EPT
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Stats secured another first place finish in this week's Korean ESL Cup, increasing his lead in the regional medal count. HeroMarine scored another victory of his own on the European server, reaching a milestone for EPT points earned. ByuN locked down the win in this week's American edition, making his already good chances at qualifying for IEM Katowice even more air-tight.The Shield of Aiur had to bow to the eventual victor
Zest in last week's ESL Open Cup Korea, but the setback didn't last long and Stats staged an impressive comeback in the latest edition. Monday's weekly tournament saw a very strong line-up of players compete, actually justifying an expanded bracket view in Liquipedia (often, only the RO16 is required to get a feel for the proceedings). As things panned out, Stats had to eliminate ByuN, Solar and Trap on his way to the finals, where he met Rogue, who made a back-to-back appearance there after he took his revenge for the loss to Zest in the previous week. Locking down his ninth gold medal, Stats is up two wins on Solar now as we get closer to the one year anniversary of the ESL Open Cups on the 12th of January.Big Gabe's EPT points account gets ever bigger as he scored another ESL Open Cup Europe victory. As RotterdaM rightly pointed out on Twitter, this win marks an important milestone, as HeRoMaRinE now has gained 260 points from participating in the weekly competition—which is more than he won from any single other EPT event (250 being the highest there). The prize money he was able to secure through his ardent participation left aside, the German Terran clearly showed this season how much it can pay off to stay on target and focus on the Global Finals from the get-go—he sure won't be scrambling for every last point during the final sprint towards Katowice. Cup #48 was another solid one for HeRoMaRinE, as he cruised into the finals with clean wins over names such as
GunGFuBanDa, MaNa and ShoWTimE. The ultimate series turned into a very bloody bout, as Elazer continued his recent upwards surge in performance and pressed Big Gabe into a deciding fifth game. It's called the Big Gabe Weekly for a reason, though, and the German closed the series out convincingly for his 22nd win. We'd be amiss not to mention the strong run of goblin this week, who took out MaxPax, Clem and SKillous before falling to Elazer in the semis.Having missed out on points earlier in the day in the Korean edition, ByuN tried once again on the American server. The competition proved not very competitive at first, as the Terran player smoothly sailed into the semis. There, rough seas awaited him at last, as
SpeCial came back from an 0-2 deficit with two wins to force a deciding game and put ByuN's plans of taking home some crucial EPT points in jeopardy. Fortunately for him, the Mexican lacked the means to complete the reverse-sweep on Oxide, opening the Korean's path to the finals. ByuN ended up facing Zest in the finals, with Zest having made a similarly easy run through the bracket until meeting Nice for a tricky PvP duel in the semifinals. Ultimately, Zest could not defend his claim to the American throne, losing three games in a row after securing the first map for himself. This is ByuN's first gold medal in any edition of the ESL Open Cup, granting him 10 crucial EPT points, which allowed him to claim position #25 in the Korean EPT ranking for now, overtaking RagnaroK. While ByuN is already very likely to qualify for IEM Katowice, the extra peace of mind surely can't hurt.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 #49 of ESL Open Cups is set to take place on December 14th.
by TheOneAboveU
European Server Cup #48 (Click for full bracket)
Americas Server Cup #48 (Click for full bracket)
