WCS North America continues with Group E playing with some very promising matches with players such as Minigun, Fenix, Apocalypse, and Nestea. With two Korean players in the group as well, it looks to be a difficult group to survive.
Nestea loves Mutalisks
The first series of the night was between Minigun and Nestea. Game one began with Nestea creating a proxy hatchery at Minigun's natural that greatly delayed Minigun's expansion. Afterwards Nestea teched to mutalisks and amassed too many mutalisks for Minigun to combat, allowing Nestea to take game one. Game two showed Nestea perform the same opening by morphing a hatchery at Minigun's natural, although Minigun was able to deflect it and looked outstanding with a transition into double stargate, he negated getting his air upgrades and once again Nestea was able to power through with a massive ball of 60 mutalisks. Giving Nestea the series 2:0.
Koreans dominating the group
The second series was between Fenix and Apocalypse, Apocalypse was one of the four Koreans who qualified through the qualiferes. Game one saw Fenix go mech to Apocalypse going bio. Fenix put up a valiant fight however Apocalypse was able to out macro him and push through his siege line and take game one. Game two Fenix started out looking great deflecting all of Apocalypse's banshee and widow mine pressure. However he gave his lead away when he lost a large bit of his army with a failed drop. Apocalypse was able to capitalize on this and push through with more tanks and a better economy and take game two and with it the series 2:0.
Nestea wins the group without dropping a game
The third match of the night was between the two Korean players Nestea and Apocalypse. Game one began with an awkward by Nestea favoring an early Roach/Zergling aggression with Apocalypse holding with minimal damage, however Apocalypse negated building workers throughout the engagement so he was left behind. Though he was able to do large amounts of damage with a counterattack he just could not do enough damage to Nestea's economy. Nestea was eventually able to overwhelm Apocalypse with his ability to re-max letting him take game one. Game two Nestea opened the same way with the heavy Roach/Zergling aggression, this time he was able to catch Apocalypse by surprise and do a huge amount of damage. Afterwards Nestea was able to freely expand and tech into Mutalisk and Banelings allowing him to bust through Apocalypse's defenses and allowing Nestea to take another series 2:0, and with it securing him a spot in the Round of 16.
Battle Between the Foreigners
With the Korean players dominating the matches before, the fourth series of the night was between the two foreigners that were knocked down earlier. Game one Fenix put on a large amount of pressure with medivac drops and widow mine harassment, allowing him to keep Minigun's economy down while Fenix was able to expand and mass large bio army and decimate Minigun's army and take game one. Game two Minigun fended off all of Fenix's pressure even feedbacking three fully loaded medivacs while performing a dark templar opening that did a moderate amount of damage. Afterwards Fenix pulled a large amount of his SCVs, but his army was simply melted by the amount of colossus that Minigun had. Game three Minigun continued his outstanding defense against Fenix's drop play. With his fantastic defense Minigun was able to build up a deathball of colossus/high templars, and decimate Fenix giving Minigun the series 2:1
Worse News for Root
With Minigun on a two game winning streak it seemed like he couldnt be stopped and if anyone could stop his streak it would be Apocalypse. Game one Minigun showed how he was able to beat Fenix, taking an early lead and capitalizing on his lead by hitting a timing push with immortals and taking an early game one. Game two Minigun had some impressive holds against Apocalypse and looked great going into the mid game, however he moved his army out for an attack against Apocalypse, however Apocalypse was able to counterattack and tie up the series. Game three Apocalypse went for a five barracks before gas build that was scouted by Minigun, who reacted by hitting a colossus timing attack. However he over extended and lost a large portion of his sentries. He was able to destroy Apocalypse's third base but he didn't have any upgrades so Apocalypse was just able to decimate Minigun's forces and take the series 2:1 and with it a spot in the round of 16.
