WCS Europe Season 1 - Challenger League

Bracket Stage Recap
Bits and Pieces


Group Stage Week 1
Preview of the "Up/Downs"


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by kollin and Zealously

Last week, WCS Europe rushed through the bracket stage of the Challenger League, playing dozens of matches over the span of a few days to select eight players to participate in Premier League: Season II. With forty players fighting over just eight spots, the competition was rough for these first-ballot tickets (the losers will get second chances this week in the "up/down" or group phases). The brackets are too expansive to post here, so we recommend you check them out at Liquipedia.

Europe Holds! (Kind of)

When the new WCS system was announced, the immediate reaction was "Well, we don't want to watch two MORE leagues where Koreans sweep the top four." At least in Europe, that actually hasn't happened yet. Though Mvp did end up as the season one champion, the Great Wall of Lag proved to be very effective in the inaugural season. Only the Koreans directly invited (MMA, Mvp), the one living in France (ForGG), and the one playing from America (Shuttle) made it through. The rest were filtered out of the online qualifiers, unable to overcome the EU-KR lag wall.

Down in the Challenger League, the Great Wall is proving to be as strong a deterrent for the next season, as none of the Korea-based Koreans have made it to second season of the Premier League so far. Among the warriors injured while trying to scale the hazardous wall: GSTL mainstay and innovator MVP.TAiLS (slain by vat of boiling oil dumped by Acer.Bly), and his brother-in-arms MVP.duckdeok (took an arrow from mouz.HasuObs).


As for the three-time GSL finalist, occasional ESL studio analyst, and fifty-time foreign money-bandit SK_MC, not even flying to Europe helped him, as he was once again thwarted by Grubby in an important elimination match. That win helped Grubby catapult himself back to the Premier League, triumphing over Nerchio as well in the next round.

While the more fearsome Koreans fell, the least recognized of their number made it through once more. c.Shuttle slyly unlocked the the gates to Europe using his NA-EU connection, earning one more shot at the Premier League after a Ro32 exit in season one. Although Shuttle did manage to claw his way into Premier, he didn't look a hundred percent convincing doing so, dropping a game to Beastyqt and never truly showcasing the dominance we've come to expect from Korean players. He did manage to take out Premier League player SaSe 2 - 0, however, and that certainly counts for something.

Vikings Go Hiking

Ever since its Viking ancestors were stealing abacuses from British monasteries centuries ago, Sweden has had a talent for resource collection and multi-prong attacks. So it's no wonder they are pretty good at StarCraft II.

Unfortunately, the Swedes haven't lived up to their conquering legacy in the first season of WCS Europe. Not a single member of their Premier League quartet of Fnatic.SaSe, Alliance.NaNiwa, EG.ThorZaIN.RC, and WW.SortOf, managed to reach the final eight of the tournament, and to add insult to injury, all four of them were trounced from the bracket stage of the Challenger League.


SortOf's loss may be the only one that feels somewhat justified, as he met the prize money hunter SK_MC in the first round. However, the other three took surprise losses in matches where many thought them to be favored, with ThorZaIN getting out-spooned by XMG.ToD, SaSe falling to c.Shuttle, and NaNiwa losing to d.Tefel. While it may have just been a case of poisoned meatballs, the Swedes will have to return to their ransacking ways in the Up/Downs if they want to make sure their country is represented Season II.

Seedy Business: Troubles for Invited Players

It's tough to start a new tournament from scratch, and even tougher to decide who deserves to receive invitations. Like it or not, ESL doled out 24 seeds into its first Premier Season, hoping the players they picked would be able to play up to their WoL level in a new expansion. As expected, it's been a mixed bag of results for the seeded players.

A few of the players seeded right into the Premier League will soon find themselves fighting for their tournament lives. National finalists aTn.Socke and WW.SortOf both found themselves eliminated from Premier League, and proceeded to lose their Challenger League games in the Ro40 against MC and Tod, respectively. Accompanying them were two of the better performers in the final months of 2012, XMG.monchi and RoX.KIS.TitaN, who fell right from Premier down to Challenger, and were unceremoniously kicked out of the bracket phase by Beastyqt and d.Tefel, respectively. Now they move onto the "Group Stages" of the tournament, where they have one more shot to make it through, but face banishment to European Code B should they finish last.

Other seeded players potentially facing elimination: K3.VortiX, mouz.HasuObs, EG.ThorZaIN.RC, Acer.Nerchio, mouz.MaNa, Empire|Kas.

What's in a Name?

For the lesser known European ladder heroes looking to make their mark on the professional scene, the Challenger League proved to be quite the hostile environment. We wouldn't blame you for not having heard of NEX.Jogginghose, FireCake, uzer or 3D.Noname, since they were all knocked out 0 - 2 in the Round of 40. Granted, they weren't handed the easiest opponents, but the structure of WCS guarantees that newcomers will get a battle tested, Premier League opponent in the first round. There's no easing yourself into the system against lesser opposition: if you're not Premier League level the second you hit Challenger League, you're not going to make it. It's only going to get even harder to break out as seasons pass, as the competition will become even fiercer.

There was at least one victory for the 'unknowns,' though d.Tefel doesn't really qualify for that title. At least relatively, he is one of the least known pros going into the next Premier League season, and this is certainly his biggest chance to make a name for himself in his career so far. He proved his skills by taking out TitaN, KrasS, and NaNiwa, and could be another under-the-radar European to look out for. At least he has Naniwa's attention!

Writers: kollin, Waxangel and Zealously.
Graphics: shiroiusagi
Editor: Waxangel.