Only two cups remain until the Open Division Playoffs where the top 16 point leaders will fight for their chance to face the bottom two teams in the current HGC Premier League in The Crucible. While the top teams have been virtually the same throughout the entire Open Division they continue to fight not only for prize money, but for seeding in the playoffs.
This weeks Cup #5 came to a close with two matchups consisting of two teams that have been there before and two that haven't.
On one side, Team Zealot faced wp.me. If you've been watching the Open Division, Team Zealot advancing to the semi-finals should come as no surprise. They've advanced to the semi-finals in all cup's they've played and won three of the last five. Wp.me have made it to the quarterfinals for just about all of the previous cups and impressively advanced to this semi-final. However, they weren't able to hold down against Team Zealot as they lost to the current leaders 2-1.
On the other side of the semi-finals another familiar name in 4K MMR was taking on a fairly new team, Ready Able Willing. RAW has only played in one previous cup, and weren't able to move passed their first opponent. That was definitely not the case in this cup. RAW dominated in game one impressively leading in experience, kills and turn ins throughout most of the game. While game two was fairly equal on both sides, 4K MMR came out on top to force a third game. Going into the tiebreaker, RAW took most of the punishers allowing them to keep all their structures going into level 13’s. 4K MMR had a much needed punisher at level 17 with a two kill team fight even though catapults were knocking at their core. One team fight changed the game completely at level 21, but 4K MMR over extended as RAW were able to get three easy kills and walk right to the core and advance to the finals.
In typical Team Zealot fashion, they dominated the first game of the finals, but RAW had quite an impressive game two turning it around with incredible plays from Greymane on Dragon Shire.
Game three was much more equal than the previous two as both teams began with an extremely aggressive approach. RAW pushed so far to take both towers, wall, and fort on top lane as Zealot did the exact same bottom lane. Zealots, however, had a much better soak in the mid lane giving them level four first just two minutes into the game. The playing field equaled out as both teams reached their level 10 heroic talents. But as they reached level 18 Team Zealot won a huge team fight with a five man team wipe and left room for them to take down RAW's core and the cup win yet again.
While the third place match was not broadcasted, we do know that wp.me took third place as 4K MMR was forced to forfeit due to technical issues.
There are only two European Open Division Cups left and the current standings are as follows:
After the final two cups, the top 16 teams will face off in the Open Division Playoffs. The top two teams from the playoffs will fight the bottom two teams in the current HGC Premier League with hopes to secure a spot in the league.
There's still time to enter! Think that your team has what it takes? Registration is already open for the sixth European Open Division Cup on April 11th
Are you in North America? Well you're in luck! Registration for the Fifth North American Open Division Cup is now open as well. Sign your team up here.
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