Since the last news here at TeamLiquid, two rounds have passed. Six teams were eliminated leaving the top two standing: Poland and Canada. Their epic rivalry continues in the SteelSeries World Cup Finals. Will Canada avenge their latest thrash they received at the hands of Poland? Or will the Poles continue their domination? But before we speculate on the finals, lets see how these two nations arrived here.
Round of 8
Replay Pack
Peru (16) (3-2) Germany (8)
Peru has done it again. After sending home Spain, they have now sent pre-tournament favorites Germany packing. In an extremely close match, Peru came out on top 3-2, led by their LG teammates. Racking up wins was Rage, Castro, and ezeze. iG.Fenris and ToT)iNfeRnaL were the two winners from the Germany line up who were without star player ToT)Mondragon(.
USA (5) (2-3) Canada (4)
The United States starting the match off great. Idra and Crayon led America to a 2-0 lead with wins over MgZ teammates IefNaij and Oldy. But the Canadians didn't give up and the match was tied at 2-2 with wins from MYM.Testie and MgZ)TT1. The last match was delayed with ToT)Timothy( up against xLo.G5. Timothy was too much and won his match 2-0, cementing Canada's impressive comeback.
Poland (2) (3-0) France (7)
Poland defeated a weakened French team who were without their top stars Sarens and Tuzer. Gathering the first win for the Polish forces was LRM's newest recruit: MIStrZZZ. Dkh.Dreiven and ToT)Hullah( continued where he left off, cruising to 2-1 and 2-0 wins respectively. Poland will now play Norway in the semi finals.
Ukraine (6) (1-3) Norway (14)
Despite the Ukranian forces having a great line up, only missing MYM.White-Ra, they still couldn't defeat the surging Norweigans. Two of Norway's wins took all three games but in the end, the luck and skill were on the side of Norway. The lone win was picked up by aAa.Strelok. MgZ)Whistler led his team to victory with help from Thomas[sL] and Erling[LP]. Norway has a tough task in front of them: Poland. Win this and the finals should be much, much easier.
Round of 4
Peru and Norway - the 16 and 14 seeds respectively going against the best Starcraft nations in the world: Canada and runner up from last season, Poland. Even if Peru and Norway lost, a finish in the top four while eliminating the likes of Ukraine, Germany, Spain, and Russia is very impressive for any country. And now on to the matches.
Canada (4) 3-0 Peru (16)
Replay Pack
The Canadians had no trouble putting away underdog Peru. Led by their three Canadian allstars: ToT)Xiaoz(, MYM.Testie, and xLo.IefNaij, Canada took home the win, 3-0. All the matches were close, ending at 3-0. Peru still has a chance to end up in third place where they face the loser of Poland versus Norway. Here is what Canada's team manager, uT)Choblar(WGT) had to say after the match: "The management of the NW between Canada and Peru was quite enjoyable as the Peru leader Guta was very flexible and accommodating. We were able to do play by play and all games stayed mannered. Peru showed nice results. Even though they lost, they were able to go 1-2 vs our strongest 2 players Testie and XiaOzi."
Poland (2) 3-2 Norway
Replay Pack
hen the first half of the nation war ended, it did not look good for the tournament favorites Poland. Norway started off with two straight wins from nV.Antique and Erling[LP]. Just one more win in three matches and they'd be in the finals, having knocked off Poland. In the last match on Sunday, LRM)MIStrZZZ made sure this would not happen and won 2-0. The nation war continued on Monday and Poland brought out their big guns: oldschooler ToT)Spawn( and ToT)Paranoid(. Against them would be Liquid.Drone and Thomas[sL] respectively. When everything ended, Poland stood victorious, staving off the vikings from Norway. Despite losing the match, Norweigan team manager Get.Kimoh had this to say: "The best team did win, and we are not disappointed with the result! Even if it is sad that we lost in such a close NW, we're very happy for coming this far =).
All four nations still have one more match to go. Canada and Poland will meet for the gold medal while Peru and Norway are fighting for third. Here is what these teams can win.
- 5x SteelSeries 3H
- 5x SteelSeries QcK Heavy
- 5x SteelSeries QcK+