Feeling a bit of déjà-vu? Week #78's results were a repeat of Week #77 with Cure claiming victories in Korea and America, while HeRoMaRinE kept control over Europe.
Becoming the destroyer of military service returners during the Korean edition of the weekly tournament, Cure tore through Leenock and his new team mate herO to reach the finals against fellow Dragon Phoenix Gaming player Zest, transforming this ESL Open Cup into an in-house practice session in both the semis and the finals. Zest, too, had to take out a military returner in KeeN before a close 3-2 series against Creator secured him a ticket to the finals. Cure's own semi-finals was hard fought as well, with herO taking two maps off the Terran before finally falling. That surely is a notable result for herO, who managed to land a big contract with DPG right after returning from the army. Still, consistency will be the key to whether or not he's a worthy signing. In the end, Cure won in yet another hard fought battle, taking out his teammate Zest 3-2 in the finals to lift the weekly cup. This result marked his fourth win in the Korean edition in the current season, so he has now assumed sole leadership in the current medal ranking of the tournament.
ESL Open Cup Europe played host to a different Korean on Monday than usual: Zest did not participate on Monday, but his Terran colleague Cure attempted to win the region's edition to attain the mythical prize of the ESL Open Cup Triple. His run ended in the quarterfinals, where uThermal let him sample a morsel of his TvT arts, putting Cure's plans for world domination on hold for at least another week. Germany would be the controlling force of Week #78 in Europe with ShoWTimE stomping through the bottom side of the bracket, taking out DreamHack North American champion Neeb cleanly and then scoring a decisive 3-1 victory over uThermal, the vanquisher of Cure, to reach the finals. A familiar face of many tournament finals waited for him there, as HeRoMaRinE had cut himself a path through the upper side of the bracket, eliminating DIMAGA, MarineLorD, MaxPax and Denver with ease. As is often the case when Big Gabe and die Mauer clash, the series was decided by a narrow margin, with HeroMarine prevailing 3-2 to claim his fourth cup win of the season. While Denver bowed out to HeroMarine in the semis, the French Zerg had quite the notable run, taking out both souL and a reeling Clem in a shocking upset.
Europe and Korea once again clashed in the American edition—merely two players from the 'home' region made it into the Ro16—to see who would take control of the contested prize for the week. Defending champion Cure was determined to keep his throne and at least achieve another double, HeRoMaRinE also aimed for the double win, while Clem wanted a consolation prize. The Frenchman once again fell early on, however, being taken out by PartinG. The Big Boy went on to defeat MaxPax in the semi-finals in an action-packed and close series, winning this part of the bracket. It also featured herO trying to leave his mark once again, but the Korean fell to Gerald very early on this time. Cure and HeroMarine cruised towards a clash in the bottom side of the bracket, with the Korean Cup winner taking down Cham and GuMiho—his third elimination of a military returner in these two days—and the EU Cup champ disposing of ForGG and Creator. Where Cure's TvT had forsaken him on the EU server, it was quite adequate on the NA server and he won the clash of champions by a 3-1 score, making the finals an all-Korean affair between former DPG team mates. PartinG attained match point after an initial win from Cure, but the Terran seems nearly invincible once he has reached an ESL Open Cup final and turned the tide with two wins a row to once again claim the double victory. Looking solely at the American edition, this is Cure's third victory in this region in a row, while the tournament has not yet been won by anyone native to the region in the current season.
Thanks to the partnership with Shopify, ESL Open Cup winners earn $250 in prize money and 10 ESL Pro Tour points. Players who finish second earn 5 ESL Pro Tour points and $150. A top 4 finish guarantees at least $100 as well as 2 ESL Pro Tour points, reaching the top 8 pays out $50. Edition #77 of the ESL Open Cups will take place on the 11th (Korea) and the 12th of July (Europe and America).
Clem keeps losing and losing, it's quite sad to see. I am pretty sure this string of setbacks will allow him to grow even stronger, but I am not sure when we will see him at the top again.
Clem lost 2-0 to Denver (a zerg player!) who lost 3-0 to Heromarine. Quite interesting to say the least. Otherwise fun to see Cure participating in all three tournaments and doing really well.
Also true that herO did really well in his KR run.
herO seems to be improving super fast. great to see that And Gumiho is back already as well? Wow, that is so hype! Him defeating Astrea and Has is also really cool. How were the games?
Really miss seeing Clem dominating and being on top of the scene as well -- not sure why he has regressed in these past five or six weeks, but my attempt at dissecting his playstyle: For the good five or so months of 2021, he was a shining star and transformed to SSJ3. It is OK to regress at times, but think he is overthinking it at times, especially to Protosses and fellow Terran players. He has great micro and macro but can really improve on his overall strategies, timings and positional plays. Confident he will be in his peak form again come DH Masters Fall. I am also rooting for him to win his first DH Season Finals title to complement his two EU ones.
Nonetheless congratulations to Cure on doubling and HeroMarine on winning EU this week.
On July 07 2021 03:53 JustPassingBy wrote: KOR+NA double is relatively easy, you get a good nights sleep in between. EU+NA double is a whole different beast.
I think it's also a matter of ping—Koreans can get a decent connection to NA, but it's a lot slower to EU.
The herO link links to the other HerO, not the DPG herO. With both of them out of military duty, the need to check which one is talked about gets important again. CJ herO isn't with CJ anymore and Liquid HerO isn't with TL.
On July 07 2021 07:42 Drfilip wrote: The herO link links to the other HerO, not the DPG herO. With both of them out of military duty, the need to check which one is talked about gets important again. CJ herO isn't with CJ anymore and Liquid HerO isn't with TL.
I linked him under the name herO(jOin) now, which goes directly to his page. I just hope people don't get confused by that name, since it's not really what he's known as for many years now. I'd also prefer if "herO" would just link to DPG herO with him being far more relevant now than Liquid HerO, who is retired anyways.
Edit: nvm, the Liquipedia wizards taught me a trick to get the correct link in there without confusing anyone.