After failing in the previous edition's semi finals, DongRaeGu came back strong in Week #34 of the ESL Open Cup Korea and managed to win his first gold medal in the weekly tournament. That winning feeling is all too familiar to HeRoMaRinE, who secured his 16th victory for himself in the European competition. On the American server, we saw one of the rare instances where first place went to an American, with Neeb securing himself another victory.
After last week's PvP finals, the other two races got their chance in Cup #34 with DRG facing Cure in the finals and finishing him off with three victories in a row after taking a loss on the first map. On his way, DRG had to eliminate his team mate Stats in a very close series, marking an important step forward in a match-up, where he generally still couldn't keep up with the most elite level of Korean players. On the other side of the bracket, Chinese Silky, who's seemingly playing in every tournament he finds these days, managed to kick out Armani early on and even took a map off of Cure, almost altering the course of the competition.
Weeks since someone else than HeRoMaRinE or ShoWTimE won the ESL Open Cup EU: SixSevenEightNine Ten. If Big Gabe wins next week's edition as well and somehow manages to put together a five-week win streak (he's at four victories in a row by now, dominating an entire month's worth of weeklies), we'll just use the Terran player's victory count as an opener for this, since ShoWTimE seems unable to reach the later rounds at the moment. The reason for that is a young Danish PvP monster named MaxPax, who seems to have a patented recipe to demolish die Mauer any time they meet—and pretty much every other Protoss. The end of his run turned out to be young Frenchman Clem, however, who recovered his ESL Cup form after a bit of a low a few weeks ago. Reaching the finals undefeated in maps, he met his German counterpart there and brought him to the very last game of their Best of 5 series after being down 0-2 in score. At this point, however, you'd probably have to grab a European ESL Open Cup gold medal out of HeRoMaRinE's cold, dead hands and that was not how far Clem was prepared to go.
Another week, another completely different top 4 in the American edition of the ESL Open Cups. Week #34 saw an all-American finals with a clash of generations: Neeb represented the old guard and was able to narrowly defeat the youngster Future. The Alpha X player went toe to toe with the eight time ESL Open Cup America champion PartinG in the semi finals, trading maps evenly and eventually overcoming the Protoss players in a massive upset. Using this momentum in the finals, the Terran went up 2-0 over Neeb in what looked like a comfortable sweep for him, but the experience and tenacity of the Protoss player showed, as he turned the series around, grabbed the match point for himself and did, what Future couldn't do for two maps: Finish business. This marks Neeb's third gold medal in his home region, equalizing his victory count on the American server with that of Solar.
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 #35 of ESL Open Cups is set to take place on September 7th.
On September 02 2020 12:18 sudete wrote: Business as usual for [...] Neeb
You wish.. This was his 3rd victory in the NA Cup and 4th overall.. His form has been pretty worrisome all year around so far. But realy good to see him getting in shape in time for DH Fall Let s hope, that he s actually back in time for Kubo and the season finals. I mean, nowadays at least we have 3 other super strong players in NA with Future and Astrea joining Scarlett and Neeb, but the competition still is way tougher in those international events and that s where Neeb has failed all year so far
The best part of the tournament happened after it was over - the whole story is long, but the gist of it is that right after Heromarine won, he tried to appease Reynor into not participating in the next cup by making a pizza from scratch on his stream. Hilarity ensued.
These summaries are great. The were great in the beginning, continued to be great a few months in and are currently great. The ESL open weekly is probably the best addition I've experienced in SC2 since Proleague.
Proleague was by far my favourite part but ESL weekly is my current favourite, which is strange since I've never even watched a game. All I've done is read about it. Stories like the one Kitai wrote above and the Big Gabe domination are things that make this fun. NA rarely have NA winners, Germany winning EU and Astrea doing well in KR are all good narratives that add to the experience.
To be fair, Germany only dominate the EU because Serral and Reynor almost never play. But indeed those Cups are fun and those Esl Points are worth Gold to anyone exept Serral and Reynor
I am curious tho why there are so few zergs playing at the moment i thought zergs are still the best race especialy in certain spots like late game Z vs P
On September 02 2020 18:37 tilhorizon wrote: I am curious tho why there are so few zergs playing at the moment
In Europe there's a higher concentration of lower-mid-pro-level tosses than zergs. Serral probably doesn't participate because of how late the tournament ends, and Reynor comes in every now and then. The cup is a long time commitment for little reward, so it's understandable.
I think the main zergs are elite players like Serral, Reynor, Dark, and Rogue. Those guys are all good enough that the weekly points are chump change, so it's not worth it to play here and reveal their hidden strats or expose their habits for analysis by others.
EPT
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DongRaeGu came back strong in Week #34 of the ESL Open Cup Korea and managed to win his first gold medal in the weekly tournament. That winning feeling is all too familiar to 
