EPT
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Week #118 featured strong competition across all three regions. In Korea, the battle for the crown remained as volatile as ever, with
herO becoming the sixth unique cup champion in consecutive weeks. In Europe, Reynor returned to the fray and managed to stop the domination of Clem and HeroMarine, who had won every cup since Katowice. The American cup was the only one to see a repeat champion, as MaxPax continued his reign by winning his third cup in a row.KR Cup: It was a surprise to see Dark participate in his third straight Korean cup in a row, but it was perhaps an even greater surprise to see him fail to win for his third straight week. After losing against Classic (semis) and Cure (finals) in the previous two cups, he was defeated 2-0 by herO in the semis of cup #118. Dark had defeated TRUE and GuMiho earlier in the bracket, but couldn't overcome his DPG teammate who was in the midst of an incredible online hot streak over the past week. The other notable Zerg and new Team Onsyde Gaming member (recently formed around Maru as player and Crank as content creator) Rex lost in the RO16 1-2 against Coffee, with the Chinese Terran going on to lose 0-2 versus Zoun the round after.
Other notable results included Classic defeating both Jinioh (quite expectedly) and ByuN 2-0 each, before winning a close PvP series in the semifinals versus Zoun 2-1 to get a shot at winning the cup. On the other side of the bracket stood herO who had not lost any map up to that point, with wins against Percival and Dark among others.
The finals started quite evenly with Classic and herO tied 1-1, but herO demonstrated once more that his PvP is top level by winning the next two maps to win the series 3-1 and get his 3rd gold medal in KR. Combined with a slew of wins in other online competitions over the past week, the KR cup run helped herO rise to become the #1 ranked Protoss player on Aligulac.com, while his PvP improved to #2 behind MaxPax.
Upset(s) of the day: The biggest upset for me was herO defeating Dark 2-0. In hindsight, this might not seem like that huge of an upset given how herO was taking down top Zerg players left and right during his online hot streak, but his Aligulac.com odds to beat Dark at the time of the match were likely below 40%.
*****
EU Cup: As always, the European cup was pretty stacked. Usually there are far more notable Protoss players than Terran or Zerg, but this time representation was pretty even across the factions. The Zerg contingent got a boost from the participation of Reynor and Lambo, with even an older online cup king in Nerchio throwing his hat in the ring. Terran had several strong players as well, with Clem, HeroMarine, SpeCial, and uThermal being the most accomplished competitors. Finally, Protoss had its fair share of top international players showing up as well, featuring MaxPax, ShoWTimE, and Neeb among others.
After the duo of top Terrans Clem and HeroMarine got back from Katowice, they dominated the European EPT Cup and shared the wins for 5 weeks straight. However, no reign can last forever. Indeed, Clem had a good start with victories 2-0 against both YoungYakov and PtitDrogo in TvZ and TvP respectively, but Neeb beat him 2-1 in the quarterfinals. On the other side of the bracket, HeroMarine had a relatively more difficult path to the quarterfinals, dropping a map versus Gerald, before losing 0-2 against Elazer. The Polish Zerg had a lower seed and his path was quite tough, as he had to beat Vindicta and Lambo (which he did 2-0 and 2-1 respectively).
The king of NA cups MaxPax still could not find the victory in Europe, since SpeCial beat him 2-0 in the RO16. However, even though MaxPax and ShoWTimE are clearly the two best Protosses in Europe, they have different strengths and SpeCial could not beat both in a row. ShoWTimE thus beat GunGFuBanDa, SpeCial and Elazer without dropping a single map to get to the finals On the other side of the bracket, Reynor made his way through the finals by beating a tough set of opponents including goblin, uThermal (who previously beat Kelazhur 2-1 in the TvT mirror) and Neeb.
That set up a very tight grand final between Reynor and ShoWtimE, with the two players trading maps back and forth until they were tied 2-2. This pattern of going one-for-one favored the player who got the first map victory in Reynor, who also took the fifth and final map to win the cup. With this victory, Reynor claimed his 13th EU Cup win, coming within one victory of tying ShoWTimE (14 wins) for third most EU Cup wins.
Upset(s) of the day: There were several big upsets in this cup: Elazer beating HeroMarine, SpeCial winning against MaxPax and Clem losing versus Neeb. None was truly shocking, but Neeb was the biggest underdog according to Aligulac with less than 23% chances of beating Clem. Throw in the server advantage for Clem, and I have to pick this result as upset of the cup.
*****
NA Cup: We had a stacked NA cup to close out the week, with Clem coming hungry for victory after his early elimination in the EU cup. High-profile Zergs in Scarlett and Solar made rare appearances, while Cure, ByuN and SpeCial joined Clem on the Terran side. Protoss had a long list of notable names, including Astrea, herO, trigger, DisK, Gerald, Nice, and ShaDoWn participating. Oh, and that guy named MaxPax…
As mentioned in the intro, MaxPax won his third straight NA cup this week, becoming the first non-Korean player to achieve such a feat. MaxPax winning the NA cup has become a rather predictable outcome, but nonetheless, there were plenty of interesting results before we reached the inevitable end.
American Terran Vindicta had a tough draw, having to face Canadian Protoss trigger in the ro32, but he managed to upset him with a 2-1 victory to face Protoss Hupsaiya and win 2-0. Unfortunately for him, his good run stopped in the quarterfinals with a 0-2 loss versus Nice. The Taiwanese Protoss had a lot of momentum coming off a 2-0 win against herO and that win against Vindicta propelled him to the semifinals. Looking at the bracket, one would have surely expected Astrea or Clem to face him there, but instead it was a relatively unexpected player who qualified for the semifinals: ShaDoWn. The French Protoss has been more active in recent weeks, and decided to do double-duty in EU/NA for the second week in a row. His run in EU was forgettable, but the NA server cup was fantastic for him as he went 2-0 vs Ranger, 2-1 vs Clem, 2-1 vs Astrea (who notably beat Gerald and bioice to get there), and 2-1 against Nice to go to the finals.
On the bottom side of the bracket, MaxPax had some troubles against SpeCial who beat him earlier in EU, but got his revenge with a close 2-1 victory. However, the KR Terrans who happen to be GSL champions seemed far easier stylistically as MaxPax beat both Cure and ByuN (who beat Coffee and Scarlett) 2-0 in the quarters and semifinals.
Perhaps tired by all the close series he had to clutch his way out of, or by the sheer late hour if he is not accustomed to playing that late, ShaDoWn got swept by MaxPax in the finals. This is not a shame though, as MaxPax is considered the best PvP player by Aligulac or close to it, and is currently dominating the NA cup.
Upset(s) of the day: There were several interesting upsets like Vindicta beating trigger, Nice winning against herO, but the entire run of ShaDoWn was very impressive and easily takes the crown: 2-1 against Clem, Astrea and Nice (who was good enough in PvP that day to beat #2 PvPer herO) are amazing results. Going by Aligulac, the French Protoss has less than 8% chances to win a BO3 vs Clem, less than 20% to beat Astrea, and relatively even odds vs Nice. Mind you, this is going by his increased rating points after he went on his run, so the odds at the time of the matches would have been even lower. This bodes well for ShaDoWn at the upcoming Gamers Assembly LAN, but I have to say “merde” to him (the French way to say "break a leg") after jinxing him with all that praise.
by Poopi
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