The Open Tournament
As the Winners bracket of the open tournament completed, four players found their way to the groups: Tyler, Cruncher, Rain and Ganzi were all allocated a pool from A to D, respectively, and prepared to fight for higher seeds in the championship bracket. But before the pool play was to commence, the winners bracket witnessed some incredible plays that deserve much attention.
Rain and Qxc played an amazing series with astounding macro sets. Unfortunately for all foreign fans, the American lost that 2:1 falling to the losers bracket and with his loss there, qxc is now out of MLG Anaheim.
In the same round, Jinro and Choya gave birth to an epic set on Tal'Darim Altar. For 40 minutes, the countless amounts of EMPs, storms, drops and maxed army clashes were insufficient to determine the victor... until Jinro landed a nuke on top of Choya's army while in the middle of a huge fight. Choya lost everything in this game but succeeded in pulling a comeback in the next two, sending Jinro down to the LB.
Choya would put up another great show in the following round, this time against Liquid's Tyler. The two played a spectacular mirror match on Metalopolis, reaching what is to be considered a late game PvP. Tyler displayed incredible army control to pull the first victory and punished Choya's aggressive tech build in the second game to launch himself straight into the pools.
The hero of the bracket, however, remains the beast from the east White-Ra. The European protoss hero was punished with an automatic loss in the first day but fought his way up from the losers bracket, winning eight matches in a row to end up where he deserves - high up in the championship bracket. Rakaka.se were kind enough to interview Mr. Krupnyk about the situation and here is what he had to say:
The Pool Play
In group A, DongRaeGu resumed his daily doses of ownage 2-0ing Haypro and Tyler to finish first with an overall 10-1 in sets. DreamHack and HomeStory champion HuK finished second much to his fans' delight and still has high hopes for the Anaheim crown. Tyler, who fought all so bravely throughout the open tournament, finished last but snatched a victory in the lower bracket and is now to play Cruncher.
Group B was heavily dominated by Boxer. The Emperor showed that he is still a force to be reckoned with and secured himself one of the highest places in the championship bracket.
Many fans were interested in how Cruncher would perform as he was placed in one group with the player many consider his arch enemy - EG's Idra. The protoss met Idra at a point where the former was 1-2 in sets and desperately needed to win this if he was to get a higher spot in the group. In the dramatic heyday of the evening, Idra denied Cruncher a handshake and calmly proceeded to the game, not giving the protoss the chance to draw a single breath and defeating him flawlessly.
- "I am playing really bad but that is more than enough to beat [Cruncher]," bravely announced Idra prior to the game and his fans should be delighted to see this statement come true.
Pool C was the domination podium for Rain. The Korean terran who recently transferred from TSL to Fnatic, went through some very exhausting matches in the open tournament but had little trouble conquering the group with 10-3 in sets. Can Rain mimic Puma's run at the NASL and emerge crowned with gold? We shall see today!
In group D, MVP and Ganzi took hold of the top two places. The IM terran defeated the SlayerS monster in the last and decisive game of the group, avenging himself for the loss he suffered at GSL Super. But nothing easy lies ahead of MVP now, as his next match is against the scary as hell DongRaeGu. Who, by the way, earned his fame by defeating Korean's best terrans as it is child's play.
| MLG Anaheim: Final pool standings | |||
| Group A | Group B | ||
  DongRaeGu | 5-0 |  Boxer | 5-0 |
  HuK | 4-1 |  Idra | 4-1 |
 Naniwa | 3-2 | Sjow | 3-2 |
| Haypro | 2-3 | Sheth | 2-3 |
 TLO | 1-4 | Cruncher | 1-4 |
| Tyler | 0-5 | InControl | 0-5 |
| Group C | Group D | ||
| Rain | 5-0 | MVP | 5-0 |
| MMA | 4-1 | Ganzi | 4-1 |
 Ret | 3-2 | Kiwikaki | 3-2 |
| Slush | 2-3 | Moonan | 2-3 |
| Socke | 1-4 | Select | 1-4 |
| Drewbie | 0-5 | Machine | 0-5 |
Such were the events in day 2. It will be now just a few more hours until the Anaheim champion is crowned as the final day of the tournament is currently on its way. Why are you not watching?
Links
MLG.com - Stream
