Contents
Three qualified through the EU Division, and the fourth team came through the North American Division. They are:
- EU Division – Team Secret
- EU Division – Team Liquid
- EU Division – Vega Squadron
- NA Division – Planet Odd
Competition format
The event is a double-elimination, best-of-three format. The Grand Final will be best of five. The teams will clash first in the semis, with the two losers dropping into the Losers Round One and the two winners entering the Winners Final.
The victor in the Winners Final goes on to the Grand Final. The loser of that game then takes on the winner of the Losers Round One match in the Losers Final. The winner of that game goes on to contest the Grand Final.
The semis, Winners Final, and Losers Round One will take place Friday, July 21. The Losers Final and the Grand Final will be held the following day.
What do the bookies think?
The bookmakers have Team Liquid as the 10/11 favourites for this event. They won the previous DreamLeague Season 6 event back in November, defeating Escape Gaming 3-0. Since then, they have taken top prizes in the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3, the StarLadder i-League Invitational #2, and at Epicenter 2017.
Their dominance at the last DreamLeague event — Team Liquid cruised to an undefeated win in November — makes them clear favourites this time around.
Team Secret (9/4) are the clear second favourites for the title. It’s been a quiet 2017; their last major victory came in the ROG MASTERS back in November. Before that, the team won a massive, $1.1 million at the 2016 Shanghai Major.
Planet Odd (11/2) are the third favourites and have only been together for a few months. They have not yet won a major tournament of any sort, finishing second in June’s Galaxy Battles event.
The outsiders are Vega Squadron (10/1), who have struggled in elite company since winning the ESL One in New York back in October 2015. Their recent form, even in second-tier Major and Minor events hasn’t been anything to write home about. They are the huge underdogs here against a top-class field.
Polish ace Elazer comes out on top at StarCraft II WCS Valencia
It wasn’t just CS:GO teams battling at this past weekend’s DreamHack event in Valencia. Eighty of the best StarCraft II players were also on hand. In the end, it was Polish ace Elazer who claimed the $25,000 top prize and a seeded place at the WCS Global Finals later this year.
There were three opening group stages, beginning with 20 different groups of four players. The top two players in each advanced through the next two group stages until the field was narrowed to 16.
Here, Elazer began his journey to the final against Has and took the opening two maps, Proxima Station and Sequencer, before Has won the Abyssal Reef map to give himself a chance of victory. But a win on Odyssey was enough to move Elazer into a quarterfinal clash with fellow Pole and tournament favorite Nerchio.
A tough game between the two compatriots was expected, and that is precisely what transpired. Elazer took the opening map before Nerchio struck back. Two wins in the next maps saw Elazer through 3-1, and he moved into the semis to take on South Korean star TRUE.
TRUE had already upset PitDrogo in the bracket phase, but Elazer proved too tough. The Pole earned a 3-1 victory to reach the final against one of the top StarCraft II players ever to have played in Europe, Norwegian ace Snute.
Snute had the edge in terms of experience, and he started as the favourite to win the matchup. That faith looked to be sound when Snute raced to a 2-0 lead after the first two maps in this best-of-seven series. Elazer struck back to win the third map, Odyssey, but Snute won the fourth to put him 3-1 up and needing just one more map to seal it.
This adversity brought out the best in Elazer, who took the next three maps, Blood Boil, Sequencer, and the deciding Defenders Landing to claim a stunning 4-3 victory.
The next WCS event will be Sept. 8-10 in Montreal.
