If we were to make up a list of the most exciting WCG play-days, this one should be at the top. The competition level at Chengdu heated up to a plasmid state as the absolute best of the best of foreign StarCraft scene were fighting for a magic ticket to playoffs.
First up was Group C with two clear favorites - Bisu and PJ. Bisu, being ranked #2 by KeSPA performed well under par with no losses. PJ took a very close second, only losing to the best Protoss player of all time. Their game became a truly dramatic conclusion to what's been an incredible gaming scene masterpiece.
Warning! This game is too awesome to see it, watch on your own risk:
If you can't or don't want to watch it, here is a recap of the game:
Tau Cross, Bisu at the top, PJ at the bottom. Bisu moved quickly and put two consecutive manner pylons at PJ's, but the Chinese held it together perfectly and even went for a Nexus on his natural, while Bisu was printing Dragoons.
Bisu then attacked PJ's natural with everything he had, but choked and was forced to escape with only 3 goons left, against PJ's 7-8. Bisu then started to tech-up, while PJ was still pumping low-tier units. PJ moved on to contain Bisu, but the sneaky Korean just got a quick Dark Templar and forced PJ to pull back, rushing his Observatory.
In another sneaky move Bisu switched to Reavers, got two in a drop ship and moved on to PJ's natural eventually pushing inside, crushing PJ's army with scarabs and forcing him to evacuate to his main, - GG from PJ followed less then a minute after that.
Back to Group D the competition turned into a 3-way between IdrA, White-Ra and A2. Having won 4 games each it really called for dramatic ending, and so it was. A2 lost to Yayba and IdrA, settling with 4-2 result. White-Ra and IdrA both went 5-1, losing, respectively, to A2 and HoRRor. Later on the Ukrainian and the American clashed on Tau cross in a decider, and it was epic. But don't take my word for it, watch the VOD:
PJ vs Dimaga
"Best foreigner of the day" award goes to PJ. Although he could be considered a semi-foreigner, his competitor for the honor - IdrA is is also living in Korea, so we went with PJ, Not only he demonstrated an incredible performance. beating every single of his competitors except for the best Protoss player in the world, but also came close to securing the victory over Bisu and giving the mighty Koreans the first real worry of the tournament.
Here are all results of the day (click to enlarge):
Finalized Group Standings (click to enlarge):
As you can see, because of his losses to IdrA and A2, White-Ra did not advance into playoffs, leaving the magic spot for Advokate to take. As the group stage came to a close it's clear that the whole tournament turned out to be a disaster for Polish players, as every single one was eliminated with mediocre results.
On this note we must conclude the report, but not the coverage. Later on we will be doing an overview of the finals, participants, pictures, the grid and much more.
