writers: BisuDagger and Endy
Brood War: Open Heat
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Day 1 Day 2
Day 3
Day1:
Scan met ZZZero in the finals on a day where both players went undefeated. Notable early exits on this day was LancerX to 2nd place winner ZZZero, INF3cted eliminated even earlier to LancerX, and Sziky eliminating himself from day 1. We could also include Elegant's internet here as an early elimination on the casting crew.
Day 2:
Sziky goes for a standard don't lose a single game run. Kimhana1995 carrying the korean flag was eliminated by second place finisher Kyct. TTF makes another deep run only to be eliminated in the challenge for third. Also, USA fails to advance past the first round 2 days in a row.
Day 3:
Cryoc and Skzlime both failed to make it past the first round in surprising eliminations thus eliminating any hope of a second terran advancing to the next stage. trutatCz also takes an early exit to Canadian hope Dienmax. This means that Mexico and USA have to rally behind the North American Protoss. And finally with the qualification of Julia and ZZZero(day 1), poland becomes the most dominating foreign country in the tournament.
Pride of War - Terran (1):
Scan
Overcome All - Zerg(4):
ZZZero, eOnzErG, Sziky, Julia
Victory After Victory - Protoss(4):
KycT, Wallace, LancerX, Dienmax
The stage is set as the 3 day qualifying event concludes. While just one terran makes it through, Scan may be the scariest opponent in the tournament. However, there was just one event that happened last December that has made this bracket far more interesting, the iCCup Ladder Main Event. This was yet another tournament where Scan and Sziky were both heavy favorites. The outcome? Sziky withdrew from the tournament and Scan won the whole thing defeating Michael and trutatCz in order to gain the gold.
So the main storyline out of the way, other strong opponents come from eOnZerg who recently defeated Sziky in KC's mini tour 2 with a 2-1 margin. For Protoss, LancerX is the most well known player however he hasn't taken a finals since 2013 and will be hungry to find one here in the Open Heat.
Predictions
I believe that Scan and Sziky will perform to their abilities and take 1st and 2nd place.
For 3rd and 4th I believe that the zerg players are still showing really strong. I will give 3rd to eOnZerg and the fourth and final spot will be taken by Julia (if only to add drama to the Open Heat).