HomeStory Cup V - Coverage Center

UPDATES

Friday 6 July:

23:59: NightEnD lost to Mvp with 0:2, and therefore finished competition as 4th in Group H with 0:3 score, and 2:6 map score.
23:05: NightEnD lost his second match with 1:2 score, and lost all chances in progressing further. He will play his last game against Mvp, but he has no chance on progressing further. We want to wish NightEnD more luck in future competitions, as he has shown great play today, and he really missed a little in order to stay in the tournament. Both of FnaticRaidCall's players are out.
22:49: Score is tied 1:1 after Golden won the game on Cloud Kingdom. Golden went for fast Broodlords and four base play, while NightEnD decided to go for a timing push with Colossi and Stalker composition.
22:36: After a forty minute game, NightEnD took 1:0 lead over Golden. Next game will start soon.
22:10: NightEnD vs Golden is now LIVE!
21:00: monchi edged out victory over NightEnD. 1:2 was the score. Next match will be MVP vs monchi.
20:40: NightEnD is curently playing 3rd game against monchi, score is 1:1. Go NightEnD!

Thursday 5 July:
19:18: After losing to Naama in close encounter with 1:2, ToD finished his competition in HomeStory Cup with 1:2 score overall, and 4:5 in map score.
18:15: ToD won his second game, taking the series 2-0 over Socke.
18:02: ToD's constant harassment with Zealots and Dark Templar has won him the first game against Socke.
16:00: Group A has started playing and ToD has lost his first match 0-2 against Nerchio.

Tournament Information

All 32 players have been found for the HomeStory Cup V that will take place July 5th-8th and the groups have been announced. These 32 players, a mix of players who were invited and who won qualification tournaments, will converge at Dennis "TaKe" Gehlen's house in Germany. Several days of ultra-personal and informal antics will combine with amazing play from some of the world's best Starcraft 2 players. The 32 players have been divided into 8 groups (Groups A-H) of 4 players each, with the top two advancing from each pool.

FnaticRaidCall is happy to say that two of our players have been chosen to compete, namely Yoan "ToD" Merlo and Lazar "NightEnD" Silviu. These two European Protoss players have been with Fnatic for quite some time and are well known names in the scene. NightEnD and ToD have spent the last several months training in Fnatic's new Gaming House in Seoul, Korea so their skill has increased substantially. You can read about ToD's invitation here and NightEnD's selection here.

The Group Stage - Preview

Players	Won	Lost	Map Score
Nerchio	3	0	6:2
Naama	2	1	5:4
ToD	1	2	3:4
Socke	0	3	2:6
Group A - Top 2 Advance

ToD's group is certainly a difficult one, as he will have to prepare for all three match ups - PvZ against Nerchio, PvP against Socke, and PvT against Naama. Now, he has certainly been playing well recently so it looks as though his training in Korea has paid off. But Nerchio is one of the best Zergs in Europe... actually he's one of the best foreign Zergs out there. Much of his success has come in online tournaments though, so perhaps ToD can benefit from his long experience with offline events. Socke is a German Protoss player that is consistently finishing at the top of tournaments, including a victory over HasuObs in the German National Championship, so we know Socke's PvP is quite good. Naama might be the easiest opponent that ToD has, but Naama's style against Protoss has always been a little weird and he's recently been training in Korea alongside MVP's B team. This will be a tough group, but aren't they all? (The answer is yes, the player pool is incredible!).

Players	Won	Lost	Map Score
MVP	2	1	5:3
Golden	2	1	5:4
monchi	2	1	5:4
NightEnD	0	3	2:6
Group H - Top 2 Advance

NightEnD's group is tough because he'll also have to prepare for all three match ups, but I think he's got a good chance to advance. MVP is the obvious favorite here - it's hard to imagine a group where the 4-time GSL Code S champion wouldn't finish in the top 2. Golden is a solid Zerg player, a Korean player on a foreign team. He has done well recently, including taking first in an NA qualifier to get here, but he hasn't shown himself to be consistently top of the line. NightEnD is good at PvZ, so beating Golden is not out of the question. monchi is a good (but lesser known) European Protoss player. NightEnD faced him in the Combined European Nationals where NightEnD beat him 2-1 and took second in the tournament. That was quite recent, so NightEnD should have an edge there. Second place (and advancing) is definitely within NightEnD's reach.