The April announcement of the world championship in Starcraft II made a lot of noise in the programe community. In terms of scope, the event was comparable to football forums: national selections in twenty-eight countries, then continental competitions for the best-and, finally, the Grand Final in Shanghai.
Russia and Ukraine as significant values in the world of eternal confrontation between graves, protosss and terrane received full -fledged national selection. They took place in July, in Kyiv.
Choose the best
Since April, Russian and Ukrainian lovers of the most popular RTS world patiently waited for the beginning of the "holiday on our street". And here on July 21-22 The whole color of the "old" scene of the CIS arrived in the Kyiv club Kiev Cybersport Arena.
THIS IS INTERESTING: Belarusians who had to be content with a special online tournament for countries without national selections were unlucky. True, the best of the Belarusian Starcraft Lowly This did not prevent it from getting to the continent.
Solution Blizzard Give the Russians three slots for European finals against two for Ukrainians might seem to be experienced fans not entirely fair, since in Ukraine world -class players are no less. But this, as it turned out, were still flowers: the main gift from the developers was waiting for the winner of the Russian selection – a direct ticket to the world final in Shanghai. And the rest of the two Russians and two Ukrainians will be oh how difficult it is to wrap up on world finals through the selection of the Old World in battles with Mana , Nerchio And STEPHANO.
► a large -scale tournament – appropriate advertising.
Note: The official cards of the championship became Cloud Kingdom , Daybreak , OHANA , Antig UA Shipyard , Entombed Valley , Shakuras Plateau And Tal’Darim Altar.
To start, attention, march!
Saturday became the first championship day and was actually completely devoted to Ukrainian qualifications, although the Russians also managed to play several early stages.
► It was on Saturday that we recognized the names of representatives of Ukraine on European finals.
In terms of intrigue and the sports component, it was the Ukrainian part that intrigued more – here they fought for a quota White-ra , KAS , Bly , Strelok And Fraer. Two remaining, White And Ukrainestar From the NRS team, bloods on the favorites could have sipped, but no more.
The Russian composition of the participants as a whole was more even than Ukrainian, although there were three obvious favorite: Dmitry Kostin ( Happy ), Oleg Kuptsov ( Titan ) and Artem Garavtsov ( Slivko ). It was this trio, according to the audience, that it was supposed to take quotas; Only Andrei Guldyashov could be prevented by them ( Livezerg ) yes Yuri Karev ( Neytpoh ).
THIS IS INTERESTING: From the top players of the CIS, in addition Lowly , We did not come to Kyiv Dimaga (Ukraine) and Brat_ok (Russia) – The first missed the online qualifying, and the second simply failed to pass them.
Those who were not too lazy and came to watch the game of the strongest (the good entrance was free), from the first seconds fell into the sound embrace of official Russian -language commentators. Representatives of the SC2TV website perfectly coped with their role – Adolf And Olsior. The author of the article was pleasantly amazed at the quality of commenting, which happens infrequently. The guys perfectly complemented each other, joked and shared the "insider", supporting and even warming the interests of the audience.
Fraurs are not terrible for us!
Confrontation Fraer And Bly opened the first round of Ukrainian qualifying. The first was played by Cloud Kingdom, a map on which the attacks of time and immortal are very popular by the attacks. It was this strategy that Fraer chose, while adding seven gates and prisms. Bly tried to reach the owners of the pack and destroyers, that is, to transfer the game to Leyite.
► BROOD LORD – the best fighter of Zernov and one of the strongest in the game. Expect the worst if several such "cuties" appear in the enemy army.
Unable to win at the early middle stage of the game, the young Protoss agreed to Macro, adding several colosses to his army and a mature ship. With equal limits of 200 to 200, the decisive battle was supposed to become a spectacular sight – and soon it happened. Fraer He “jumped” with his stalkers under the owners of the pack, and the rest of the forces of the Zerg had to neutralize the colosses, archons and the maternal ship. But the battle did not reveal the winner, although Bly was in the best situation after the exchange, because he quickly resumed a strong flying army. Without meeting each other in the center of the map, both players agreed to exchange with bases, which led to catastrophic consequences for Fraer consequences. Acer player ( Bly ) I earned a point – 1: 0.
► a few seconds before the start of the match between acer.Bly and Rox.KIS.Fraer: Is it possible to overcome one of the main favorites?
On the second map, Fraer also failed to impose his game to the opponent and unexpectedly for most spectators fell into the lower grid.
THIS IS INTERESTING: Igor Turchin ( Fraer ) In the skin of the favorite he was very nervous and worried, but, on the contrary, Bly was concentrated and calm. Perhaps thanks to the music that the Zerig listens during all his games?
► Alexander Svistyuk (Bly) passed the next stage of the tournament, and this means that the time has come to give a small interview.
In the remaining pairs of the first round of sensations and surprises, no surprises. But I would like to note the failure to appear for the player's championship under the nickname SDA. As it turned out, the guy was only fourteen years old and, seeing that in the first round he got an empire in his rivals.Kas, he decided not to go at all.
Favorite? To the exit!
Bye Strelok I disassembled Kas’a in the upper grid for spare parts, Fraer continued to suffer in the lower one: he got into rivals NRS.Ukrainestar , one of the fastest progressive Ukrainian grains.
THIS IS INTERESTING: at a professional level in Starcraft II Igor Kobylyansky ( Ukrainestar ) does not play for long. But before that, the nineteen -year -old Kyivian played very decently Command & Conquer
On Daybreak The protoss traditionally decided on a quick fur, which, however, failed just as quickly. "Ukrainian Star" (eeki modest nickname, is it not true?) Packed his army with a bunch of mutualisk, which delivered the highest race of enormous problems.
► quickly attack and fly away to the arrival of the main forces? Mutalisian will cope with this better than anyone.
A number of petty and medium battles gave grave a triple advantage, and on this map everything was actually decided. The next was played by Shakuras Plateau. The fate of the winner was determined by a strange decision Ukrainestar in a decisive battle, play through the drop hydraulis drop . This detachment in the second "Starcraft" turned out to be ambiguous – on the one hand, causes great damage to the opponent, and on the other – for serious battles, the hydraulis lacks health.
THIS IS INTERESTING: Russian -speaking commentators said that they could not recall recent games where the exit to Mass Hydralisk would lead to the victory of Zergovs.
As further events have shown, risk is a noble business, but not always useful, especially at this level: Fraer easily coped with the swarm and equalized the score in the series.
The decisive card promised the climax, the battle is not for life, but for death. But it ended very quickly and is quite ridiculous. Ukrainestar I noticed a gap in the development of the protoss and quickly ran there with grabling. The workers could not fight back – the GOG won the third card, and Fraer, which has not enough stability, has left the championship sensationally.
"I Believ I Can Bly!"
The game did not set the game at the second favorite of Ukrainian qualifying. Mikhail Gaida ( Empire.KAS ) in the second round of the upper grid lost FXO.Strelok and significantly worsened his chances to take a quota.
But at Acer.Bly things went swimmingly. After the victory over Fraer, Alexander Svistyuk beat the eminent Alexei Krupnik based on the results of three cards ( White-ra ). As in the match with Fraer, Bly won the Cloud Kingdom – in this the army of gibbling and mutualisk helped him, easily sniffing stalkers and colosses of the protoss.
The defeat on the first map did not bother the experienced and, perhaps, the eldest of the CIS e -sportsmen. On OHANA White-ra He took a convincing revenge. In the second game, he slightly modified the strategy of Push with sentries and immortals, focusing on the last, which brought him victory.
► Mikhail Gaid.Kas) is busy with the construction and movement of its buildings on the OHANA map.
Both approached the decisive third game with an outrageous concentration – the winner in any case guaranteed himself a place in the prize three, and only one step remained before the quota. On Tal’Darim Altar, the Zerg began a sweepingly and at the place of development of the protoss put his incubator . When a detachment of grabings ran to the protoss base, Bly He canceled the building and put his army into the gap formed. It failed to cause critical damage to the enemy, but the idea was good and eloquently talked about the mood of Alexander Svistyuk.
► Blizzard mini-contest, called "Gather a combat cruiser from the LEGO designer". At first, the participants believed that they would cope quickly, but, apparently, underestimated the scale of the model ..
This combat attitude was confirmed by the stage of Macro, which went under dictation of grains. Frankly, we did not expect Bly He feels so confident in the late game. As in the second meeting with Fraer, the fate of the winner was decided by one big battle. The honor of the swarm on the battlefield was protected by the owners of the flock, destroyers and the Zergies-and they opposed the colosses, stalkers and a wow ship.
All hopes of White-Ra were associated with the successful use of the “funnels” (the ability of the mother ship), but they were thrown crookedly, which predetermined the further course of the match. The advantage of the limit at the grave sometimes reached sixty-seventies, and experienced players do not miss this. Bly won with a score of 2: 1 and became the second finalist of the upper grid. The first was Strelok, who beat Kas 2: 0.
Decisive battles for quotas
In parallel with the games "upstairs" there were hot showdowns and "below". We played out their last matches and left the championship White And Ukrainestar (losing White-Ra and KAS, respectively).
► Evgeny Odarshev (Strelok) – one of the best and most experienced terrans in the open spaces of the CIS.
Spectacular games on Daybreak and Antigua Shipyard soon became the last and for another favorite of the seizure. Mikhail Gaida ( KAS ), without showing half of his true capabilities, he lost in the case White-ra. In two PVT games, Alexei mainly relied on colosses, storms and zilotov (especially Antigua)-and Special Tactics did not let. White-Ra in the final of the lower grid!
So, after a series of stubborn and interesting games, we have formed a three applicants (Bly, Strelok, White-Ra) for two treasured vouchers.
THIS IS INTERESTING: Recently, the community has been talking a lot about the balance of SC II, complaining of the strength of grains and the weakness of terraces. But the Ukrainian qualifying in the winners found representatives of all three races!
There are only two quotas for three – it remained to identify the loser. He became Strelok… "The ambitious terran" (perhaps his main nickname) first lost – 0: 2 – Bly (Entombed Valley and well -already familiar Cloud Kingdom), and then lost and lost the same score and White-ra.
► Full record of broadcasting matches of the first gaming day.
Two finalists of Ukrainian qualifying guaranteed a place on European finals, so the battle went more for the difference in the prize pool. And again Bly , on which few were put, demonstrated tenacious and, most importantly, stability. Although we must pay tribute to White-ra, who fought to the last and was a step away from the championship title.
The prize three Ukrainian qualifying:
1st place- Bly – 2000 $ + quota for European finals
2nd place- White – Ra – $ 1250 + quota for European finals
3rd place- Strelok – $ 600
Everything is calm in Russia
Sunday was the second gaming day, and this day was completely dedicated to the decisive stages of Russian qualifying. The best came to the eight Happy , Turuk , Neytpoh , Roll , Abver , Slivko , Livezerg And Titan. But, unlike Ukrainian, Russian qualifying did not present a single sensation – the quotas were won by all those on whom they put.
► Quotes will win three, but only the champion will be lucky the cup home.
Dmitry Kostin was the owner of the first ( Happy ). He was initially largely lucky with the net, along with the middle -level players, he ended up in its upper part, while a real meat grinder formed below ( Slivko , Abver , Livezerg And Titan ). Almost not recently trained Roll was the only one who could stop the TOP-1 CIS and send it to the hot lower grid. And I must say, at first he had good chances – until the game was moving to Macro, where they were melting sharply.
► Full record of broadcasting matches of the second gaming day.
The second and third quotas went to players Rox.KIS Artem Garavtsov ( Slivko ) and Oleg Kuptsov ( Titan ). The latter turned out to be stronger than the rest and took first place, outplaying in the final Happy with a score of 4: 1.
"On the mainland, the last caravan went to the mainland"
Thus, on European finals in Stockholm, our countries will represent White-ra And Bly (Ukraine), Slivko , Happy And Titan (Russia). And if the Russians are “everyone is equal to the selection”, then anxious expectations reigned in the camp of Ukrainian fans. Bly , With all its talent, until it has the necessary experience of LAN, and White-Ra this year did not particularly shine. Our fighters need to train hard in order to approach the autumn in the optimal playing form – in Europe it will be very difficult.
The prize three Russian qualifying:
1st place- Titan – $ 6,000 + quota for world finals
2nd place- Happy – 3000 $ + quota for European finals
3rd place- Slivko – $ 1,500 + quota for European finals
The article uses photo materials from https://supernova-casino.co.uk/ the Team-Empire site.Org