ESL Open Week #70: DRG, ShoWTimE, Zest win

Week #70 of the ESL Open Cups saw DongRaeGu take his place on top of the food chain in Korea, while Europe was finally liberated from French tyranny by ShoWTimE. To close out the week, Zest notched his first victory in the American ESL Open Cup after several finishes in the top four.

After winning the American cup last week, DRG repeated his success in his home region on Sunday. The timing was opportune as the line-up looked rather thin overall, with DRG additionally profiting from a walkover against one of the few Code S-tier players in Armani. This meant DRG’s only really notable opponent on the way to the finals was Keen, who only recently returned from military service was heavily outmatched (though he did defeat the Reynor-killer Hyperion). A Team NV team-kill awaited DRG in the final series as NightMare surprisingly eliminated Dream after already being down 0-2 in their semi-finals Bo5. The strong result for the Protoss remained the only one on that day, however, as DRG showed no mercy to his teammate and secured a solid 3-1 victory.

The timing is a bit off as Napoleon died on May 5th, but the players of the ESL Open Cup in Europe nevertheless have the opportunity once more to celebrate the end of French domination on the continent. The win streak of Clem has finally been broken after five weeks, leaving HeRoMaRinE‘s record of six victories in a row from the previous season intact (counting only tournaments with EPT Points on the line). With the brackets developing much more traditional in comparison to last week’s craziness, Clem bulldozed his pathway to the finals with an unblemished record, even taking out Elazer with a clean 3-0 in the semi-finals. The other side of the tournament tree saw Big Gabe and ShoWTimE enter the semis, the Terran taking out youngster MaxPax on the way. The German duel had nothing of its usual closeness as ‘die Mauer’ dismantled HeRoMaRinE without dropping a map, building up steam for the clash ahead with the Frenchman. He needed all the momentum he could gather as the series went down to the final map, ShoWTimE defying the order Clem had built up since the season began and ending his streak one win short of equalizing Big Gabe’s record.

After two semi-finals exits and one loss in the finals, Zest finally secured his first title in the American edition of the ESL Open Cups. The Protoss plsurt took a pretty comfortable stroll towards the finals, only being challenged earnestly by Armani in the semis, but even the Afreeca Zerg could merely steal one map away from him—this would remain the DPG player’s gravest wound of the tournament, for Astrea could not resist Zest’s immense PvP power and went down 3-0 in the finals. The result does the American’s performance no justice as he pushed through Scarlett and Solar in tough battles to reach the ultimate series, even coming back from an 0-2 deficit against the Korean Zerg.

ESL Open Cup winners earn $200 in prize money and 10 ESL Pro Tour points. Players who finish second earn 5 ESL Pro Tour points and $100. A top 4 finish guarantees at least $50. Edition #71 of the ESL Open Cups will take place on the 16th (Korea) and the 17th of May (Europe and America).

by TheOneAboveU