DH Masters Fall: Week 1 Preview (EU/TW/LATAM/OCE)

by Wax

The Summer Season of DreamHack Masters ended with Reynor standing alone on top of the mountain, reminding everyone exactly why he’s the reigning IEM Katowice champion. Now, the Fall Season of DreamHack Masters is set to begin with regional tournaments in Europe, Latin America, and Taiwan/HK/Macau/Japan, and Oceania/Rest of Asia.

European Regional

Group stage matches begin on Wednesday, Jul 28 3:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00).

The Triumvirate

Normally, you wouldn’t be too interested in the performances of Europe’s big three in the group stages of the tournament—they’ve been virtually guaranteed the top seed in their groups since the start of DreamHack Masters. However, this time around, fans might want to keep a close eye on Clem to see how he’ll respond to his summer slump. After winning the DHM European regional, Clem suffered a series of disappointing early eliminations in NeXT Season 1, the DHM Summer Finals, and TSL7—the first major setback for a player who has enjoyed almost uninterrupted growth and progress in his career. Can Clem bounce back, overcome his ‘problem’ match-up of TvP, and dominate his Protoss-heavy group?

Meanwhile, diamond-handed investors who held onto $REY during a brief spring slide were rewarded in the Summer Finals when Reynor rocketed through Zest, Dream, Rogue, and Maru to win the DH: Summer Season Finals. It was a reminder from the IEM Katowice champion that he can still be the #1 player in the world—at least when he’s focused and engaged.

Reynor’s rebound should remind fans not to sleep on Serral simply because he hasn’t won a championship yet in 2021. Certainly, he’s not as dominant a force as he was before, but I still believe his brief title drought is more a sign of how closely competitive the current era of StarCraft II is, rather than an indicator of the Finnish Phenom’s decline. By the acclaim of his peers, Serral is still one of the best players in the world and definitely a championship caliber. Both Serral and Reynor have gone 14-0 in the groups before—a similar performance now would show they’re more than ready to take back the regional crown.

Whose Time to Shine?

Lambo was the breakout star of the Summer regional, taking out Serral on his way to a surprise third place finish. Similar to the Fall 2020 season when MarineLorD made an underdog run to the top four, it was an accomplishment that reminded us of how deep Europe is and how many great players are lurking in the ranks.

After Lambo’s spectacular performances in the last few months (including a pseudo-BO7 win against Trap in the WTL playoffs), he’s probably the top candidate to disrupt the hegemony of the big three once again. But there’s plenty of other players to look out for, even if they didn’t necessarily finish high in the Summer regional. MaxPax is the player that comes most readily to mind, with the much-hyped Danish youngster finally making a splash during last season’s group stage with a 6-2 record. His quick eliminations from the EU playoffs and TSL7 showed he still needs much more seasoning in BO5+ series, but he still seems to have much untapped potential.

Speaking of Protoss players, ShoWTimE is another player to watch out for. Die Mauer was one of the stars of Blizzard’s old WCS system, but he’s yet to crack the EU top four since the transition to the ESL Pro Tour. Aligulac.com still ranks him as the 5th best non-Korean player at the time of writing, which suggests he’s due for a ‘comeback’ performance of sorts.

Along the same lines, it would hardly surprise anyone to see Elazer make another deep run, or uThermal, or PtitiDrogo, or any of the other veterans of the scene. I’ll stop here, since this is just going to end up with me posting Liquipedia links to the entire European roster. It bears saying again: this region is damn deep.

While Europe has plenty of closely matched contenders who play musical chairs with the rankings, it’s also the home of the biggest constant in all of StarCraft, HeroMarine. It feels almost impossible to dislodge him from the fourth place spot in Europe—perhaps it’s his sheer mass keeping him anchored in place. Even last season when Lambo muscled his way into the top three, HeroMarine was right behind him, sidestepping Serral on his way to fourth place. Anyone who wants to try and break into the upper crust of European competition will eventually have to get past Big Gabe.

Latin American Regional

Tournament begins on Wednesday, Jul 28 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00).

By my count, SpeCial has won twelve consecutive WCS Challenger/Copa America/EPT tournaments in Latin America (though that number could go up or down depending on how you count certain Copa America tournaments), making him by far the most dominant regional champion. Given that record, fans couldn’t be blamed for looking at the LATAM regional as a mere formality.

Still, there’s plenty of fighting for the position right below SpeCial’s hallowed perch. Kelazhur was the last player to depose SpeCial back in 2017, and he’s continued to be his closest rival even after taking a step back from full-time progaming. However, last season he was outshone by a resurgent EriK, who earned his best regional finish ever by taking second place. The Brazillian Zerg is probably not yet ready to challenge for the throne—his 0-4 loss to SpeCial suggests as much—but it will be interesting to see if he can defend his new place in the LATAM hierarchy. Between, Kelazhur, EriK, Cham, and JimRising, there should be a fierce competition for the right to challenge SpeCial in the final match.

Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau/Japan Regional

Tournament begins on Wednesday, Jul 28 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)

Sen and Has might have been the players who put Taiwanese StarCraft II on the map, but right now the region is ruled by Nice who’s won three consecutive DHM championships.

Still, it seems very unlikely that Nice is going to start a win-streak to rival SpeCial in Latin America or TIME in China. He had to fight tooth and nail against Has to win those three titles, and last season, he barely prevailed by a 4-3 scoreline in the grand finals (though he did defeat Has 3-0 in an earlier series). I’m pencilling in another fierce title fight between Has and Nice to conclude the regional, but don’t count out ButAlways who has an off-chance to disrupt the proceedings with a PvP upset.

Sadly, I can’t give the Taiwanese region the same stamp of cheese approval as before, as the standard 2-Stargate Void Ray meta has entrenched itself there as well. It’s taken a lot of the fun out of Has vs. Rex—at one time, the best entertainment available in StarCraft II—and I can only pray that chaos soon returns to the Taiwanese scene.

Oceania and Rest of Asia Regional

Tournament begins on Wednesday, Jul 28 9:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)

Compared to the other ‘minor’ regions, the competition in Oceania is highly unpredictable with seemingly anyone capable of winning. 2020 saw three different players win the championship: RiSky, Probe, and EnDerr.

If I had to pick the top championship candidates, I’d have to go with Probe and Seither at the moment. Through Probe comprehensively beat Seither to win the Summer regional back in May, Seither recently hit back by sweeping Probe in the finals of ESL ANZ Champs (a significant Oceanic tournament).

Still, one must remember that Probe actually went out in the group stages of the Fall 2020 regional, showing how hectic the competition can be. Given that the ANZ Champs is an Oceania-only tournament, it’s hardly a referendum on the balance of power in the larger EPT regional, and there’s the possibility that a “Rest of Asia” player could complicate things yet again.

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Source: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/576217-dh-masters-fall-week-1-preview-eu-tw-latam-oce