WC3 ESL Season 8 Finals Live stream

Memnoch

For any RTS or pro-gaming fans out there, this weekend is the finals of the Electronic Sports League being played in Cologne. The teams participating include 4kings, SK, Mouz and T.MH.

The matches are being broadcast live on ESL tv which normally charges but is free for the finals ;P

so if your interested and wanna check out some gosu's play.. the link is..

http://www.esl-europe.net/de/esltv/esltv_stream/

you will need to register an account but it's free

The first match up 4kings vs mouz should be starting any time soon. There is some sort of delay I think and they are currently broadcasting some clip from an old tournament.

I'll reply to this post when the match itself starts. The commentary is availible in English and German. The English commentary is provided by the lovely bunny and some random guy i don't know.

Memnoch

okay just as if finished posting the initial thread it looks like the match is about to get under way... and bunny is live.. check her out

4k vs Mousports!

this is gonna be a tough game for reinging champions 4k as they only have 3/4 players which gives mous 1 win already in a best of 5 matchup.

4k are going to rely on powerhouses grubby and tod to pull through for them

Memnoch

update - currently the german commentator is doing an interview (in german ) with frogbender from mousports. While they wait for players to get ready for the first match.. i'll keep updating this thread as the tournament to progresses

the reason for the delay i believe is because one of the 4k players was unable to turn up due to personal reasons. So mousports got a by in the first round. So i guess they decided to fill the time with an interview till the next round starts.

The line up is as follows.

4k.grubby vs mouz.shortround (shortround recently beat grubby in the semi's of WCG2005 so grubby will be out for some sweet revenge)
4k.fury vs mouz.romeo (fury didn't turn up so romeo gets a by)
4k.Tod vs HasuObs (Tod is favorite to win)
4k.zeus vs mouz.spell (zues is prolly 4k's weakest player and is expected to lose)
4k.tov + 4k.grubby vs mouz.spell + mouz.hasuobs (grubby and tod tend to not lose 2v2s)

my prediction 4k 3:2



UPDATE - match finally about to start, kicking off with the 2v2. Bunny is on live now!

Memnoch

1st match is underway, tod and grubby won the first map of the match so in the 2v2 it's 1:0 to 4k.

omg this is insane, grubby is playing NE and Tod is playing UD in the 2nd match up.

I don't know if this is a bold move or simply an insult to the mous players by 4k saying they can play races other than their natural race vs them

UPDATE : 1st round of the 4k vs mouz match is now finished.

4k win the 2v2 with tod and grubby taking the match 2-0. A short break now before the next patch which will be a 1v1.
the overall match score is now 1-1

Memnoch

the 2nd match has now started, short vs grubby.

Grubby is expected to win but short upset him at the WCG semi's. bunny casting again

UPDATE - grubby wins the first map gnoll wood. He used a very new and unique strategy of shamans + bat riders to counter short's mass talons. He dominates the game and takes the 1st map convincingly. Will short round be able to adapt his strategy to stage a come back in this round and take the match or will grubby complete his revenge, which while sweet would be little consolation for losing in the semi's of the prestigious WCG.

UPDATE - grubby wins the 2nd map on turtle rock with another cool and varied strategy, this time pumping out mass demoloisher and building a defensive formation in the trees behind short's base. Dominating comfortably once again grubby cleverly outsmarts short in a great display of skill and strategy. Short's stock strategy of mass talons just wasn't good enough to be able to cope with grubby's variations. Well played grubby!

Overall match score is now 2:1 to four kings

Memnoch

the 3rd match is between 4k.zeus and mouz.spell.

Both players use standard stock strategies with zeus gonig for bears and dryads with panda and DH as heros. Spell goes for casters and mortars with AM and MK as heros.

They spend most of the game creeping with a few small skirmishes here and there. A major battle erupts near the end at the center of the map and zeus keeps focussing trying to kill spell's MK who ets repeatedly saved by sorc invisibility while zeus loses numerous units and is forced to TP back to his base.

Spell pushes home the advantage and attack's zeus's base, with zeus once again trying to take down the MK, losing his entire army in the process.

GG spell 1-0 zues.

Meanwhile 4k.Tod has taken the first map vs Hasuobs in his matchup which isn't the one being shown.

Looks like a final score of 3:2 to 4k for this matchup vs mousesports is looking more and more likely.

Update -

Spell takes game two to win the round for mousports. Zeus started out with Panda and DH again but went for a couple of hunts this time to start out with rather than archers, spell decided to get some rifles to counter. Zeus's DH escapes from spell's army after a failed harass attempt only to get purged and die to a creep camp as he runs past it. Spell takes advantage of the opportunity and charges zues's base in a powerful tier 2 push with rifles, priests heros and summons and puts up a few towers. Zues is down one hero and hasn't really gotten his bears and dryad army up yet as he was trying to tech to tier 3. Zeus tries to hold on but the towers go up and spell finishes him off with ease.

This means that the deciding match up of 4k will be Tod vs Hasuobs with Tod currently 1:0 up in that matchup.

Memnoch

took a short break for lunch

meanwhile 4k won their match 3:2 vs Mouz.

Sk vs T.MH has now started and the first match is Sk.Insomnia vs T.MH.Vera.

Vera takes the first map on LT but a really great game was played by both players with some really nice saves. We saw polymorph and invisibility being used along with Kodo's unfortunately insomnia's strategy of going knights didn't pay off as they got gobbled up. And near the end vera used a really nice lightening shield on his BM to kill off an invisible trapped paladin to win the game.

gg

update - Bera takes the second map to beat insomnia 2-0. Meanwhile MYM(T.MH) take the first map in the 2v2. ESL TV has just gone off the air now and I'm gonna take a break