Regionals Results
Deciding the 16 seeded players

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ESL SC2 Winter Regionals

by Wax

The EPT Winter Regionals saw all three regions crown repeat champions from the Summer season, as Serral reigned supreme in Europe, Astrea triumphed in the Americas, and Oliveira came out on top in Asia.

EPT Winter will conclude at DreamHack Atlanta on December 15-17.

Europe Regional (Top 4 seeded to DreamHack Atlanta)

Seed winners: Serral, Clem, Reynor, ShoWTimE

Serral's dominant EPT 2023/24 campaign continued as he went two for two in the European regionals. The Finnish Phenom put up an impressive overall record of 8-0 in matches (21-5 in maps) in the Winter season, including wins over top regional rivals Reynor and Clem.

Serral actually took two series wins against Clem, first in the upper bracket semifinals, and then in a grand finals rematch. Both bouts featured the kind of close, action-packed TvZ we've come to expect from the two, with both players eager to fight it out in straight-up macro games. Serral's versatility shined in the two series, as he found success with Mutas, Roaches-Ravager, Hydra-Bane, and seemingly all the Zerg compositions that are playable at the moment. As for Clem, his mid-game bio usage was immaculate as usual, but he also looked strong playing a Liberator-heavy style in the late game. Considered together with Maru's recent 1-1 tie against Serral in the WTL where he leaned on Liberators in the late game, it might be a key strategic point of contention at DreamHack Atlanta.

Overall, the regionals didn't feature the most invincible version of Serral we've ever seen, at least compared to previous peaks. We were reminded once again that even Serral isn't immune to the treacherous nature of ZvZ, with Elazer forcing him to a five game series. Also, Clem proved to be a very close match, even in spite of losing two BO5 series. Still, even if the gap isn't enormous, Serral remains the favorite by default headed into DreamHack Atlanta. The other players will have to play their absolute best games to prevent him from going back to back at DreamHack main events.

Even with the change to a double-elimination format, we saw a major surprise in the EU playoffs as last season's runner-up MaxPax missed out on the final four. That result came thanks to ShoWTimE, who scored a major 3-2 upset against the PvP master during the earlier rounds (Clem applied the coup de grace in the lower bracket). While ShoWTimE lost to Reynor in the upper bracket, he didn't let the opportunity go to waste, defeating HeroMarine in a lower-bracket match for a top four berth.



Group Stage Results:
+ Show Spoiler [Click to show] +

Americas Regional (Top 2 seeded to DreamHack Atlanta)

Seed winners: Astrea and Kelazhur

Astrea's reign on top of a Neeb-less Americas region continued as expected, but the rest of the playoff results were far from predictable. Brazil's Kelazhur achieved a runner-up finish, making a strong case that the Latin America-North America region merger was one between equals. That argument was backed up by Cham, who eliminated last season's runner-up Scarlett with a 3-0 sweep in the lower bracket (Cham himself lost 0-3 to Kelazhur in the next round). While perhaps not a 'surprise' to fans who followed Trigger's growth, the Canadian Protoss's career-best third place finish was another notable change in a region where the quartet of Neeb-Astrea-Scarlett-SpeCial had long reigned supreme.

The final few matches in the playoffs saw the Americas region live up to its reputation of being both the cheesiest and the weirdest. Serral vs Clem may have delivered the most entertaining games in a conventional sense, but the most interesting series may have been the final between Astrea and Kelazhur. The five game series featured one of the scrappiest games of the tournament with seemingly non-stop early game combat, and also one of the unlikeliest late-game comebacks.

With Astrea also playing well lately in the World Team League and online cups, he seems poised to make another respectable run at the EPT Winter main event. With some bracket luck, or just some inspired play, he might top his 9th-12th finish at EPT Summer.



Group Stage Results:
+ Show Spoiler [Click to show] +

Asia Regional (Top 1 seeded to DreamHack Atlanta)

Seed winners: Oliveira and Firefly

Reigning world champion Oliveira fought off a challenge from fast-rising Protoss player Firefly to win his eighth EPT China/Asia championship. Previously known mostly as a dangerous team league sniper, Firefly's substantial improvement in 2023 saw him enter the regional as a potential new threat to Oliveira. In the end, the long-time regional hegemon proved to be a level above, but Firefly gave a good enough account of himself with his double-forge PvT style to suggest that he could come back even stronger.

With ESL vowing to improve its visa/invite practices after the EPT Summer fiasco, fans can look forward to seeing both Oliveira and Firefly in action at DreamHack: Atlanta. With Oliveira struggling a bit more than expected against Firefly, there's some concern that he still hasn't recovered from his post-world championship slump. On the other hand, it could be a sign that Firefly is even stronger than anticipated, and he's ready to make some waves on the international stage.




Group Stage Results:
+ Show Spoiler [Click to show] +