IeSF World Championships: The Aftermath
Over the past few days, eSports Inquirer in partnership with the Philippine eSports Organization (PeSO) and its parent entity, the International Electronic Sports Federation (IeSF) brought up-to-date coverage of the 6th IeSF World Championships, which was held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In the aftermath of the World Championships, which has just concluded today, a lot of amazing matches and surprises have happened throughout the tournament. From Romania beating China with a Meepo pick to Tunisia bagging the Hearthstone World Championship after an early 1-0 deficit, surely many tears have been shed, both by the winners and the losers.
Here is a comprehensive breakdown by category:
Real Time Strategy (RTS)
Starcraft 2 Female Category
Mayuki with the renowned casters Tasteless and Artosis.
In the grand finals match, Ma “Mayuki” Xue from China beats Niina “Soyhi” Kahela from Finland with a score of 3-2. Both of them have shown very strong Zerg play throughout the series.
An image from the first game, where Soyhi (light purple Zerg) beats down Mayuki (green Zerg) in a clash. Not long after this one, the Swede takes the first game.
Both players took matches right off the bat up to the very last map, where Mayuki simply won through making lesser mistakes as well as having a much better economy. With that, the Chinese SC2 player gets this year’s world championship, as well as a cash prize of $ 2,500. Meanwhile, the player from Finland will take the second place and $ 1,500 in cash.
One of the last clashes in the final map. Notice Mayuki’s superiority in economy.
For the third place match, it was another mirror match as the renowned Swedish Starcraft 2 streamer Emily “QueenE” Krumlinde wins against Russia’s Kseniia “Aurelia” Fedorova with a 2-0 result. Though Aurelia showed good plays throughout the matchup, it was generally QueenE who had the better gameplay overall.
QueenE (in blue) in a clash against Aurelia (in yellow).
With that, the charismatic QueenE takes third place in the tournament as well as a prize of $ 1,000.
Starcraft 2 Open Category
In the grand finals, it was another case of the classical Protoss deathball and Zerg swarm as Korea’s Joo “Zest” Sung Wook of KT Rolster fame fights against Sweden’s Anton “Zanster” Dahlström, handily taking the matchup with a 3-0 score and taking a cash prize of $ 5,000. Zanster did all that he could, however, the Korean Protoss’ performance was just too hot for him to handle. With that, the Swede takes second place and a cash prize of $ 3,000.
Zest giving an interview after winning the IeSF SC2 World Championship.
In the third-place match, it was the same Zerg versus Protoss matchup again, with Romania’s Silviu “NightEnD” Lazar going up against Russia’s Artem “sLivko” Garavtsov. Once again, the Protoss deathball rolls over the Zerg as NightEnD gets a clean slate of 2-0 and grabs the third place in the podium, thus adding another placing for his country in the tournament.
Though beaten by Zest (left, sitting) in the semifinals, NightEnD (right, sitting) redeems himself in the third place match to grab a medal for Romania.
Hearthstone Category
Meanwhile in Hearthstone, Ben Messaoud “las3ed” Amine wins the IeSF Hearthstone World Championship against Bajrami “Yhone” Urim of Austria. Las3ed’s road to victory was not easy as his first opponent was Dima “Rdu” Radu, an established Hearthstone player. Rdu was favored to win the tournament. However, he was beaten by las3ed early on in the playoffs. Seung Jae “Seung Jae” Chae was next to challenge las3ed. However, he was defeated with a score of 2-3. Yhone was the last opponent of las3ed but las3ed showed better plays, coming back from a 1-0 deficit to win with a 4 -2 score.
The IeSF Hearthstone World Champion sharing a few insights after the Grand Final.
Dota 2 Category
The Dota 2 grand finals ended with China winning 3-0 against Romania. This would make China the first ever IeSF Dota 2 champion. NewBee, the representive of Team China for Dota 2, did play well overall in the tournament but was defeated in the group stages against Team Romania. The significance of that game was that Omar “w33” Aliwi, one of the top solo MMR players in Europe, picked Meepo for his team. The hero Meepo is an unusual pick in the pro scene since he requires several prerequisites such as a high skill cap and a niche pick. NewBee faced Team Romania once again and learned to play safely against a Meepo pick, thus earning their win.
Game 3 of the Dota 2 Grand Finals. The Romanian side taps out after a while.
Fighting Games
Ultra Street Fighter 4 Category
In the Ultra Street Fighter 4 category, Korea’s Seonwoo Lee beats Finland’s Joni Wielert in the grand finals match with a score of 3-0. This solidifies Korea’s domination in the fighting games category in this tournament. Romania’s Mihai Ene gets the bronze medal as he is crushed by Seonwoo Lee in the loser bracket final with a score of 3-0.
The grand finals of the USF4 category.
The lower bracket finals for the USF4 category.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Male Category
In the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 male category, Hyun Jin Lim from Korea handily dispatches Denmark’s Mark Andersen with a score of 3-0 in the grand final. Third place goes to Romania’s Alexandre Prodan, who was beaten by Andersen on the way to the grand final with a score of 2-1.
The grand finals of the TTT2 male category.
The lower bracket finals for the TTT2 male category.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Female Category
In the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 female category, Russia’s Sofia Degay wins against Croatia’s Milica Tesovic with a result of 3-0, thus grabbing a gold medal in the IeSF World Championship for her country. The third spot in the podium goes to Finland’s Tuula Randala, who was taken out of the tournament by Milica Tesovic with a score of 2-0.
The grand finals of the TTT2 female category.
The lower bracket finals for the TTT2 female category.
It can be observed that even after the tournament has been concluded, quite a good number of players still want to enjoy the game!
One more round, please!
Overall results:
1st place: Korea
2nd place: China
3rd place: Finland
The top three placing countries: (left of the pic) From left to right: Finland, Korea and China.
The biggest surprise of the World Championships would most certainly be Amine “las3ed” Ben Messaoud taking the Hearthstone world title, besting other players around the world which included players such as Dima “Rdu” Radu, who is a well-known contender in the European Hearthstone scene. This just shows that as long as one shows the proper amount of skill, grit and determination, anyone from around the world can win.
In general, the results were not that surprising as all the three countries on the podium had stable gaming scenes and eSports infrastructure. However, it is interesting to note that the Romanian national team gave a lot of teams a run for their money in this year’s edition of the IeSF World Championships.
Looking forward to the next year’s Championship!
-Inquirer eSports, with additional reporting from Robin Locson and Earl Guevarra-
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