Photo: SK Gaming
Twenty one months ago, Jang "MC" Min Chul won his last gold medal at Red Bull: Austin and the "Boss Toss" has been in pursuit for another one since. It is at the Warer.com Invitational that he's finally triumphant again.
MC was one of the sixteen that were invited to the Warer.com tournament, an event organized by popular SC2 caster and player Yoan "ToD" Merlo. The line-up featured a large chunk of the StarCraft 2 elite, boasting names like Taeja, Bomber, Life, Innovation, MMA and Jaedong, among others. $6,000 were put on the line, half of that to go to the winner.
Not enjoying his best days in 2013, MC came into the tournament without the status of a favorite, something he used to often enjoy in the past. Placed in a Group A, his chances looked slim as he had to compete with the GosuGamers player of the year for 2013 Taeja and the macro beast and WCS Season 2 champion Bomber.
After losing to Taeja in the opening match, MC was forced to fight his way back up from the losers match. A 2-1 comeback against Fnatic's SaSe kept MC in the game and a decisive 2-0 against Bomber in the deciding series qualified him for the playoffs.
The quarter finals paired MC against DreamHack Valencia winner HyuN and the match turned out a blood bath for the Zerg player. A one-sided 3-0 advanced the Protoss into the next round where he had to play a much tougher, back-to-back series against Innovation before moving on to the grand final after a 3-2.
Late last night, MC faced his toughest opponent in the tournament in Liquid`HerO. The WCS America champion was enjoying a great overall record so far, sitting on a map score of 10-2.
The PvP between the two went all the way to the seven game as neither player could hold a lead for too long. Only on Daedalus Point was the final winner decided as MC came out of the series victorious, sitting on a 4-3 score and $3,000 richer.
Warer's trophy is MC's first since May 2012 when the Protoss - then a member of SK Gaming - triumphed over Bomber at Red Bull: Austin. Min Chul is still in pursuit of a premier gold medal, however, and it's now been two years after he was last seen holding a trophy at IEM World Championship in March 2012.
All Warer.com Invitational VODs can be found in our VOD database here.
