ESL Open #208: DRG, Clem, MaxPax win

Following last week’s Christmas ESL Open Cups, we got another holiday edition of the competition as Week #208 fell on New Year’s Day.

With regulars such as herO, ByuN, and Solar out of contention, DongRaeGu took advantage of the opportunity and won the Korean server cup. It turned out to be an especially fortuitous run for DRG—Creator and GuMiho did the dirty work of getting rid of favorites Dark and Cure, only for DRG to defeat them in the later rounds.

The European server cup went by the book, with Clem and MaxPax colliding in the finals. Clem started the new year with a win over his EU rival, taking a 3-1 victory.

We almost got a Clem vs MaxPax rematch in the American server cup, but Astrea foiled the proceedings by taking down Clem 2-1 in the semifinals. Unfortunately for the Astrea, MaxPax’s famous PvP proved to be too strong to overcome, and he ceded the weekly title to the mysterious Dane after a 1-3 loss.

In non-ESL Cups, Dark won KSL #40 (played on Dec 30th) with a 3-1 victory over Oliveira in the finals.

ESL Open: Korean Cup (partial bracket shown)

*****

ESL Open: European Cup (partial bracket shown)

*****

ESL Open: American Cup (partial bracket shown)

*****

Korean StarCraft League #40 (Partial bracket shown)