As season 2 of 2014’s World Championship Series concludes many viewers including myself are left bewildered. My money was on MC aka ‘The Boss Toss’ to win the European grand finals and he was taken down by Korean player San. San has been around for a long time and he has cropped up in some of the major tournaments but never really stolen a 1st place in the premierships. 2014 looks to be his year and he is currently ranked 4th in the world.
As predicted ForGG took down the last European in his match against Welmu and then fell to fellow Korean StarDust. StarDust is a relatively new player who first appeared during 2011/2012 and hasn’t participated in many tournaments, however, since joining team mYinsanity in 2013 he has won several 1st place and top 4 finalist positions.
San and StarDust went head to head in what turned out to be a very explosive final. These two players are actually close friends so there was a lot of rivalry and mind games during the series because they know each other’s style very well. As it turns out StarDust knows his opponent a lot better! A fantastic series to watch even if you’re not a fan of PvP matchups.
San vs StarDust – European Grand Final
I also managed to catch the American Premier League finals and I was equally surprised at the results. My favourite Terran player Polt was beaten by Hyun aka “The Hyunstoppable”. In their series against each other Hyun really did look unstoppable. His style and aggression has changed so much over this last year and you can see it from his Season 1 1st place victory. As much as I love Polt, I do have a soft spot for Hyun because he’s a very good player who consistently falls short at the last minute. Every time he falls short of 1st place I pray he doesn’t retire.
The biggest shock of the tournament has to be Taeja losing to Pigbaby. Yes, I have no clue who Pigbaby is, just look at the difference on their profile pages! Taeja on the other hand is the unofficial best player in the world at the moment. By that I mean his micromanagement and fast decision making is unparalleled right now. He’s ranked one place above 1st at the moment in a league called Taeja! He recently won DreamHack: Summer without dropping a single match. That’s a perfect victory and on his way up he took down world championship finalists Jaedong and Patience. So how did he lose to Pigbaby?
Taeja vs Pigbaby – Quarterfinal
That’s not all, Pigbaby also beat Hyun. Looking at the series between Polt and Hyun we can clearly see that Hyun has what it takes to become a world champion. Is this Pigbaby another Protoss prodigy following in the footsteps of Patience last year? Or is Protoss just broken? When you think about it, all these players are excellent and their premiership positions prove they have the skill. However once the tournament hits the quarter-finals there is no safety net, you can’t lose one and beat the other two opponents in your group. And that’s all it took, Pigbaby was that one loss in the quarter and semi final stages that took out two of the best players in the world.
The American premiership grand final was unbelievable! Terran veteran Bomber leaped into the finals in a phenomenal TvT match against Heart. I don’t care if some people say TvT is boring because it is a very difficult matchup to play. Bomber proves his prowess and makes his way to the finals to face Pigbaby. Words cannot describe what happened as Pigbaby unleashed some of the craziest builds ever seen in a professional tournament. The final score was 4-3 to the unknown Pigbaby! You do not want to miss this series!
Bomber vs Heart – Semifinal
Bomber vs Pigbaby – American Grand Final
