Bringing Terran back to the top in the Korean edition of the ESL Open Cup, Dream became only the third player of his faction to win a gold medal in the competition. Europe has returned into familiar territory with HeroMarine re-establishing his dominance, while the American edition saw Solar complete his hat-trick.
Before Dream, only Cure and Bunny had won the Korean ESL Open Cup as Terrans, with Bunny's last and only victory taking place all the way back in Cup #23, which was in June—the BSG player truly ended a long streak of losses for his fellow Terran players. Participation was unusually strong this Monday, so Dream had to battle through Billowy, Solar and ByuN to reach the finals. The TvT against the One Man Army was especially challenging, as Dream was down 1-2 at one point, having to secure two maps back-to-back to survive. In the ultimate series, he met his former teammate on MVP in DongRaeGu. DRG had himself faced a tough bracket, eliminating his current team mate Armani and Korea's Protoss hope Zoun to advance. However, the Terran dominated the final series of the day, taking his first ESL Open Cup gold medal with a solid 3-1 victory.
Big Gabe cracked the big twenty! Securing his 20th victory in the ESL Open Cup Europe, the Terran has put a check mark behind yet another milestone previously reached by no one else. Merely dropping a single map to MaNa in the semi-finals, the German put on a strong showing throughout the tournament. The finals against uThermal were especially impressive from the perspective of his fans, as he made the Dutchman totally implode during their series, defeating the cunning TvT player with a clean 3-0 score. Still, the Liquid Terran can't be too unhappy, as he secured five additional EPT points to his name—though the race for the top five positions in the European race is essentially over, uThermal is locked in a tight battle for the sixth rank with Elazer, whom he personally defeated in the semi-finals to deny him additional points, and Lambo.
Third time's the charm! Solar seems to have taken a liking to becoming the king of the American edition of the ESL Open Cup, defending his throne once more to secure the hat-trick—and finally overtake PartinG in the gold medal ranking (reports say that PartinG was frantically screaming 'STOP THE COUNT!' on his stream, but we cannot confirm that). Fortune was clearly on Solar's side this week, as he avoided the two other Korean heavy-hitters participating in the tournament until the very end: Dream aimed to secure the Korean-American double win, while Dark once again took part to bolster his own EPT points. The KaiZi player seemed to perform like a man possessed, dropping not a single map during his run as he crushed Nina and Bly before taking revenge on Dream for the early elimination during the Korean cup in the finals. The Terran once again had to struggle heavily to reach the last series, coming out ahead against Dark with a 3-2 score—again he was down 1-2 before turning the tide. Having taken his ninth American gold medal and sharing a first rank with Stats in Korea, Solar stands atop two ESL Open Cup regions at the moment.
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 #45 of ESL Open Cups is set to take place on November 16th.
by TheOneAboveU
European Server Cup #44 (Click for full bracket)
Americas Server Cup #44 (Click for full bracket)