DHM Winter – SpeCial, Nice, TeebuL wins regionals

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The first three champions of the Winter Season have been decided, with SpeCial winning Latin America for the 14th straight season, Nice retaking the Taiwan/HK/Macau/Japan title from Has, and TeebuL winning his first ever title in Oceania/Rest-of-Asia.


Latin America

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SpeCial had already been the uber-dominant player in Latin America while playing from Korea, so it was hardly a surprise that he claimed the regional crown yet again after moving back to Mexico. Still, it wasn’t a cake-walk for Juanito, as he just barely beat Brazil’s Kelazhur—who recently returned to full-time status—in the winners bracket final.

The final, did, however, go as one would expect for such an overwhelming regional player. Cham, who had already been swept once by SpeCial earlier in the playoffs, earned a grand finals rematch by taking out Kelazhur in the lower bracket final. Unfortunately for Cham, things didn’t go any better in the grand finals, as he was vexxed by SpeCial’s unorthodox 2-Barracks Reaper openers. The result was another 3-0 victory for SpeCial (4-0 with his winner-bracket advantage added), completing the foregone conclusion.

SpeCial has now won all six Latin America regionals in the EPT/DHM system, and has won fourteen consecutive Latin America regionals (or even more, depending on tournament classification) when adding in the WCS and Copa America lineages.


Taiwan / Hong Kong / Macau / Japan

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Nice regained the upper hand in the battle for Taiwanese supremacy, defeating his rival Has to retake the regional championship. The trend of Nice being the superior player in standard macro games continued in the 4-1 finals, and he punctuated Has’ final GG with a finger-wag into the camera (payback for Has’ own victory ceremony in the previous season).

Nice has now won four EPT/DHM regional titles in Taiwan, while Has has won the other two seasons. With no obvious challengers waiting in the wings, this Protoss duopoly seems likely to continue for seasons to come.


Oceania & Rest of Asia

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The three-season reign of Probe came into an end in Oceania/Rest-of-Asia, with the defending champion going out in the group stages. Amid the chaos, TeebuL seized the opportunity, winning his first OCE regional and first major championship of his career. He also earned Pakistan one of its most significant victories in StarCraft II (if not most significant), playing in the tournament as a UK/Pakistan dual-citizen.

Teebul unleashed an sOs-inspired, fast Blink-DT style against Seither in the grand finals, disorienting the Australian stalwart and claiming a one-sided 4-0 victory.

With Teebul’s victory, Oceania/Rest-of-Asia remains one of DHM’s more unpredictable regions, with four unique champions in six seasons (Probe, RiSky, EnDerr, Teebul).

Source: https://tl.net/forum/starcraft-2/578944-dhm-winter-special-nice-teebul-wins-regionals

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