Week 1 of DreamHack Masters Fall saw three regional tournaments conclude with some significant shake-ups in the championship picture. SpeCial triumphed yet again in Latin America, but his margin of victory was razor thin as Cham battled him to the bitter end in an all-Mexican grand final.
Unlike SpeCial, Has was unable to keep his streak of local domination going in the Taiwan/HK/Macau/Japan region, losing to Taiwan's long-time #2 player in Nice. In the Oceanic region, RiSky's brief kiwi reign came to an end as Australia's Probe reclaimed the title for the first time in several seasons, beating countryman Seither in the finals.
Week 2 of DreamHack Masters Fall will feature the North American regional beginning its group stage competition, while the Chinese regional tournament will be held in its entirety. The European regional is already underway, with the round-robin group stage being nearly halfway through. Week 2 games will be played from September 1st to September 6th.
Only Latin America saw the previous season's champion reclaim the title, with SpeCial winning his 10th straight Copa America/LATAM regional in a row. However, his road was anything but easy, as he was put on the ropes when Cham stunned him by taking a 3-1 victory against him in the winners finals. The mere fact that Cham reached the grand finals constituted a major change in the LATAM scene, breaking years of Special and Kelazhur domination in the top two of the region (Cham previously had a run of 2nd place finishes back in 2017).
However, while Cham supplanted Kelazhur as LATAM's #2, he wasn't able to topple SpeCial in the end. While Cham's solid muta-ling-bane macro play allowed him to overpower SpeCial in their winners final clash, he wasn't able to repeat the feat in the grand finals. Earning a rematch through the losers bracket, SpeCial was able to overcome his 1 match disadvantage in the grand finals, with his famed mech driving home the final points in a 4-3 finals victory.
Unlike SpeCial, Has saw his regional winning streak end after seven seasons of success. The player to defeat him was none other than Nice, the last non-Has player to win the Taiwanese Regional back in December of 2017. The finals was not the cheese-fest some might have expected given the two names involved—at least, it wasn't any cheesier than your garden variety of PvP. The victory gave Nice his second WCS/DH Taiwan regional title of his career, and marked his first major accomplishment since being dealt a half-year suspension in 2019 for ladder abuse,
ButAlways, returning to Taiwan from a study-abroad session in Australia which saw him win two OCE regionals in 2019, re-assumed his familiar 3rd place position in the Taiwanese regional.
OCE's all-Australian final between Probe and Seither brought an intriguing end to a season where several of the region's players had protested the eligibility of UK/NZ dual citizen RiSky. While RiSky retained his eligibility, and was even joined by a handful of other dual citizen players, none of them managed to crack the top three.
Realy great week one of DH Fall Last season it was all stegnant water, now we had a lot of Mix ups, can t wait to see what these small regions bring in Season 3
On September 01 2020 17:02 Elantris wrote: Not again risky-frisky Maybe it's time to play in real region like you supposed to do.
He s allowed to freaking Vote in NZ, what other criteria do you want him to meet?
I personally like following the OCE/RoA EPT region (partly because I lived in Aus for a while and have some close friends living there right now), but this Risky bashing is hard to watch, because to me it doesn t make any sense to me.
On September 01 2020 17:02 Elantris wrote: Not again risky-frisky Maybe it's time to play in real region like you supposed to do.
I agree, OCE isn't a real region.
Well there could an argument beeing made, to merge OCE and Taiwan, as those are the 2 smallest regions and together would actually be comparable to LA and China. I personally like to gice those small regions some time in the spotlight though and realy enjoy the storylines of Has v Nice and Risky vs Probe. These top dogs are arguably quite a bit worse than the top dogs of the other regions, but nevertheless bring exciting games.
I like Special and all, but I think getting 350 EPT Points every season, basically for beating Kelazhur and Cham, is too much. It lacks in comparison to EU especially, but in my eyes also to China and Taiwan, which I think are regions that are not that much weaker (but the winner gets "only" 220 EPT Points). Would like to see ESL rethinking this.
On September 01 2020 23:43 Rob-Zero wrote: I like Special and all, but I think getting 350 EPT Points every season, basically for beating Kelazhur and Cham, is too much. It lacks in comparison to EU especially, but in my eyes also to China and Taiwan, which I think are regions that are not that much weaker (but the winner gets "only" 220 EPT Points). Would like to see ESL rethinking this.
Beyond "not much weaker" I'd say they're significantly stronger. Far more depth to their rosters, at least. Seems very strange.
The prize pool of GSL is also $140k, while EU is $84k. There are 6 Koreans in the season finals, and 4 Europeans. So no, I wouldn't really call that racist...
Also in terms of latam getting more points, correct me if I am wrong, but it doesn't overly matter right? For IEM katowice qualification, it's all region based, so the points are just compared within regions.
I guess it's only impact is they get seeded a bit higher in open tournaments?
On September 01 2020 12:12 AzAlexZ wrote: Honestly not surprised at the result, Probe was showing some promise and Special as always wins LA, real surprise was nice winning instead of Has
I watched a few games with Cham vs Special. In those games it looked as if Juanito is not his stable Terran powerhouse self. Strange decisions, odd positioning etc. I was expecting some ping micro difficulty, but not pure mind oddities. Cham played very well and put up a fight that looked to be working. I thought Special didn't have a chance.
On September 02 2020 05:20 InvictusRage wrote: GSL Code S is explicitly the regional for Korea.
Since when foreigners banned from competing in GSL??????
Not banned but considering they have to live in said country just to participate. Koreans are doing just fine
Yeah, the Korean scene seems super healthy...
it is! glad you agree
It really isn't though. It's running on steam - it's still the region with the best players because of past glory, but it has stagnated for years. There isn't a single new good player in... 5 years?
EPT
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DreamHack SC2 Masters Fall![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/Fall2020/latamgroups.png)
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