ESL Open Week #72: Dark, HeroMarine, Solar win

Week #72 of the ESL Open Cups marked a special occasion as the first tournaments with doubled prize pools through the partnership between ESL and Shopify were played out. More competitors than usual found time for the Korean edition on Sunday with Dark claiming the first win of the new era. A stacked European edition saw HeRoMaRinE return to his familiar throne, while the American ESL Open Cup went to Solar for a third time this season.

Participation numbers notably went up for the Korean tournament compared to last week, essentially adding another round of play to the competition and providing a higher level of play all around. Three of the most industrious Weekly players of the Korean scene ended up clashing on the upper side of the bracket: Solar was able to take down Cure in the quarterfinals, before he himself narrowly lost to Zest in the semis. Zest’s current teammate Dark cruised through the opposite half of the bracket, eliminating former fellow Dragon Phoenix Gaming member PartinG on his way to the finals. Notably, Dark’s quarterfinals opponent MacSed became the only non-Korean player to achieve a finish in the money, though only due to newly increased prize pool. Perhaps motivated by the bigger paycheck, Dark seemed to have a pretty solid Sunday in ZvP and not only took a clear win over the Big Boy, but also dominated his DPG colleague in the finals to lock down his second gold medal of the current season.

It was already hard to upgrade the weekly roster of Europe’s ESL Open Cup, but the prize pool enhancement seems to have baited Reynor into coming out for another edition at least, so that’s basically the maximum you can achieve without kidnapping Serral and forcing him to play these. The Italian probably expected a triumphant return with a decisive series against Clem waiting for him at the end, but things turned out a bit differently on Monday. The QLASH player did make it through to the semis with relative ease, though struggling a bit against DnS, where he clashed with ShoWTimE—the only player in the current season to have defeated Clem. The German put on a flawless performance up to this point and continued this by taking the first map against Reynor, who then turned the tide and went up 2-1. Faced with elimination, die Mauer stubbornly held himself in the series and successfully saw through his own comeback to reach the finals. The other side of the bracket featured Clem climbing towards the finals and dropping a map to his countryman Lilbow, who made another appearance of note, before clashing with his old ESL Open Cup rival Big Gabe. HeRoMaRinE, just like his fellow German on the upper side of the bracket, climbed to the summit without any mistakes. In contrast to ShoWTimE, though, the Terran player was able to continue that win streak going uninterrupted against Clem and demolished the French superstar 3-0. Aligulac gives that scenario a chance of about five percent to occur, so this truly was a big showing from Big Gabe. Making the first finals of the new era a purely German affair, ShoWTimE and HeRoMaRinE gave us their best ESL Meisterschaft impression, ending with the German Terran winning the Cup for the very first time in the current season. Bigger prize, bigger Gabe.

In fact, HeRoMaRinE felt so big on Monday that he needed to expand: Fulfilling an old promise to his stream viewers that he’d go for the double win by also triumphing in the American edition after a victory in Europe (having easier access to prize money probably made that decision easier as well), Big Gabe marched through to the semis defeating regular participants goblin and Vindicta. The German got very close to reaching his second final of the day, but Solar, who previously defeated Has, knocked the European winner out of the race in a very close, back-and-forth battle ending with a 3-2 score. PartinG and Astrea plowed their respective ways through the upper side of the bracket to clash in the semis with the Alpha X player claiming a strong 3-1 victory to enter his third final of the season. A big win was excruciatingly close for the American Protoss, especially as he was able to come back from an 0-2 deficit to force a deciding fifth game, but ultimately Solar proved himself to be superior and locked down his third win of the season in the American ESL Open Cup.

Thanks to the partnership with Shopify, ESL Open Cup winners earn $250 in prize money and 10 ESL Pro Tour points. Players who finish second earn 5 ESL Pro Tour points and $150. A top 4 finish guarantees at least $100, reaching the top 8 pays out $50. Edition #73 of the ESL Open Cups will take place on the 30th (Korea) and the 31st of May (Europe and America).

by TheOneAboveU