During the month of October, the top StarCraft players from North America played in a 16-man, best of three tournament using a double elimination format.
The total even run time was about 8 hours, and went into the morning for some. After a tough battle, we saw Idra coming in first, Skew coming in second, Dino in third, Xiaozi in fourth, and Iefnaij taking fifth place.
Many people did not think that Idra had a chance in the finals against his former clan member, since Terran vs. Terran is his weakest match-up. Surprisingly, Idra reigned victorious, and won the finals without losing a single map.
The total prize for this event was $500 for first, $300 for second, $150 for third, and $50 for fourth, with 5th place advancing into the next round as well.
Along with the money, the top five finishers would play a seperate round against some of the members from team eSTRO, a professional multi gaming team in Korea to see if one of them could actually win a spot on the eSTRO team.
- Top five against eSTRO
With one week’s rest, Idra, Skew, Dino, Xiaozi, and Iefnaij set out to compete against the Koreans from team eSTRO.
First up to bat was Iefnaij; he had his work cut out for him after he found out he had to play Sea.Really, who at the time wasn’t as known as other top eSTRO players, but just recently became popular for his games in the MBC Survivor Offline event, and Pro League matches.
Sea.Really made quick work of Iefnaij, which resulted in a 2-0 TvP win for Really, on Python and Tau Cross.
Next, we saw Xiaozi take on Bassen[fou]. Bassen is known for being a 2vs2 player, but also being a mean 1vs1 player as well while using Terran.
Going into this match, everyone was aware of foreign Zerg players not being able to stand up to professional Korean players, mostly on LAN.
This match was no different, with Bassen making quick work of Xiaozi, 2-0 TvZ for Bassen, on Python and Tau Cross.
In the third match, we had Skew vs. Mingu, the feared Zerg player. With the North Americans not knowing who they would play until the last minute, Skew was confident that he could beat any player from eSTRO that day, as long as it was not a Zerg player.
When Skew saw who his opponent was, and the race he was using, he heart was crushed, and knew he wouldn’t beable to give a great performance like he would if his opponent was a Terran or Protoss player. The result ended in Mingu winning with ease 2-0 ZvT on Pythong and Tau Cross.
Up next was Dino, a top Protoss player from USA, and a beloved member of the community. Dino walked up to the plate and saw Sea.Really returning to play another set of games.
Some may say that Dino had a shot at taking the game on Python, but it was hard to tell, due to Sea.Really being an aggressive player.
When the games finished, we saw Dino keeping the trend going with his 0-2 finish against Sea.Really on Python and Tau Cross.
Last up was Idra. He was fresh off his victory in the SuperStars tournament, and was still confident he could pull off a victory against any player from eSTRO.
With the players who had been used by eSTRO, I think Idra was expecting one of them to play against him, but he was wrong.
eSTRO sent out a strong Protoss player who went by the name of Soyeon[WHITE].
There were some parts of the match where Idra seemed like he had a chance of pulling out the win, but Soyeon kept the pressure and defeated Idra 2-0 PvT on Python and Tau Cross.
- The USA SuperStar to Korea
With much talk and more planning to do, Idra will go to Korea in early 2008, where he’ll be competing with and against other eSTRO players. He hopes to work on his game and become a true e-sports star.
Stay tuned for 2008, where IEG will hopefully bring the Starcraft community more great events.
- Important Links
StarSraft SuperStars press release
StarSraft SuperStars main thread
StarSraft SuperStars bracket
Full Replay Pack
NEW eSTRO Korean team site
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