We're almost there, ready to crown the first WCS Europe champion of 2014. Last week, the starting field was thinned out one final time, with only eight players surviving the round of 16. Alongside the top eight of WCS America, players will compete in their respective League Finals in Cologne from Thursday the 10th to Sunday the 13th of April.
The first player to be qualified for WCS Europe's League Finals was VortiX, who made the playoffs for the third time in a row by beating two 2013 champions. One of them was MVP, the only Korean to not qualify for the playoffs at this stage. The other was MMA, who placed second right behind the young Spanish Zerg.
Two WCS Europe Premier League debutants succeeded in group B, although their debut wasn't due to the lack of skill last year but lack of presence in Europe. Norway's Snute practiced for some months in Korea, the home of jjakji. Now both are back in Europe to stir up the local competition.
On Thursday, the uprising of the Protoss began when it was group C and D's turn. With six out of eight players, the Aiur had a strong advantage, but each group featured a European Zerg final boss in the form of TLO in group C and Nerchio in group D. While TLO lost all his matches, Nerchio managed to win his clash with Bling, although this didn't help him much in the end. The four Protoss StarDust, Welmu, San and MC all advanced to the round of eight, where they will face each other in the quarter finals.
- QF #1 - April 10th, 20:00 CEST: StarDust vs. MC
- QF #2 - April 10th, 21:30 CEST: VortiX vs. jjakji
- QF #3 - April 11th, 20:00 CEST: Snute vs. MMA
- QF #4 - April 11th, 21:30 CEST: San vs. Welmu
Nine days from now, all these players will meet in the ESL TV studios to determine the WCS Europe Season 1 champion. James "Kaelaris" Carrol, Shaun "Apollo" Clark, Paul "ReDeYe" Chaloner and guests will be your hosts, so be our guest and get your ticket at wcseurope.eventbrite.com.
