitive, but it feels like there's a limit to how far anyone's potential miracle run could go. Eventually, you're going to end up running into a player like Reynor, Clem, or HeroMarine, and if the ESL Open Cups are any indicator, that's going to be one hell of a difficult match. PtitDrogo might be the best candidate to break through into the final six, as he's shown us the best peak-level play when everything is going right. Another player to look out for could be Denver, whose slow improvement has not gone unnoticed. He came close to taking the #2 seed in Group C over ShoWTimE, losing out by the difference of a single map. Up to now, he's been a "beats who he should beat, loses to who he should lose to" type of player, but perhaps he can introduce a bit more variance to his game in Masters Summer.

North America: Playoffs

The Masters America playoffs will also be played in a double-elimination format, only with eight players instead of Europe's 16. With less matches to play, the NA playoffs are set to begin on Wednesday, July 8th. As usual, we recommend checking out Liquipedia for a more detailed schedule.



In comparison to Europe, America's group stage showcased the turning of the tide, even if it was a wave many NA fans saw coming from a mile away. Astrea and Future had shown us their skills in all sorts of international competitions in 2020, and it was no surprise to see them top the standings in Group B. Swedish Zerg Namshar brought a different kind of change, having switched his region to North America after years of playing in Europe. Though he couldn't defeat the duo of rising American stars, he still managed to advance comfortably in third place, and looks to be a significant player in the NA scene going forward.

A top four fixture in the old WCS America/Challenger tournaments, MaSa bombed out of Group A after losing key matches to Silky and Creature. Silky, a veteran of collegiate Esports and someone who's been wearing the 'up-and-comer' tag for many years, ended up being the one 'replacing' MaSa in the playoffs. At the top of Group A, however, it was still the predictable of duo of Scarlett and Neeb who took the winners bracket seeds. The two players gave us a potential preview of the grand finals in their group stage clash, where Scarlett reminded Neeb that she's always a threat to bring, patient, turtling Hive play to any match. One has to think it's something that will weigh on Neeb's mind should they meet again in the playoffs.

As in Europe, the lower bracket players face a tough, uphill battle. We have a peculiar Canadian-European clash between Namshar and TLO on one side, while Nina and Silky—somehow both veterans and rising players at the same time—face off on the other side of the bracket. Mirror matches might be the best hope for these four lower bracket players, as it's where Neeb and Scarlett are relatively vulnerable.

The upper bracket matches are a momentous clash of the old and new guard. Scarlett and Neeb—the two dominant titans of the SpeCial-less NA scene, will look to fend off challenges from the next generation. Future might have preferred to face Neeb, as he was able to win an important victory over him in a TSL5 qualifier. Alas, he's stuck facing Scaflett, who he's lost to in five consecutive matches (including a group stage match at WCS Fall last year). On the other hand, Future had an even worse head-to-head record against Neeb before he beat him in that qualifier match. Perhaps Future will once again show us that it's pointless to dwell on the past, and prove that he's become a completely different player in the present.

Astrea vs Neeb is seems almost impossible to predict. Astrea has spent about half year a year bootcamping in Korea, where he's improved immensely while also leaving some room for doubt. His success in the Gold Series Team Championship was built largely on wins over outmatched Chinese opponents, he did take some key maps off players like Dark, TY, and Dream. While he's yet to win an ESL Open Cup, he regularly takes series off low to mid-tier Code S players. While he did manage to qualify for Code S, he was eliminated immediately in last place from his group.

Whether you take the glass hall full or half empty point of view, you have to be impressed with Astrea's 7-0 group stage performance. Compared to most of the NA scene, at least, he seems to be playing on another level. But is he on Neeb's level yet?

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