Team Acer Win ATC Season 2!
For Team Acer, the second time was the charm. After losing to Team MVP in the first season of the TeamStory Cup, the team in green came back with a vengeance in the second season of the tournament. Finshing the regular season with an 8-1 record and the #1 seed, Acer blitzed through the live playoffs at Take's flat in Germany to win the championship.
Taking out Team Liquid on the back of an MMA all-kill in the semi-finals, Acer survived a close call against partner team Axiom in the winners' final with Scarlett coming through in a critical ace match. When Axiom made their way back up from the losers bracket to force a rematch in the Grand Finals, Acer would have a much easier time of it with INnoVation and MMA combining to clinch the title with a 5-1 victory.
Despite the absense of key player Nerchio, the trio of Scarlett, INnoVation, and MMA proved to be enough to deliver the title to Acer (Bly participated, but did not win a game). MMA's performance in particular was MVP-worthy, going 7-2 in the regular season and an incredible 10-1 in the playoffs.
Although Axiom lost a one-sided series to GSTL co-champions Acer in the grand finals, they proved to be a step above the third and fourth place teams Liquid and Western Wolves. While their long time veterans Ryung, Crank, Alicia and Heart performed well as expected, they got a surprise contribution from new recruit Impact who impressed with an all-kill of TeamLiquid in the loser's final.
On the other hand, Liquid and Western Wolves were left to regret to the poor performances of their aces (and in WW's case, the total absense of their regular season mercenary San). TaeJa was unable to bring the kind of form that had Liquid called "Team TaeJa" by some, while Western Wolves' regular season ace Check was unable to step up his game in his first live international event.
In the end, it was not surprising to see ATC2 end with the GSTL champions Axiom-Acer standing on top. Having continuously shown great form against the best teams of the eSF, the foreign scene was no match in comparison.