We recap the StarCraft II WCS Europe round of 16 in prep for this weekends finals

Now that I am part of the working zombie populace I have considerably less time to consume eSports content, which is quite literally 24/7 these days. The chances are most readers are of the same world. But you're in luck, despite my better judgment I rarely get more than 4 hours sleep, sitting into the small hours of the morning watching, I’m here to help you keep up!

Let’s focus on WCS Europe (StarCraft II World Championship Series) because, as any eSports netizens will know, the American regionals are really just a stomping ground for South Koreans and that’s just not as interesting. 

With July’s round of 32 players behind us, we moved on to the round of 16 this week, featuring a few familiar faces from last season. The final 16 is where things get heated up and the players fly out to the sunbaked studio in Cologne, Germany to perform face-to-face under the spotlight.

Making top 8 secures your spot in next season’s Premier League, fall short and you are going back down to the less prestigious and more volatile Challenger League where you’ll have to qualify again. It’s make or break. Players accrue WCS points according to how well they do; these determine who makes the grand finals at the end of the year.

Group A

We started on Monday with Group A. Although it wouldn’t seem obvious to the unsuspecting eye, this is one of the harder groups. So much so in fact that the most accomplished StarCraft II player in history, Mvp, wasn’t even able to make it out of this group!

The story which dominated this group was that of Protoss player Grubby. Last season he was denied by BabyKnight (Protoss) and Stephano (Zerg); since then he has appeared at tournaments like the Red Bull Training Grounds, practicing hard to iron out any creases. The Dutch Warcraft III legend Grubby is one of the most exciting players to watch; he wears his heart on his sleeve, his team is team Grubby with his wife behind him every step of the way.

This time Grubby was ready. He battled his way through the online round of 32 players to secure his spot at the in-studio games, defeating the Terran player ForGG who was a finalist last season.

Grubby then went on to win an epic back and forth battle with reigning champion Mvp. The winner would go on while the loser would fall to Challenger League. Both of these players have been pro-gamers all of their adult lives; winning means everything to them.

Grubby beats Mvp, securing his spot in the round of 8 and into the money.

Following the win, Grubby spoke with great emotion about how much this means to him, it becomes clear just how important this was to him as tears of joy streamed down his face.

The biggest upset of this group is Season 1 champion Mvp being eliminated. To give some perspective to the significance of this, it should be noted the pins he proudly wears on his chest represent his four GSL wins, the most competitive StarCraft II league on earth. Mvp’s prize earnings now exceed $375,000, the highest earning player in StarCraft II.

This is not to distract from HasuObs (Protoss), who managed to defeat not only Grubby but Mvp too, fixing his position at the top of the group. If there was ever a veteran of the StarCraft II scene it would certainly be HasuObs, the German player has been around since the beta in 2011. Just like Grubby, he too made his name in Warcraft III, playing as a member of team Mousesports since 2004.

Group B

Moving on to Group B the stakes only get higher. The standout of this group is the French rockstar Stephano, the most successful western player, with prize winnings of over $230,000. Over the last few years Stephano has made it clear that he is playing to fund his future studies. Last year he threatened retirement until the North American eSports goliath team Evil Geniuses offered him a contract he couldn’t refuse.

While in the past Stephano has had immense success being the only western player able to go toe-to-toe with Koreans, he has since been unable to find his footing, becoming a shadow of the rockstar status player he was. He was well known for his uncaring attitude, being escorted out of clubs by local authorities and being suspended by his team for inappropriate comments.

Earlier this year Stephano once again said he would be retiring from StarCraft II to begin his studies, but this time it was the real deal, this time he meant business:

Stephano tells commentator Apollo he will carry the torch for the West one last time. 

During the online round of 32 Stephano blitzed through his group, taking down MC (Protoss), only the second most winning player in StarCraft II 2-0. But when it mattered most, unfortunately, Stephano fell short, losing every map played in a 0-4 defeat, probably not the send-off fans hoped for.

In his final appearance Stephano spoke from the heart:

Stephano’s family joins him after his loss to say their goodbyes.

Champions come and go, a StarCraft II champion one week can be replaced by another the next; enter Welmu (Protoss) and duckdeok (Protoss), two underdogs ready to emerge from the shadows.

Both Welmu and duckdeok did well to make it this far, beating community favorites BabyKnight and Ret (Zerg), Dimaga (Zerg) and Dayshi (Terran), respectively. But going forward to the round of 8, they will have to beat some of the best players in the world; they are all hungry to win.

Group C

This group is full of talent; these players are all major contenders for any final. The Swedish Protoss NaNiwa is an interesting character to start with, placing top of the group. NaNiwa has always been a difficult player; there is very much a love/hate relationship between him and the community.

NaNiwa has always been considered one of the best players in the world -- the only non-Korean player to have any success in GSL as of late. But the problem is he has no restraint; he often lashes out at opponents and even the community, a testament to the 9 different teams he has drifted among. The Korean eSports community has a black mark next to his name following a few controversies, including throwing a match in the GSL -- this was seen as disrespect to his opponent and the viewers who pay for the entertainment.

NaNiwa refuses to shake hands with VortiX after losing.

Many team owners have said NaNiwa is the hardest player to manage, but he has been doing well with his current team Alliance, which is helping to clean up his image. NaNiwa has said through blogs that he is changing his attitude to playing and has seen improvements in his play, winning WCS Europe could be the catalyst he needs.

NaNiwa is currently poised to take it; in the round of 32 he defeated LucifroN who is one of the strongest European Terran players. Now in the round of 16 he beat top European Tefel (Zerg) and MMA (Terran).

Since leaving the legendary team SlayerS a little under a year ago MMA has fallen from being a world class player to a b-team Korean (still very good), but recently he has been picking up a bit and should always be considered a threat.

Both MMA and NaNiwa managed to move on from this group.

Group D

The Protoss vs Protoss mirror match-up has become a lot more entertaining in Heart of the Swarm, but it would have been nice to see more diversity with 5 of the 6 qualified players so far being Protoss; thankfully Zerg player VortiX was around to stop 2 of the 3 Protoss in his group.

Unlike his older brother LucifroN, who is considered the better of the two, VortiX was able to get through the round of 16 with a flawless 4-0 score. The younger half of the pair dubbed the Spanish Armada was able to beat MC, who barely made it through with a score of 4-3 putting him in second place ahead of TitaN (Protoss) with a convincing 3-5 score.

The Playoffs ahead

The ESL production crew is taking a well-deserved day’s rest before broadcasting the WCS Europe Premier League Finals round of 8 playoff games. Once again this was a thoroughly entertaining show put on by the same production studio that brings us the LCS EU show (League of Legends Championships Series Europe).

All of the games tomorrow will be special; if you are a European fan then it may be hard to watch as your favorite players eliminate each other. This time it looks likely we’ll have a European champion, now if only we could get an American WCS America champion.

The three regional WCS Premier League Finals take place Saturday and Sunday in a marathon streamageddon; find the schedule, live-stream and replays on the official WCS portal. 

Images and footage courtesy of SC2Gifs.com and ESL

Chris Rainey, Columnist