While European players claimed the first qualification spots in both Group A and B, Group C saw Korean Protoss player Son “StarDust” Seok Hee earn himself the first ticket to the RO8. After a bit of a struggle, Vesa “Welmu” Hovinen joined him in the next stage of the competition. Check out the brackets below.
Click for full-size Brackets
The ever-smiling Korean Protoss player’s chances were high in his first game of the night against German Zerg player Dario “TLO” Wünsch. While the Protoss player boasted a 90% win rate in PvZ, TLO squared off against the Korean with only a 65% ZvP win rate. As many would have expected, the Korean player easily defeated his opponent, knocking him down to the lower bracket. He secured his place in the RO8 by defeating BabyKnight 2-0 in his second game of the night, advancing with a 100% Group C win rate.
Group C was a tough one for anyone to predict, with Welmu being knocked into the lower bracket by Jon “BabyKnight” Andersen only to qualify for the RO8 by beating him 2-1 in their rematch a testament to that. The Finnish Protoss player also managed to defeat “TLO” after the Zerg player was steamrolled by StarDust in his first match of the night, despite a home crowd there to cheer him on. The German fell short of qualifying, only winning one out of a total of five games in Group C. James “Kaelaris” Carrol spoke to us about the group:
“Group C was a particularly difficult group for me to predict when considering who would actually advance. Welmu, especially for me, was someone I had imagined moving on after playing so well in previous seasons, but the first series did implant a little doubt in my mind. With the nature of PvP, though, and Welmu's ability to adapt in a short space of time, the Finn reacted very well and changed the tempo in the final series, against an opponent who is always much more comfortable in an aggressive stance. As long as Welmu was able to establish a bulwark, he had great chances to advance.”
Once again, Ken “HotBid” Chen sat down with the WCS players. Below you can check out his interview with Welmu, but interviews were also held with Yoan “ToD” Merlo and Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner. Take a look over on YouTube.
Today the WCS action continues with a group that mirrors the one we saw last night: three Protoss and one Zerg will once again battle it out as Jang “MC” Min Chul, Samayan “BlinG” Kay, Kang “san” Cho Won and Artur “Nerchio” Bloch take to the stage. For more information, check out the Reddit thread put together by ESL TV commentator Kaelaris.
