Fresh faces graced the finals of the ESL Open Cup Korea this week, with Patience defeating Zoun to secure first place after running through a PvP-heavy bracket. While Europe has nothing new to offer in terms of victors with HeRoMaRinE locking down his 15th gold medal and another hat-trick in his home edition, the ESL Open Cup AM delivered a surprise with PiLiPiLi emerging as a first-time winner.
Top Korean participation was a bit on the lower end of the spectrum this week in the Asian cup, with half of the top 8 being made up of non-Korean players. Team LP's Patience used the opportunity to win his first ESL Open Cup KR, finishing ahead of Alpha X's Zoun, who also made his second finals appearance in his home region's cup after winning an edition all the way back in Cup #6. Patience had a PvP-heavy bracket to go through, but showed solid form in the mirror match-up, only dropping maps to the Alpha X duo Nice and Zoun. While falling short of first place, Zoun can still be proud of a solid Bo5 victory over DongRaeGu. In terms of notable upsets, Chinese players Firefly and Cyan beat the Code S Koreans Armani and Spear in the Ro16.
Weeks since someone else than HeRoMaRinE or ShoWTimE won the ESL Open Cup EU:
While the EU cup was rather predictable from the get-go, the American edition posed as the opposite: Not only did PiLiPiLi manage to successfully complete an underdog's run to claim his first victory, beating Nina, Chinese Silky and Namshar on the way, the rest of the bracket was equally chaotic. Silky had eliminated American powerhouse Astrea before falling to his Protoss colleague PiLiPiLi, while Namshar was able to take out the only Korean player still in the race in Armani, who had reached the finals of Cup #32 on the American server. While participation was down a bit in all three tournaments this week, with many players perhaps anticipating the upcoming big tournaments, the American edition certainly profited from the open field with an exciting race to see who could grab the opportunity.
ESL Open Cup winners earn $200 in prize money and 10 ESL Pro Tour points. Players who finish second earn 5 ESL Pro Tour points and $100. A top 4 finish guarantees at least $50. Week #34 of ESL Open Cups is set to take place on August 31st.
by TheOneAboveU
European Server Cup #33 (Click for full bracket)
Americas Server Cup #33 (Click for full bracket)