Check Conquers the First Excello Asian Cup

The first Excello Asian Cup took place on Saturday, March 15th. There was no shortage of well-known players: Sky, Shy, Sai, Suho, Sase, Space, TH000, TeD, Like, Winners, Who, Eve, Minhyuk, and, of course, Check all showed up to battle for the Cup and its 100 Euro prize.

Sai was able to takeout Sky, the renowned greatest Warcraft player of 2006, but lost to TeD in the semifinals. TeD was also able to defeat Space, who eliminated Like earlier on.

Check squared off victoriously against Kei in the
semis and against TeD in the finals.

A short recap of the final round games of Check vs TeD:

Check’s DR, Naga, and mass dryads backed with expansions overcomes TeD’s anti-dryad, tri-hero army.

Game One – Turtle Rock. Check’s smart creeping with his DR and archers boasted his DR to level 3 while keeping TeD’s attempts to jack largely unsuccessful and his DK at level one. Check used this advantage to expo whilst simultaneously pumping out dryads. Both players went Naga second,
and while TeD tried to counter the mass dryads with a combination of fiends,
abominations, statues, a Lich holding an orb of corruption, and a decent
number of meat wagons, the expo and experience advantage was a little too
much, and ultimately Check was able to outproduce TeD, winning the game.

TeD catches Check’s expo just as it is completed, destroys it, and then adds meat wagons and more abominations to clinch the game.

Game Two – Twisted Meadows. Both players repeat what they did in game one—DR with archers for Check and DK with late fiends for TeD. But this time TeD is able to kill off a bundle of archers with his nova-coil-forked lightening nuke in a creepjack. He also catches Check’s expo right when it’s up and is able to defeat Check’s dryad army mostly due to his nuke and nice use of burrow. TeD adds more abominations and meat wagons to his army, creating a 67-food army vs Check’s 43-food army. As Check is prancing towards TeD's base, TeD shatters Check's Tree of Ages—shortly after Check adds in a GG.

TeD’s push fails, but Check’s push prevails with a quick DK kill.

Game Three – Terenas Stand. TeD pushes Check just as his Tree of Eternity finishes. His lone DK with a combo of ghouls and gargoyles, however, isn’t able to stand up to a recently turned level three Panda and an orbed DH along with dryads and archers. Check retaliates and pushes TeD’s base with mass dryads. After demolishing TeD’s shop with a sapper, Check focuses on TeD’s DK, killing it. TeD replies with a GG.

In this back-and-forth game, Check’s manaburn, breath of fire, hippogryphs, dryads, and bears eventually prevail over TeD’s mass gargoyles and wyrm army.

Game Four – Gnoll Wood. Both players begin standard: It’s DH archers vs. DK ghouls. Later on, Check adds dryads, hippogryphs, a Panda, and a couple of bears to his arsenal while TeD adds a large number of gargoyles and a Lich carrying an orb to his. Both players expand. The first battle occurs at TeD’s expo—TeD’s gargoyles swiftly rip apart Check’s hippogryphs, but Check’s two bears and heroes rough up TeD’s DK to red health. Both players retreat then clash again, this time at TeD’s base. Even though TeD forces Check to TP out by focusing on his DH, he loses quite a bit of gargoyles.

Both players expand yet again. The third battle occurs outside of TeD’s first expo. TeD’s frost wyrm is quickly clawed to death by the hippogryphs. And while TeD’s gargoyles manage to defeat the hippogryphs, most are killed off by level 3 BOF and poison stabs from the DH and dryads. TeD’s heroes also take a heavy beating from the DH and bears. TeD is unable to come back from this battle and realizes it’s over when Check kills off most of his acolytes. He leaves the game, and Check is crowned the winner of the first Excello Asian Cup.

Links
Team Excello - Complete Asian Cup Bracket Grid