Yesterday the first four groups of SSC III were played out. While it was not a full-grown slaughter of the favorites, there were definitely some surprises as C9's StrifeCro, TempoStorm captain Reynad and Forsen dropped out of the tournament, among others.
Group A
Group A was dubbed to be the group of death of the tournament beforehand, bringing in the reigning champion Savjz, Assembly Winter winner Vortex, trig’s Powder who recently won Insomnia 54 and of course Reynad, the people’s champion. Savjz eventually was first to qualify for the second group stage, taking down Reynad and Powder and netting two wins with his signature aggressive Paladin deck (also known as Eboladin). Vortex had lost his first match of the day to Powder but then proceeded to kick Reynad out of the tournament - only to lose to Powder again in the group’s deciding match.
Savjz and Powder advance, Vortex and Reynad are out.
Group B
Group B saw another big fan favorite going down as Forsen lost both his matches against Numberguy and Alesh 1-3. On the contrary, Xixo ousted those two with impressive 3-0 and 3-1 wins respectively, so the group’s deciding match was going down between Alesh and Numberguy. Here, the latter lost his first two matches with his Mech Mage and wasn’t able to reverse sweep Alesh’s Fast Druid, therefore going down 1-3.
Xixo and Alesh advance, Numberguy and Forsen are out.
Group C
If group A was the group of death, this group was the group of death no one talked about prior to the tournament, bringing Cloud 9’s ace StrifeCro together with up-and-comer Orange and the lesser known Ostkaka and Freakeh - players who are very well regarded amongst the pro scene nevertheless. This group provided the biggest upset of the day as StrifeCro went down fairly quickly against Freakeh and later Orange in the loser’s match. Meanwhile, Ostkaka took the group’s top spot with wins over Orange and Freakeh. The group’s decider was played between those two shortly after, being close friends and former teammates. Ultimately, Orange was able to get a 3-1 win and proceed to the second group stage.
Ostkaka and Orange advance, Freakeh and StrifeCro are out.
Group D
Group D, the group of casters. Most people probably expected Hyped and Zalae to advance fairly uncontested but boy, were they wrong. The matches started with a quick 3-0 from Lothar over Frodan and after that Hyped took a 3-1 over Zalae. Lothar though didn’t care at all about his perception as being one of the group’s weaklings, taking a very close 3-2 victory over Hyped in the winner’s match. Zalae was able to defeat Frodan 3-1 in the loser’s match right after, so the group’s decider was a rematch between Hyped and him. Here, Hyped was able to validate his first win of the day with a second one over the same opponent, winning 3-2.
Lothar and Hyped advance, Zalae and Frodan are out.
Today, the action continues on 14:00 CEST.
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