The ESL Open Cup celebrated its first Taiwanese victor in Week #24, with Nice finally managing to finish a successful run in the American server edition. Europe saw a back-to-back winner in Reynor, who secured his fifth title. In Korea, the 2020 online triumvirate made a return to battle for the championship, with Solar coming out on top.
Let's start with Korea, as usual. Solar, who is still without a team at this point, took out Hurricane and fellow online-triumvirate member Zest to reach the finals. Solar faced a potential finals clash with the third and final triumvirs in Cure, but the party was crashed by none other than soO who defeated Cure in a close series. Unfortunately for soO, he ended up being the victim in a rather familiar tragi-comedy, as he lost to Solar in the finals to earn his second, runner-up finish in a row. At least, unlike in many tournaments past, this finals loss isn't going to haunt soO beyond this week. As for Solar, this marks his sixth overall ESL Open Cup victory across all servers, making him the winningest Korean player in the competition.
All the regulars once again graced the ESL Open Cup EU with their presence, leading to a clash in the finals we are all familiar with by now: Reynor and Clem made their way through the stacked bracket to meet in the all-deciding series at the end, with the Italian continuing his impressive streak of ZvT victories from the last cup and securing another gold medal for himself. The Italian-French duel marked the first finals of the European cup without German participation ever since the last edition of Reynor vs. Clem back in Week #13, which Reynor had also won. The Zerg had personally taken out HeroMarine 3-0 in the semi-finals, while Clem took care of the other two Germans in the race to make it to the final in Lambo and ShoWTimE, with Lambo actually almost scoring the big upset and taking map off the furious Frenchman from Team Liquid. With Reynor having started another streak, we'll have to see if someone can stop the Italian next week, or if he can score his second overall hat-trick.
While Korea and Europe saw repeat winners, the ESL Open Cup America had another new victor this week, with Nice taking home the gold medal for the first time. The Taiwanese Protoss had good runs in the tournament before, and was now finally able to go the entire distance, taking out strong NA players like Future and Namshar to reach the finals in close-fought series. Mexican Zerg powerhouse Cham was his last obstacle and almost had Nice on the ropes, but the Protoss player kept his cool being down 1-2 and came back with two wins in a row to secure his first ESL Open Cup victory in a very... Has-like fashion. Highlights of the day also include another very creative duel between TLO and Nina in a repeat from last week's edition.
ESL Open Cup winners earn $200 in prize money and 10 ESL Pro Tour points. Players who finish second earn 5 ESL Pro Tour points and $100. A top 4 finish guarantees at least $50. Week #25 of ESL Open Cups is set to take place on June 29th.
by TheOneAboveU
European Server Cup #24 (Click for full bracket)
Americas Server Cup #24 (Click for full bracket)