Surprises continued in the second combined day of WCS continued (America predictions; Europe predictions), albeit only one on the day. After Aligulac's 0-4 yesterday, favourites in Europe held their own going 2-0, but in NA Polt lost to his teammate making the day overall 3-1. As expected, foreign hopes in WCS Europe (none remained in America) ended today, as collectively the three foreigners went 1-9 in maps. The VODs can be found here. The best games came from MMA and Polt, although sadly only the former moved on.
The European quarter finals will both be PvT, which should be a lot of fun (I have my fingers crossed someone will try Dayshi's mech strategy) and, happily, are not mirror matches. The American side is similar, except each pairing is a PvZ. Fair or not, the lineup for NA consists of very vanilla Koreans (with perhaps HyuN as the exception) so ESL is going to have a hard time generating excitement for it.
A couple of notes: The official numbers for the round aren't out yet, but just eyeing Twitch it seemed like the audience for both regions was about the same--which gives an indication of how solid ESL's followers are, albeit lacking casual viewers (I think cramming the games together don't help, along with the lack of serious foreign hopes). The broadcast on the day included White-ra bartending, which was amusing. The faded SC2 star was in attendance yesterday, but did not specifically get mentioned. White-ra, whose homeland Ukraine is in the midst of Russian aggression, no doubt appreciates both the quiet of the tournament along with the high quality SC2 being played.
WCS Europe
MMA 3 
Snute 1
Game one (Heavy Rain) MMA opened with three reapers and managed to snipe a queen in exchange for one of them as he teched towards a banshee; Snute was able to nibble an SCV to death with a ling poke; MMA's banshee did solid damage in the main and his first marine push killed off a few queens while other units killed the fourth; MMA split his army into four parts pressuring all four bases which killed the third and Snute tapped out moments later--a fantastic, albeit one-sided, match. Game two (Polar Night) MMA went for two reapers as Snute built a bunch of lings to counter attack which was much more effective than the previous game; MMA's delayed hellion/banshee attack did an even bigger amount of damage; MMA dropped the main and then forced a cancel on the fourth; Snute set up a flank in the middle of the map mopping up MMA's army; with an overwhelming lead in army Snute blasted down the front and MMA tapped out. Game three (Habitation Station) MMA faked early aggression as he went one-rack expand; MMA then thought Snute was going for a baneling bust and stayed tucked into his natural; MMA tripled dropped the main without getting much done; he then dropped the fourth while attacking the natural, killing Snute's upgrades (amusingly, losing half his force to his own widow mines); MMA continued to harass the fourth while pressuring the natural; MMA caught a lot of Snute's banes morphing and lost most of his mutas to mines and tapped out moments later. Game four (Frost) MMA went double factory for blueflame hellions; Snute built banelings, but had all of them at his third and MMA went straight into the natural and main and killed thirty-eight drones; Snute survived and hurried to a spire as he rebuilt; MMA went creep killing (with more than double the army supply of Snute) and then rolled over him taking the series.
San 3 Welmu 0
Game one (Habitation Station) Welmu built a proxy dark shrine as San went for phoenix; just like the previous round for Welmu the DTs did nothing; San teched to colossus while Welmu got blink; Welmu lost his proxy twilight/dark shrine; the players remained quite passive (San taking the gold) as they went up to three bases; Welmu took a good engagement outside the gold base using a flank, but both players lost most of their forces; the follow-up engagement went the other way as San's superior colossus count took its toll and Welmu tapped out shortly afterwards. Game two (Frost) both players opened oracle, but San's was a bit earlier; Welmu went for an early expand and could not hold off San's attack and tapped out. Game three (Yeonsu) Welmu went for an early expand again as San applied three-gate pressure and won. The series was not close and I feel for Welmu who showed a lot of the same struggles witnessed in the previous round.
WCS America
Game one (Habitation Station) Polt went for three reapers which pinned Revival on two bases for awhile which he responded to by building a bunch of roaches; the roaches let Revival take his third at the gold; Revival pressured the third; the huge roach army eventually crashed into the natural which Polt was able to hold, but put Revival far ahead; Revival attacked again and this time Polt tapped out--losing to the exact same build that killed Neeb in the Round of 16. Game two (Heavy Rain) Polt opened as usual and his reapers did a ton of damage, killing a queen and a bunch of lings; Revival used roaches to push Polt away; Polt made a split push (marines in one, hellions with the other), which didn't do any economic damage, but killed off some units as Revival went for a roach/bane attack; Polt saw the attack coming and used tanks to help fend it off; Revival tried to go for an all-in with a second attack, but Polt was able to interfere with it enough that Revival pulled back and teched to mutas; Polt attacked the fourth and killed off a lot of Revival's army without killing the base; Polt attacked the fourth again, grinding down more of Revival's forces; the next attack Revival tapped out. Game three (Daedalus Point) Polt started with his usual build, but went into banshee early as Revival went for early spire; when Polt moved out Revival went around the army and attacked the third, but didn't do massive economic damage; Polt moved out as he approached max, but pulled back to avoid being surrounded; Revival killed the fourth with banes; Polt pressured the fifth; Revival was rich enough to kill a force of thors with just banes; Revival sent his mutas into the natural and killed off more SCVs as he teched up to ultras and planted baneling mines around the map; Revival took a fight in the middle of the map and despite Polt being far behind in supply he pushed out and kept pressuring; ultras and banes killed the fourth and Polt found himself doubled in supply; banes killed the fifth as Polt killed off ultras near Revival's sixth; Polt attacked the sixth as Revival added infestors, but lost the fight and Polt only tapped out when mutas killed the fourth again. Game four (Polar Night) Revival went for a roach/bane all-in; Polt picked up on the attack late and the banes destroyed the wall and he was forced to abandon his natural; Polt pressured the third, but then lost a ton of SCVs as he accidentally ran them into banelings; Polt's attack on the third was broken as Revival doubled his supply and Polt died to the next attack. A nice win for Revival, but it's disappointing to see another dynamic Terran fall out of the tournament. The best games were the second and third--the latter in how effective Polt could be with just a few units against overwhelming odds.
Oz 3 Arthur 0
Undoubtedly the least anticipated series in either WCS. Game one (Heavy Rain) Arthur went for proxy gates/cyber core, but it was not early enough as Oz had the exact same production, but earlier and the game ended quickly. Game two (Polar Night) Arthur went for proxy stargate while Oz went for a proxy dark shrine; Oz's oracle died as Arthur paired it with stalker pressure; Oz's DT went in with no detection and shortly after Arthur tapped out. Game three (Habitation Station) Arthur went for proxy DTs and Oz attacked with his mothership core and stalkers and did a ton of damage, Arthur's DTs forced a cancel on Oz's natural, but lost most of them; Oz used an immortal drop to kill the proxy dark shrine; Arthur tried to take his third at the gold as Oz went up to colossus and Arthur immortal/archon; Oz moved out onto the map and despite Arthur taking a good engagement he got run over and tapped out.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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