ESL Open Week #85: Creator, Lambo, Clem win

Edition #85 of the ESL Open Cups was an unusual one, featuring victories by Creator in Korea, Lambo in Europe and Clem in America.

A barebones bracket saw only three Korean players in the quarterfinals of their own tournament this Sunday. In the RO8, military returnee Classic defeating SpeCial to earn himself a spot in the top four, while and Creator taking out the supreme ESL Cup overlord Cure to reduce the number of surviving South Korean players to two. Two familiar faces stood at the ready to capitalize on this opportunity, filling the remaining two semi-finals positions: Taiwan’s Has and Nice. While Has managed to finally finish Classic off 3-2 and earn himself a finals appearance, Nice squandered a 2-0 lead and had to accept Creator reverse-sweeping him. In the grand finals, the Team NV Protoss out dueled the Taiwanese mad scientist, only dropping a single map to lock down his first ESL Open Cup victory during an active EPT season. Creator had won once before during the off-season, but not during an EPT point-eligible period.

Who do you think would win: The best Terran in Europe and the second best Terrans in France and China, or one snaky boy? Russian Protoss KingCobra had the run of a lifetime on Monday, going on an absolute rampage that shockingly eliminated Clem, Coffee and MarineLorD one after the other and earned him his best ever finish in an ESL Open Cup. Though he struck as quickly and deadly as his snaky namesake against Terrans, the Russian was no match for Lambo, who took down Krystianer and Elazer to earn his own place in the top four and dealt ruthlessly with the snake infestation. Another Russian was responsible for the big upset of the other side of the bracket as well: Vanya is definitely a better known name than KingCobra, his defeat of HeRoMaRinE was in no way expected, however. With Big Gabe out of the picture, all of a sudden there was a lot of space on that side of the tournament tree. MaxPax, having already eliminated Harstem and Astrea dealt as easily with his Russian foe as Lambo had, advancing to the finals during his fourth top four finish in a row in the ESL Open Cup Europe—there is some of that consistency that had been lacking from the young Dane for a long time. MaxPax looked like he was about to the take the finals as well, which would have been his first win of the season in Europe, but Lambo managed to claw his way back from a 1-2 deficit, instead claiming a first seasonal gold medal of his own.

Now what could be as unusual as Creator winning something and a random Russian taking out the European champion? The Americans actually fighting back at their own tournament, of course! For the very first time in the entire season, two North American players actually made it into the top four of one of these cups with Astrea taking a strong win over Cure, who had an abysmal ESL Open Cup week, and Scarlett defeating Gerald before narrowly beating Astrea in the semi-finals. The other half of the bracket featured two wrathful Frenchman in Clem and MarineLorD, who took out their anger on the other Europeans concentrated on these spots and then clashed with each other, the Liquid player advancing further. Has and Nice also had to fight each other, resulting in the runner-up of the Korean cup meeting Clem in battle and getting thoroughly thrashed by the Terran—still, one final and one top four for Has this week. Faced with the unrelenting power of an angry Clem, Scarlett could not make a dent in her opponent’s armour and ultimately decided to play Protoss on the third map of the series, but even her multi-racial arts could do nothing to impress the European champion, who took his first gold medal in the American edition this season with an almost flawless performance—shoutout to Bly for stealing the only map from the eventual winner during his run.

Thanks to the partnership with Shopify, ESL Open Cup winners earn $250 in prize money and 10 ESL Pro Tour points. Players who finish second earn 5 ESL Pro Tour points and $150. A top 4 finish guarantees at least $100 as well as 2 ESL Pro Tour points, reaching the top 8 pays out $50. Edition #86 of the ESL Open Cups will take place on the 29th (Korea) and the 30th of August (Europe and America).

by TheOneAboveU