Why so serious? sOs was able to win his first ESL Open Cup this week, taking home the Korean server edition with some dazzling decisions. In Europe, ShoWTimE secured his second flawless victory, not dropping a single map during his run once again. The Americas have found another home-server champion, as Astrea kept PartinG from winning three cups back-to-back-to-back.
While sOs has become a regular ESL Open Cup participant, his success so far had strict limits, and his crazy games such as against Dark in Week #28 were more noticeable than his results. Starting into August, the Jin Air player changed that, making his way through a not all that impressive bracket, dropping maps to Rex and Hurricane. The Protoss did make up for it in the finals, burning through a firework of 'creative' builds to stun Chinese superstar TIME into submission. Fans of non-standard games (and non-standard Nexus placement) will certainly want to check out the VODs of this series.
Die Mauer doesn't sweat losing—ShoWTimE secured Week #30 of the ESL Open Cup EU edition without dropping a single map during the entire run, achieving this feat for the second time. Since he first had such a run during Cup #28 and then didn't play the tournament in between, this gives ShoWTimE a streak of twelve series without a map loss in these tournaments. But it gets better: Since he also won Cup #27, albeit dropping some games during that run, we can add six more matches to his streak of 18 victories in a row during ESL Open Cups. In other words: ShoWTimE is pretty damn solid, who knew? Of course, this series of wins becomes even more impressive, when you consider that players like Clem and MaNa weren't able to put a dent in ShoWTimE's armour. Another noticeable result from Monday was Denver's victory over HeRoMaRinE, leading to an unusual early exit for the German.
PartinG was poised to secure the hat-trick for himself, but the Americas have sent forth a champion from their own lands to spoil the fun for their Korean ESL Open Cup overlord: Astrea had to go through his new Alpha X teammate RagnaroK (who was in two prior teamkills) in a close-fought series of irregular PvZ matches to reach finals, after having easily dispatched of his homegrown competitors. Alpha X filled three out of the four final spots in the tournament, with Nice challenging the passage of PartinG in the semi-finals, but the Protoss from Dragon Phoenix Gaming was not easily deterred. Using his momentum to also secure the first map against Astrea, things looked like they were going the Korean's way, but with three map wins in a row, the American Protoss managed to sweep his GTC riva.
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 #31 of ESL Open Cups is set to take place on August 10th.
by TheOneAboveU
European Server Cup #30 (Click for full bracket)
Americas Server Cup #30 (Click for full bracket)