WCS EU: Nerchio earns World Championship seed

WCS European Finals

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 16.09.2012 - 23:00 CET: It's all over here in Stockholm. VortiX defeated his brother in the loser's finals and went on to face Stephano. VortiX managed to take the first best of three with scrappy play, but in the end Stephano's control and decision making proved too much, as the EG curse was defeated and Stephano took the trophy.

 16.09.2012 - 20:40 CET: Just a quick update on the state of the tournament: Spanish brothers VortiX and LucifroN are about to duke it out in the Losers Bracket finals in one of the most compelling stories of the tournament. The winner will go on to face Stephano in the Grand Finals, but all of the top seven players have already qualified for Shanghai. The full list of qualified players is Nerchio, Grubby, BabyKnight, LoWeLy, LucifroN, VortiX and Stephano.

 16.09.2012 - 16:36 CET:  He's done it! Acer | Nerchio has defeated Happy 2:0 in the seventh place consolation match to earn a seed to the Battle.net World Championship in Shanghai. Nerchio will join his teammate Acer | Scarlett in China on November 17th and 18th.

 16.09.2012 - 14:00 CET: Acer | Nerchio is eliminated from the tournament in a crazy series against Grubby, 1:2. Grubby's use of recall and excellent engagements allow him to take another unexpected victory. 

Nerchio still has a chance to qualify for WCS Grand Finals in China, though - he has to take on the loser of Happy vs Lowely. This is because Stephano already had a seed to the grand finals, and has finished in a position that would normally award one.

 15.09.2012 - 19:55 CET: Acer | Nerchio will be facing Grubby in his next match, after Grubby steals a win by building elimination from Ret in a climactic match.

 15.09.2012 - 19:55 CET: Acer | Nerchio takes two quick ZvZs against his team-mate Acer | Bly. Nerchio will go on to fight the winner of Ret vs Grubby. The two Dutch players are currently 1:1 and have begun their third game. Bly has sadly been eliminated from the tournament.

 15.09.2012 - 19:25 CET: Acer | Nerchio takes the second map and the series against DeMusliM! The map (Tal'Darim Altar) and starting positions weren't ideal for Nerchio's Zerg and the disadvantage was compounded by an early Hellion attack by the Terran that killed 13 drones. Nerchio struck back with a well-timed counter-attack that destroyed a sizeable portion of SCVs, and he also was able to hold off the first large push by DeMusliM. 

Nerchio set off an incredible Baneling land mine that destroyed a large portion of Terran units on the second big attack, and managed to delay the remaining units long enough to get Brood Lords out. In the late game, Nerchio was able to take a decisive battle using a Zergling, Infestor, Baneling and Brood Lord composition. After the carnage subsided, Nerchio remaxed with Ultralisks and took the victory. 

Nerchio and Acer | Bly  will now have to fight against each other in an unfortunate team kill situation. The winner will have to beat two more opponents to reach the final bracket.

 15.09.2012 - 18:55 CET: Acer | Nerchio has a close game with DeMusliM, but eventually wins the set on Ohana. DeMusliM opened very greedily with a heavy focus on upgrades and production, but that meant he didn't have enough to defend his bases and lost 34 workers early on. Nerchio continued his aggressive counter-attacks in the mid-game, preventing the third from mining and killing many SCVs at the natural with a zerling infestor composition. Nerchio's infestor and zergling control proved too much, and DeMuslim fell in the first set without proving much of a challenge.

 15.09.2012 - 18:45 CET: Acer | Nerchio is going up against the second EG Terran in a row, DeMusliM. Nerchio's won 11 sets of the 14 the two have played. Nerchio starts the first game by saying "The only thing you will win against me today is rock paper scissors." The match is being cast by dApollo and Kaelaris on Stream 2. DeMusliM goes into the game without having slept the night before.

 15.09.2012 - 18:20 CET: Acer | Nerchio takes out Thorzain 2:0 on Ohana. Thorzain tried a proxied double Barracks attack, but Nerchio was able to scout the attack, pull drones and construct a spine crawler in time. Both players continued to reinforce their armies, but that early spine crawler proved essential as Nerchio was able to prevent a bunker from going up in range of the Hatchery. He gathered zerglings, spine crawlers and queens to take down Thorzain's force. With the early aggression crushed, Nerchio took an easy lead in the mid-game and proved resilient enough to the Terran's drops to take the victory. Nerchio moves on to face another EG Terran, DeMusliM.

 15.09.2012 - 18:00 CET: Acer | Nerchio defeats EG Thorzain in the first map of the series, Shakuras Plateau. After Thorzain's early push was shut down by fast Roaches, the two players traded blows in the mid game. Nerchio was able to take out quite a few supply depots at Thorzain's wall, but Thorzain's hellion dropped killed a few drones. Thorzain also attempted an attack at the third, but Nerchio deflected the attack while taking fairly minimal losses. With some clutch fungals and good multi-tasking, Nerchio was able to take out Thorzain's drops and main army. With the bulk of Thorzain's forces defeated, Nerchio was able to aggressively counter-attack and take the victory.

 15.09.2012 - 17:30 CET: Acer | Bly is defeated by VortiX 2:1 in a close series. In the final game, Bly teched quickly and took a third base before his opponent, but VortiX was able to crush Bly's spine crawlers before Bly was able to get Hive tech on the field. Bly moves to the lower bracket.

Meanwhile, Acer | Nerchio has beaten Noticimus 2:0 in his first round of the loser's bracket, and will now be moving on to face the winner of TSL3, EG's ThorZaIN. Nerchio has beaten Thorzain in 12 of their last 23 sets, including their three last sets at DreamHack and the NASL Gauntlet.

15.09.2012 - 17:00 CET: Acer | Bly is 1:1 with VortiX.

15.09.2012 - 15:00 CET: Acer | Bly beat MaNa 2:1, next round is VortiX.

15.09.2012 - 14:25 CET: Acer | Bly is 1:1 vs. MaNa right now.

15.09.2012 - 14:25 CET: Acer | Bly has won his opening round match against Germany's Krass 2:0, he faces MaNa in the next round. Acer | Nerchio was downed by Sortof 2:1 in their opening round match, sending our Polish star to the lower bracket.  There he will match-up with Nocticimus from Norway.

15.09.2012 - 08:00 CET: The action begins with the first matches at 12:45 today.  Take a look at this handy schedule for full listings of this weekend's action.

World Championship Series Europe

After countless qualifiers, spanning the wide spectrum of European countries, the regional finals are here and the World Championship Series European Champion will be crowned.  As well as competing for a share of the 60,000 USD prize pool, the European players on hand will be hoping to secure one of the six spots for the World Championship itself.

Located at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, the event runs from September 15th to 16th.  The structure is a standard double elimination tournament with best-of-three in every round, meaning the player coming into the final from the lower bracket will need to win two consecutive Bo3 series, to the upper bracket player's one, to take the title.

Team Acer will be represented at the event by  Acer | Nerchio and Acer | Bly, who are the Polish and Ukrainian champions respectively.

Event schedule