Photo: ESL Twitter
It’s a Liquid versus Gamers2 face-off for the European crown as the championship of the old continent resumes this afternoon.
The first two players to make it out of the groups were also the ones to reach the farthest. Thijs “ThijsNL” Molendijk and Yevgeniy “Neirea” Shumilin are the last players standing in Prague as the conclusion of the Europe Championship draws near.
Both players came out as winners of their respective groups. Thijs scored back-to-back 3-1’s against Maverick and Ostkaka in Group A to be the first player from Europe to qualify for BlizzCon. Neirea followed shortly after, winning 3-1 against Lifecoach and 3-2 against Pavel. As the groups came to a close, Ostkaka and Lifecoach also punched tickets to BlizzCon, the latter ensuring a 100% success rate for Gamers2.
Both Lifecoach and Ostkaka had dramatic final games. Despite preparing his line-up to counter Hoej’s, Ostkaka almost lost the Na'Vi mirror rematch from earlier that day. The Dane took the series to full five games but lost the Hunter versus Dragon Priest match-up and said goodbye to his BlizzCon dream.
Lifecoach, on the other hand, was gifted an unexpected present in his match against Pavel. The two players were engaged in a Handlock versus Druid match-up with Lifecoach piloting Malfurion. Having [card]Loatheb[/card] as the single minion facing a lone [card]Sylvanas Windrunner[/card] from Lifecoach, Pavel’s turn was easy: trade first, play minions later. Visibly nervous, the youngster dropped a [card]Dr Boom[/card] first by mistake, made the trade and saw a 7/7 body change posession. An unbelieving Lifecoach could not hide his excitement as he proceeded to win the game.
Compared to the tension of the group stage, the semi finals concluded with tangibly less fanfair. Upsetting experts’ predictions, Liquid’s Neirea 3-1’d Ostkaka in the first match, making it to the first major grand finals of his career. In the subsequent face-off, ThijsNL steamrolled through Lifecoach to conquer the Gamers2 mirror match and will play the Ukrainian today for the grand prize of $10,000.
