Four of the five European invites scored wins in their opening matches.
Radu “Rdu” Dima, Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert, Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk and most recently Aleksandr “Koleno” Malsh are all in the positive after the inaugural week of the $60,000 Celestial Invitational. The first part of the competition had the players compete in Bo17 Last Hero Standing Standard format to open the scoreboards. The only player from the old continent who wasn’t successful in these first days was Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy, who fell to China’s Zhang “ZhangBo” Bo in 13 games.
Although not enjoying the same level of success, China ought to be content with its performance so far. The region has notoriously struggled against the west, losing five of the six Challenge events in the past but managed to defeat not just Lifecoach but also Liquid’s David “Dog” Caero rather convincingly and almost take down world’s #1 ranked player Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert in the opening game.
While Europe and China scored their first wins, the United States are still looking for theirs and their low representation of just two players makes it statistically harder for the country to snatch a playoffs spot, especially in a group featuring two Blizzcon finalists.
With the completion of week 1, Celestial Invitational will go on a two-week break until the completion of the World Finals. Upon its return, the tournament will switch its format to Wild Last Hero Standing with the GvG set banned.
Kolento
Lovelychook
