This year's Gamescom show is once again the battleground of one of the biggest eSports tournaments in the world: the Intel Extreme Masters Series. After a long series of matches throughout last week, only four reached the finals, including some interesting names such as Violet and MVP.
Semi Finals Starts off with Azubu’s Kim Dong “Violet” Hwan versus Team Acer’s Artur “Nerchio” Bloch, giving us one the best ZvZ series of the week.
Game one was on Day Break, Violet took the win in this first game of the series. Violet’s patience was its strength, helping him to destroy Nerchio’s attack on his main base with seventeen Mutalisks. Even though both players had the same amount of Glaive Wurm, Violet had a strong combination of spore crawlers and queens, helping him defending his main base, while his mutas decimated Nerchio’s rush for the win.
Second game was on Cloud Kingdom, where Nerchio went for a comeback, denying Violet’s sceond expansion, allowing him to get the economical advantage. Even though Violet transitioned into an old school roach and infestor combination before Nerchio, but this didn’t help him much to counter the Polish player massive economy which inevitably allowed him to go for the win.
Game three was on Ohana, where Nerchio pulled off an amazing baneling run from the start, taking out 17 of Violet’s drones, and giving him such a huge economy lead later in the game, for the easy win.
With a 2-1 lead for the Polish player, both Zerg masters went for a match on Metropolis. The game reached the highest stage of expansion, with Brood Lords on both sides, but Violet had more corrupters and was able to destroy Nerchio’s army pulling out the GG.
Last game of the Nerchio vs Violet series was in Entombed Valley. Violet had a swarm of 45 mutalisks ready for the rush, while as Nerchio had only 25. The latter though had 6 infestors already out, as well as a handful of queens and Spore Crawlers. Nerchio pulled off a perfect fungal strategy, decimating Violet’s army of mutas, advancing to the Grand Finals.
The Second stage of the Intel Extreme Master Starcraft II Championship was the epic battle between the only Terran left in the tournament, Jung Jong “MVP” Hyun and the newcomer, Spanish Juan "VortiX" Moreno Durán.
First game started on Ohana where MVP devastated Vortix’s tier 3 brood lord army. Things started off bad for MVP especially that he traded a good amount of helions and banshees for only 11 drones. Even though having a rather weak anti-air force, the thors and Viking composition destroyed Vortix’s Brood lord army, taking the first game.
Game two was on Antiga Shipyard, one of the most famous macro map. Game went all the way to late game tier 3, when MVP stopped Vortix to hold a fourth base, eventhough the Spanish player had a fearful army. Because Vortix didn’t have a strong economy base to reestablish it’s army, MVP took advantage of that and grabbed the easy win.
Day Break was our third match map, starting with MVP trading two dozens of helions for thirty of Vortix’s drones which was a bad move from both ends. MVP stalled behind, and was also late with his Siege tech upgrade allowing Vortix’s massive roach army to decimate MVP mech army in one swift rush.
Final game was on Cloud Kingdom, where MVP, as you would expect, reached the grand finals. Vortix’s mutas denied MVP of his third expansion at the start of the game, but that didn’t stopped the Korean player to start dropping bio units on two of Vortix’s expansions at the same time, forcing him to split his army, finishing with a GG.
After so many specualtions, this match was rather unpredictable, as David and Goliath met off in the grand finales of the Intel Extreme Masters Starcraft II Tournament.
First game was on Ohana; MVP went an all in with a bunker rush which got denied by Nerchio. MVP pushed forward with a good amount of marines and SCVs, leaving only a handfull back at the base which made him economically behind all throughout the game. As all SCVs were decimated because Nerchio’s Spine Crawler, the Polish player counter-attacked with slow lings, queens and Spine Crawlers and winning the first game.
Game two was on Cloud Kingdom. MVP picked a heavy mech play, which is very hard for a zerg to counter, letting the Korean champion establish a better economy base. Nerchio did a very good job throughout the game but did not have the proper composition missing on anti-air unit, whereas MVP had a hefty number of Vikings.
With 1-1 on the scoreboard, the players picked Atlantis Shipyard, a Huge map known for its macro play. Nerchio did an amazing job building a very strong unit composition which could easily kill MVP’s Mech army. MVP predicting this move, had Ravens ready and upgraded with seeker missiles, and as Nerchio sent out his brood lords to the front line, the critters were decimated by MVP’s faster units.
Fourth game was on Metropolis, with MVP in lead and having the chance to become the champion with this match. The Korean started off with a bio build, then slowly transitioning to Ravens with seeker missiles. The strategic placement of MVP’s Siege tanks and units was staggering, destroying Nerchio, as the latter kept building so many Lings instead of using his greater spire for tier 3 units, allowing MVP to become this year’s Intel Extreme Master Series Champion.
A fanatic gamer and At7addak.com's official Starcraft II caster, Rabbitocom has been playing videogames professionally and following the e-Sports scene for over five years.