Over 120 players, and a 64-person elimination bracket, have taken the Garden Theater in Detroit, Michigan by storm.
As the fourth event in the 2014 Red Bull Series, the top StarCraft 2 players are fighting for a chance at a piece of the $25,000 and 4,000 WCS points prize.
Casted by Kevin “RotterdaM” van der Kooi, Nathan “Nathanias” Fabrikant, Yoan “ToD” Merlo, Dennis “HasuObs” Schneider, Alex “Axeltoss” Rodriguez and James “Mal” Song, the single-elimination bracket stage of the competition has been raking in over 42,000 Twitch viewers over the weekend, as the race to the finals becomes fiercer with every match.
The Semifinals
With audience members and Twitch viewers on the edge of their seats, viOLet (a Korean Zerg player) upset HyuN 2-1 for a secured spot in the semi finals, while Polt (a Korean Terran player) met the same 2-1 fate against San.
As the opposition continued, StarDust beat out Snute 2-1 to secure a spot against Taeja, who shutout Petraeus 2-0.
Semifinals 1: viOLet vs. CMStormPolt
Now, with an unsurprisingly Korean-dominated top 4, the first semifinal match of the day was an intense Terran (Polt) vs. Zerg (viOLet) match.
An incredible come-from-behind victory by Polt in the first game featured beefed up Mauraders and Marines and a steady mineral stream via 4 Command Centers.
viOLet decided to kick it up a notch for the second game to roll over Polt with hordes of Banelings and Zerglings, but Polt didn’t let that phase him as he took the victory with a 3-1 score.
Semifinals 2: StarDust vs. TaeJa
Stardust took a well-deserved victory for Protoss with bad manners in his first-game victory after he started dancing with his stalkers in the first 15 minutes.
However, the crowd went wild as TaeJa decided to turn it around with 3 consecutive wins, proving that Terran can in fact come out on top.
With an army of Medivacs to infiltrate and keep his Mauraders alive, TaeJa shredded through StarDust’s Zealots. StarDust took his defeats in stride, ending each match with a smiley face and a “GG.”
The Finals
The hype started to rise as the final best of 5 between TaeJa and Polt went underway. Both playing Terran, Polt sweeped TeaJa’s economy strategy with a risky, all-in performance in the first game.
Polt continued to test the limits during the second match by harassing TaeJa’s economy. After continuing to slow TaeJa down via the Medivac backdoor, there was no recovering as Polt sweeped the second game in a mere 8 minutes.
Feeding the screaming crowd, Polt shut out TeaJa completely in a 3-0 victory by once again repeating the backdoor Banshee and Medivac tactics he used previously.
The Celebration
In a shower of confetti, Polt took the $8,000 grand prize, 750 WCS points, and a spot at Red Bull Battle Grounds: Washington DC.
After many months as a runner up, Polt has finally taken home a championship. He expressed how ecstatic he was through a permanent grin.
He spoke humble words of wisdom in the final moments of his interview, thanking all of his friends, family, and colleagues for contributing to his success.
To watch a recap of the final matches in full, they are all available on the Red Bull Twitch page here.
