WCG Moscow 2006

Yesterday a WCG local preliminary was held that is tougher then WCG nationals in many other countries- yes, I am talking about WCG Moscow. With attendance of such talents as Mamon, Creativ and Potrax this year proved to be as exciting and tough as ever. Fourty Eight(48!) players have attended the tournament, proving once again that Brood War is still alive(WarCraft nomination, for example, attracted only 47 people!)

In the end only 5 people were left standing. 3D.Escape, hands red in blood of his opponents, was standing on top, looking over the battlefield. His number one rival, MCA aka Lammerman didnt betray his habit and yet again proved that talent prevails over practice placing 2nd. MiG.Finger suprised everyone by placing 5th and getting the last qualification spot, over Potrax[S2]. In other news, two of the favorites, the most active Russian player fAke.Mamon.oO and another closet gosu, MiG.Scout, on the countrary to all the predictions, have not made it and been eliminated (intresting enough, both fell victim to 3D.Escape in the winnerbrackets). And yAn who once put fear and despair into the hearts of his enemies, now tried on a new rule- of a friendly and cuddly judge!(Don't try to cheat around him though- he will strike you down with vengeance!)


yAn repremanding the mischieving youngsters

1st		3D.Escape
2nd		MCA
3rd		Notforu[S2]
4th		Casper[S2]
5th		MiG.Finger

What happens now? Tommorow, starting 10:00am Russian Time 32 best StarCraft: Brood War players from all over Russia will face off in a battle to make one's dream come true. The dream of Monza. Only 3 however will leave the tournament with the magical tickets in their pockets. Who will it be? Nobody knows, and only a few dare to predict. Not even the Iron Trio of Advokate, Ex and Androide know. All of them denied me an answer when i asked whether they think they can make it, telling me that only time will tell...

Autobirth	mYm.Advokate[S2]
	RoX.BenQ.Ex[S2]
	3D.Androide
St.Petersburg	fake.BRAT_OK.oO
	--v|Leprosy
	RoX.BenQ.Bruce[S2]
Novosibirsk	3D.Chekanog
Tumen	FD.furt1g
Yakutsk	eLk
Irkutsk	3D.Drag.TFS
Vladivostok	fAke.Assault
Volgograd	fAke.Yago
	ah2
Krasnoyarsk	Kazuya[S2]
Habarovsk	Krusty_Zone
Voronezh	Jung-su]n.b[
Samara	fAke.gogna
Kazan	Jogi[a2]
Krasnodar	Iron[S2]
Tomsk	fAke.Lester.oO
Rostov	aFz.NiC
Saratov	fatUm
Nizhniy Novgorod	aFz)ho8ot
	fake.gagTerran
	fake.Chaki_bzzz
Ekatirinburg	3D.Demich
	Nt.Executer
Moscow	3D.Escape
	MCA
	Notforu[S2]
	Casper[S2]
	MiG.Finger

Three of the people are unfortunately unavailable for the time of the finals, and will be substituted by RoX.BenQ.Pomi[S2] (WCG Russia 2005 5th place) and Potrax[S2] (WCG Moscow 6th place) and Rus_Brain(WCG Vladivostok 3rd place). If more people would be absent the spot will go to either someone who finished in a close proximity to, but has not earned a qualification spot in one of the local preliminaries (i.e.: --v.Profy who finished 4th in St.Petersburg prelims) or a freeslot.

In the last second I managed to catch up with Casper who could not sleep and was kind enough to give me the following statement:

Moscow WCG Preliminary was not too hard for me. The hardest game was in Round One against --v.Pallmall which lasted for 42 minutes. There i miraculously managed a come back after an awfull start ... I think anyone can defeat the Advokate-Ex-Androide Trio, but I think the Pomi and Bruce have the best chances as the most experienced players there.

And just as everyone else I talked to, Casper refused to tell me what does he think about his own chances, and assured me that he will take every opponent seriously and give it his 100%.