DH Summer Finals: Playoff Bracket Set

Massive upsets rocked groups A and D of the DHM Summer Finals, leaving the tournament without a single Protoss representative as we head to the playoffs. Trap, already a five-time champion in 2021, crashed out of Group A in last place, with both Scarlett and Lambo able to counter his Void Ray openers with deadly Queen-Ravager attacks. With Trap going down in flames, Dream seized the opportunity to take down both Zergs and take first place with a strong 4-0 map score. The two Shopify Rebellion teammates were left to contend for the final spot, with Scarlett emerging victorious thanks to either skillful build-order selection or a lucky roll of the dice, depending on your point of view.

In Group D, European regional champion Clem saw his TvT and TvP woes come to the forefront once more, as he was eliminated by the duo HeroMarine and Neeb. First place went instead to China’s TIME, who once again carried the banner for his oft overlooked EPT region.

Alas Nice couldn’t do the same for Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau/Japan (a region in much need of naming simplification) in Group C, despite getting off to a hopeful start. The Taiwanese Protoss player trounced the reigning GSL champion Rogue 2-0 in their initial match, first shutting down a Roach-Queen timing, and then crushing him with Carriers and Void Rays in a late-game war. INnoVation seemed more than happy to take advantage of Rogue’s mishap, calmly defeating both SpeCial and Nice to advance in first place. After getting past SpeCial in the losers’ match, Rogue went at Nice with a vengeance in the group decider match. The games went basically the opposite way of their initial duel: Rogue patiently picked apart Nice’s Skytoss army in game one, and then scored a quick victory in game two with an innovative Corruptor + Queen Drop attack against his Void Ray-centric opponent.

Group B was unpredictable in its own way—with Maru, Reynor, and Zest drawn into one group, it was anyone’s guess as to who would be eliminated. Aided by his seed advantage, Maru advanced in first place, first taking down Australia’s Probe before defeating Zest in the winners’ match (the latter match featuring a very Maru-esque turtle game). While Zest played marvelously to defeat Reynor 2-1 in their initial duel, the rematch-curse came into play in the final duel of the group, with Reynor taking down Zest to clinch a quarterfinal spot.

The DHM Summer Finals will resume on Saturday, Jul 03 2:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) with the quarterfinals.