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All three of Stephano, TLO and Dimaga couldn't beat the group stage of the WCS seaonal finals and make for an all-Korean playoff bracket.Â
The few representatives Europe sent to the seasonal finals in Seoul were beaten bloody by the Korean opposition, leading to a top eight line-up that would be exclusively composed of Easterners.
The downfall of the foreign world started with Group A which had paired both Stephano and TLO with EG's Alive and reigning GSL champion Soulkey. If the Korean presence didn't make it hard enough for westerners, having them play each other in the opening match certainly did.Â
Said match was the first step towards the elimination of WCS Europe runner-up (and last year's champion) Stephano, who took a 1-2 loss to TLO and followed it up with a 0-2 against Alive to become the first player eliminated from the seasonal finals. TLO himself joined him soon thereafter, failing to overcome the GSL champion and handing Alive his second 2-0 for the day.
Group B was conquered, almost unexpectedly, by Alicia. The Axiom Protoss took the very last train to the seasonal finals by beating Liquid's Snute 3-2 in the WCS America placement matches but arrived in Seoul in much better form, slicing through KangHo and MVP 2-1.Â
Second in the group finished WCS Europe champion MVP, who had to play all the three other players in his group before finally making it out by ousting team-mate KangHo 2-1.
In what could arguably be labeled the group of death, WCS Europe top four finisher ForGG played extraordinary TvP's and claimed first place dropping but a single map to sOs. The Millenium Terran operated bio compositions with lethal expertise and danced around psi storms and colossus lasers to make for one dominating performance and deserved top finish.
This left sOs, HerO and Symbol fight for the second place in the group and the battle was vicious. HerO's timing attacks came first to knock the former GSL finalist out of the tournament but the momentum of the Liquid fan favorite was negated by sOs in the rubber match. Through double gateways right inside HerO's main base, proxy DT shrine and immaculate stalker control, Woongjin Stars' Protoss ace was able to secure a 2-0 for himself and join his team-mate Soulkey in the playoffs.
Simultaneous with Group C, the matches from Group D featuring the third (and by then the only remaining) foreigner Dimaga were played and they too ended up with a defeat for the foreign contingent.Â
Being placed in a pool with three Zergs, GSL finalist Innovation logically took first place by going 4-1, dropping his only loss to KHAN's RorO.
The latter was also the second one to advance out of Group D. After losing 0-2 to DIMAGA in the opening match, the former GSL finalist went on a six-game ZvZ marathon during which he took revenge against the Ukrainian and ended EG's Revival, becoming the fourth KeSPA player to make the playoffs.
The results above make not only for an all-Korean playoffs bracket but for a funny one as well. All quarter final matches will be mirrrors starting with the Soulkey/RorO ZvZ and it's guaranteed that there will be a Terran player in the grand final.
The matches themselves begin at 03:00 CET on June 8th.
