SC2 BlizzCon & ESCW - The Afterparty

For the Starcraft II scene it was another action packed weekend as we saw this year's BlizzCon and Electronic Sports World Cup competitive eSports tournaments. The main question for most non-Korean SC2 fans was whether their foreign hero's like HuK, IdrA and Stephano could continue impressing and beating Korean players.
With €50.000 for BlizzCon and €26.000 for ESWC there was enough cash on the line once again, as we continue to see our beloved gaming business grow.

With players like NesTea, MVP, Select, NaniWa, Sen this tournament was one to watch, however, because of poor production and still the very unpopulai close spawn positions there were alot of complaints from the community, suggesting that they weren't broadcasting enough games and even when they did, they chose the wrong ones - only 5 out of 19 played games were aired. Behind the scenes NaNiWa nearly lost with 2-1 to NesTea and Sen was fighting his way up through the loser brackets only to fall in the loser bracket finals to the favorite MVP in an exciting final where lots of ghosts and broodlords were seen and thrown away. The 'GameGenie Terran' managed to take home the important BlizzCon win raking up his 5th major title this season after 3 GSL's and an MLG

Results:

MVP
NesTea
Sen
4th NaNiWa
VODs

What made day one of BlizzCon bearable for most of the viewers was undoubtly the GSL October finals, after a month of battling trough worlds strongest players MVP and MMA came out on top and the finals were beeing held in North America. With MMA Battling his way trough players like NaDa and Cliiiide and MVP beat NesTea and Bomber no one could say they didn't deserve it. The crowd was just insane, hundreds maybe even thousand ppl were sitting there cheering for their favorite casters Tasteless and Artosis, and Translator John and both finalist, the atmosphere was intense, and the Terrans delivered with amazing games, With MVP going for mech play and MMA choosing for the bio we saw some top notch games, not just because there was crazy stuff all over the place but just sheer perfect play, both players shower why they were in the finals and no one else. After lots of drops, tank shells and hellion fire, MMA took home the grandprize of €32.000 with a 4-1 win!

Results:

MMA
MVP
/4th Ganzi
/4th Happy
VODs*Only the first game is free to watch

Unlike BlizzCon where the Koreans once again dominated, the foreigners were displaying strong results as the ESWC. Even though both MarineKing and MC both strolled trough their group games undefeated. As soon as they hit the brackets they were facing strong opposition with MC falling in the quarter finals to Polish Protoss sensation MaNa, while MKP fell in the semis to rising French Zerg Stephano. However, the biggest upset of the day was when little known Russian Zerg LiveZerg was able to beat eSports very own dark knight IdrA in an interesting ZvZ, 2-1.

Ironically the two foreigners who were able to beat the Korean's faced each other in the finals and gave an entertaining performance with Stephano playing as solid as ever and beating MaNa 3-1 - who was able to win himself a map after kindly asking in chat not to go to hard on him. Nonetheless it was a dominant performance for the up and coming French Zerg who after IPL just 3 weeks ago took his second major win in a month earning over €50.000!


Results:

Stephano
MaNa
MarineKing
4th Grubby

VODs