EPT
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Even though there was a lower number of top-level participants this week because of travel to IEM Katowice, the ESL Open competition was still fierce among those who were able to play the cups.
Classic won his first KR cup ever, while MaxPax managed to accomplish a previously impossible feat: winning both the EU cup in the evening, as well as the NA cup that finishes in the early morning of the next day (EU time). Previously, all double cup victories came as a KR+NA combo, which is generally more convenient in terms of timing than EU+NA.Also,
DisK and PattyMac took advantage of the weakened pools to take second place finishes, although they couldn't overcome the PvP giant known as MaxPax.[ESL Open Cups are no longer awarding points for the EPT 2021/22 season. Cups will continue to be held and award prize money as before, but will only resume awarding points once the EPT 2022/23 season officially begins.]
KR cup: It is hard to know under what conditions Zest managed to play in the KR cup on the 20th despite his Katowice trip, but he was one of the few IEM participants still taking part in the cup. Other notable Protosses included Classic, NightMare, and Prince, while GuMiho, HonMonO, and SpeCial (also later traveling to IEM) showed up for TErran. Finally, Armani, Oreo, and TRUE came out for the swarm.
Whether it was due to the unusual timing or not, Zest was upset 0-2 in a PvP by NightMare after getting by TRUE in the first round. Classic had a nice run with only PvP matches until the finals, winning 2-0 against Chance and Prince then 2-1 versus NightMare. Waiting for him on the bottom side of the bracket was GuMiho who reached the finals for the second straight week. He had a tougher run to the finals than Classic, beating both Armani and SpeCial (who previously defeated underdogs Oreo and Raza in TvZ and TvT without dropping a map) 2-0 each to get there.
The finals opened with the two players going 1-1 on Curious Minds and Blackburn, but the Alpha X protoss was able to win the next two maps Hardwire and 2000 Atmospheres to win the series 3-1 and get his first gold medal in the Asia/Korea region.
Upset(s) of the day: There was a glaring upset in NightMare 2-0ing Zest, although one might just chalk it up to timing. Or maybe not! Regardless of the circumstances, it was still a nice victory for NightMare.
*****
EU Cup: The European cup also took a big hit in terms of participation, except for HeroMarine who played from his Katowice hotel on his laptop. He didn't play for too long, however, as he suffered a surprising elimination at the hands of Canadian Protoss DisK.
MaxPax was the other big favorite and there was no one to stop him in the end as his usual nemeses of Clem and HeroMarine were not participating or getting eliminated early. The Danish Protoss continued to make his fans wonder "what if?" about his decision to forfeit his spot at Katowice, demonstrating his good form by beating all of his opponents that
day without dropping a single map. He went 2-0 versus relatively unknown protoss Blutmilan, 2-0 against Terran MilkiCow, 2-0 versus goblin, 2-0 versus Rattata and took a sweep 3-0 in the finals against DisK.
There were some interesting runs by other players as well: NightMare managed to defeat Narra and arrogfire 2-1 each in PvT and PvP respectively despite playing cross server, before losing versus Rattata 1-2 in quarters. In the bottom side of the bracket, Gerald qualified for the semifinals by beating DIMAGA 2-0 and MaNa 2-1 to face DisK in PvP. The Canadian protoss had won in all three match-ups beforehands: 2-0 against SunSet, 2-0 against DnS and an impressive 2-0 versus HeroMarine. DisK then added a 2-0 victory against Gerald on top of that.
Though DisK was able to match MaxPax in having a lossless run up to the finals, only one player would be able to preserve that streak. MaxPax's dominant PvP gave him a 3-0 victory against his underdog opponent, securing him his 9th cup victory.
Upset(s) of the day: The obvious upset was DisK beating HeroMarine 2-0, although it should be noted that the Terran had traveled for Katowice the same day and was not playing with an ideal setup. It was still a nice victory for the rising protoss from Canada, and in my opinion, the only real upset in EU cup 111.
*****
NA Cup: The NA cup was also less stacked than usual, but there were still a handful of strong players participating and some interesting upsets that occurred. The big favorites were MaxPax, Classic and GuMiho, and although all of them reached the semifinals as expected, few would have expected the actual finals card.
GuMiho had a tournament path that saw him potentially face only Protosses on the way to the championship, getting to the semifinals by beating ArT and trigger 2-0 before running into MaxPax (who had beaten relatively unknown zergs Reaper from US and threepoint from KR 2-0 and 2-1 respectively). However, he was thwarted by the Danish Protoss in a 0-2 loss.
The bottom side of the bracket was filled with only Protoss from Ro16 onwards except the Terran Vindicta, who lost 0-2 against Classic. Prince defeated Gerald 2-1 before losing 1-2 versus Classic, while US protoss PattyMac notably beat both NightMare and Classic 2-0 in the quarter and semifinals in a series of unexpected upsets. Yet, as in Europe, MaxPax stood as the final boss who ended the underdog run of a plucky North American Protoss. MaxPax took yet another 3-0 victory for the first ever EU-NA cup double—the EU run being perfect while NA was almost perfect with a single map loss.
With his regular participation in the weeklies, MaxPax is now up to 10 total wins. This is not too far behind Reynor's 12 or ShoWTimE's 15, but still a ways back from the long-time grinders of the cup.
Upset(s) of the day: PattyMac beating both NightMare and Classic (although with small server advantage) was a big upset, especially without dropping a map. In fact, he had less than a 10% chance of beating Classic according to Aligulac, so it was a very nice upset indeed.
by Poopi
