by Wax
Week #237 featured an unexpected twist in ESL Open Cup competition, as Clem travelled to Korea for pre-EWC training and competed in his first ever Korea/Asian server cup.
The king of the ESL Opens proved that his online skills travel quite well, as he went through Ryung, trigger, NightMare, and Solar to win the Korean server cup in his debut. In doing so, Clem became the third ever player to record a win on all three servers, with Cure and MaxPax having also set the rare record in the past (hat tip to enuaj for the factoid).
The absence of Clem would typically lead to a MaxPax win in the European server competition, but this week, Reynor returned from Korea to spice up the competition on his home server. After a close grand finals that went all five games, Reynor emerged with a 3-2 victory over MaxPax to take his first cup title since Week #211 (March 2024).
For the second week in a row, neither Clem nor MaxPax tried for the American server title, which led to a week #236 rematch between Dark and ByuN in the finals. Dark had triumphed 3-1 in the previous week, and he made it two wins a row against his old rival by taking a 3-2 victory.
In non-ESL cup competitions, MaxPax won Kung Fu Cup Summer #9 (3-1 vs Classic in the finals) while Dark won KSL #55 (3-2 vs Clem in the finals).
ESL Open: Korean Cup (partial bracket shown)
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ESL Open: European Cup (partial bracket shown)
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ESL Open: American Cup (partial bracket shown)
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Kung Fu Cup Summer #9 (Partial bracket shown)
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Korean StarCraft League #55 (Partial bracket shown)