With the conclusion of day two of the RO24 group stage, the final 12 competitors in the IEM Katowice playoff bracket have been determined.
Group C was predicted to be chaotic from the outlook, but few would have expected Bunny to rise above the fray to finish in first place and seize a direct ticket to the quarterfinals. The Team NV Terran was the only player in the group to achieve a 4-1 record, losing his only series to Zest. Unfortunately for Zest, he suffered two more losses to Lambo and HeroMarine, and was eliminated from the group stages in what is most likely to be his final major event. With Zest out of the running, it was instead HeroMarine and Trap who claimed the 2nd and 3rd place spots in the group. In an amusing turn of events, Big Gabe actually finished the group with the best map differential despite only going 3-2 in matches.
Defending IEM World Champion Reynor topped Group D, besting fellow championship favorite Maru on his way to a 5-0 finish. While Reynor didn't achieve the perfect 10-0 map score of Serral from Group B, the overall quality of his gameplay made it abundantly clear that he's in championship form. While Maru was pegged as the tournament favorite beforehand, he had a surprisingly tough go of things in the group. Besides losing to Reynor, he also gave up a loss to underdog Zoun and finished with a modest +3 map differential. Group D had a minor upset in the race for the 3rd place spot, with Zoun able to edge out Clem for the final playoff ticket. After going 0-4 against Maru and Reynor to start, Clem needed every possible win to have a chance at reaching the playoffs. While he mounted a great comeback with wins against Zoun and Scarlett, a heartbreaking loss to ByuN sealed his elimination.
IEM Katowice continues with the RO12 and RO8 rounds of the playoffs on Saturday, Feb 26 10:45am GMT (GMT+00:00).
I'd say Reynor is coming in with the most momentum out of the group stages. Can't believe how fast the kid turns around - didn't he just lose to skillous twice in January? Now he's championship form and looking quite possibly better than ever.
Maru is the best hope to prevent an all-Zerg party on the last day of the tournament. Hopefully he can clean up his mistake against Reynor and make a deep run.
I just want to point out that Scarlett's map score is really quite deceiving. She played REALLY well today against some of the best players in the tournament. She almost knocked Clem out early by handing him a 3rd straight series loss. She played her series vs Zoun and Byun super close as well.
Really hoping for Zoun and Trap to both do well and make deep runs, would be nice to see Protoss look competitive all the way through just for the sake of match up diversity, I really do not want a ZvZ finals as much as I love the shit out of Serral, Reynor and Dark.
Interested about the rumored balance patch after this tournament as well, I haven't seen anything official but I've seen scattered whispers on TL.
Your vote: Is Trap about to get run over by a zerg?
(Vote): Yes (Vote): No (yes) (Vote): No, no way (yes) (Vote): No, no way, never (yes)
Trap's quest to defeat a top 4 zerg in an elite tournament feels like Theon Greyjoy's endeavor to earn the affections of his father.
I gritted my teeth due to the accuracy of this, but fortunately somehow someway I see a timeline where Trap defeats Dark and Reynor even if it is slight. I've seen him smash each of them at least once, but I never saw an ounce of affection for Theon in Balon.
On February 26 2022 11:43 Fango wrote: Trying to imagine this isn't a ZvZ finals is actually very hard. We have a good shot at an all zerg ro4 even
+1
This time i would be glad if there s no Terrans in semi finals.
It would be the confirmation that there s nothing possible to do as Terran when you re facing a tons of Zerg with a similar gameplay in Bo5 or more, because your endurance is more impacted on bigger tournament with matchs series.
It will be the confirmation that this game isn t yet balanced, and the solution i defend, would be to experiment games between pros with a lower speed.
The fact that Reynor constantly listen music without any need of a deep focus is also a proof of the lack of strategy in Zerg race. Then There s no upset in Ro12, Dark, HM, Maru, Rogue. I come back in 4 hours to see if HM loses despite his experience...
This is the first time in 10 years that im not gonna watch the playoffs (I usually at least open the stream even if i cant watch it to support the event). It just seems so obviousthat a zerg is gonna win this AGAIN, it just sucks all the fun out of the event. The top five zergs lost ONE series against other than themselves and have combined as many series losses as zest, the best protoss. And we are supposed to pretend that this tournament is competitive for any other than the zergs nah fuck that im out. Lets hope a balance patch finally fixes the queens when zerg wins katowice for the FIFTH year in a row
On February 26 2022 20:07 TheCheapSkate wrote: This is the first time in 10 years that im not gonna watch the playoffs (I usually at least open the stream even if i cant watch it to support the event). It just seems so obviousthat a zerg is gonna win this AGAIN, it just sucks all the fun out of the event. The top five zergs lost ONE series against other than themselves and have combined as many series losses as zest, the best protoss. And we are supposed to pretend that this tournament is competitive for any other than the zergs nah fuck that im out. Lets hope a balance patch finally fixes the queens when zerg wins katowice for the FIFTH year in a row
On February 26 2022 19:47 Vision_ wrote: The fact that Reynor constantly listen music without any need of a deep focus is also a proof of the lack of strategy in Zerg race. Then There s no upset in Ro12, Dark, HM, Maru, Rogue. I come back in 4 hours to see if HM loses despite his experience...
What are you talking about? Lots of players listen to music while playing, that has been a thing for 20 years...
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/Katowice2022/ro12bracket_1.png)
Bunny to rise above the fray to finish in first place and seize a direct ticket to the quarterfinals. The Team NV Terran was the only player in the group to achieve a 4-1 record, losing his only series to ![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/Katowice2022/cdgroups.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/EPT/Katowice2022/cdgames.png)
