Photo: Kai Kuczera / TakeTV
The defending champion will open the final day with a match against Paul “Zalae” Nemeth.
Eight players remain standing and they’re probably not who the majority would’ve expected.
The biggest surprise of the tournament remain the victorious runs of caster duo and Tempo Storm team-mates Dan “Frodan” Chou and Byron “Reckful” Bernstein. After topping his Ro32 group, Frodan was thrown in a much tougher pool, featuring world champion Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall and Jon “Orange” Westberg, who were also the grand finalists of the previous SeatStory Cup. While Ostkaka struggled to close a series, losing 2-3 to both Orange and Nuno “Ignite” Pinho to finish last in the group, the face of Hearthstone commentary sealed two victories over the ex-Luminosity player to take second in his group and advance to the playoffs.
Group C had an even more peculiar outcome. Labeled the group of death with Stanislav Cifka, James “Firebat” Kostesich and Dima “Rdu” Radu, it was actually Reckful who came on top. The Hearthstone caster and streamer was actually on the way to forfeiting his opening match against StanCifka after missing his mulligan in game two and walking out of the booth, but the Czech’s sportsmanship convinced him to come back and finish the series, ultimately resulting in a 3-2 victory for Reckful. A 3-1 against Rdu secured the top seed for the T/S member.
Though his well-wishing almost cost him his playoffs spot, StanCifka ended up second in the group, taking 3-1 victories over Firebat in the losers match and Rdu in the decider. With the end of the Ro16, both of the world champions were thus out of the running.
The top eight players now enter the fight to split the $20,000 prize pool. By the end of the night, one competitor will bank half of that.
