ESWC Grand Final Day 2 result

So groupstage A of ESWC DotA Grand Final has finished their matches yesterday, continued by series of matches from group B today, as well as the semi final match which proceed several hours after Group B concludes. The overall result of group stage:

Singaporean team Zenith made an immediate impact by beating MYM in their first match. Due to stream crash, it seems like the replay for this game won't be available. But the lineup went as follows:

Zenith, Sentinel
[na] zEn|th`hyhy.rsc (Top)
[lion] zEn|th`ToFu.rsc (Top)
[visage] zEn|th`MaG3.rsc (Middle)
[skeleton king] zEn|th`AKA.rsc (Jungle)
[necrolyte] zEn|th`Kira.rsc (Bottom)

Meet Your Makers, Scourge
[morphling] MYM|Maelk (Top)
[furion] MYM|MaNia- (Jungle)
[tinker] MYM|Merlini (Middle)
[spectre] MYM|Fear (Bottom)
[lich] MYM|PusHer (Bottom)

According to MYM|Merlini and MYM|Pusher interview, they talked about theirteam matches against zenith and mentioned something about being surprised with zenith' first pick, Visage which is of course, not uncommon in Asian scene. Thus MYM proceed with a rather unusual lineup, picking morphling and tinker along the way. I haven't watch the replay so I don't know how much does the game goes, so I can't say much about the game itself.

Zenith continue to dominate further by convincingly beating (or should I say, total rape) their next two oppponents, Hungarian The Elder Gods (TEG) and American Pandemic/JoY. However, they surprisingly were lost in their final match against Brazillian team Fearz, in which we saw a rapier by Mirana in this game. But with three wins and one loss, nothing could stop them from advancing to the playoff, especially since MYM also did the same to the rest of the teams. With three wins each for MYM and Zenith, both team topped Group B and qualify for the semi final.
I didn't manage to watch most of these replay due to my busy schedules, but I was still able to watch a couple of Zenith replay. And I must admit that I was very impressed with their performance. In their match against TEG, I was mesmerized with the jukes by Leoric and Lion at bottom first tower, as well as Leoric animation cancelling his stun later to deceive QoP.

Since some of the matches were pretty much bugged with crashed, therefore some of the replays were not available. For other replays of Group B matches, visit MYM site coverage:
http://www.mymym.com/en/coverage/522/10.html

.................................

And with that, the semi final matches have been set. Kingsurf as group A winner met MYM as Group B runner up, and EG met Zenith. Zenith was impressive as usual, winning their match rather easily while KS need to endure some hard fought battle before a drop cause the game to load (which surprisingly they won just 5 minutes right after the reload. Yamateh played a brilliant QoP as usual, while Papaxiong broodmother really amazed me with the way he utilizes his spiderling.

Semi Final 1: Kingsurf (Malaysia) vs Meet Your Makers (Denmark)

Kingsurf, Sentinel
[zeus] Ks ` SakuRa (Top)
[necrolyte] Ks ` x|aOmA (Top)
[broodmother] Ks ` papaxiong (Middle)
[warlock] Ks ` xiaogui (Bottom)
[qop] Ks ` YamateH (Bottom)

Meet Your Makers, Scourge
[puck] MYM|Maelk (Top)
[earthshaker] MYM|MaNia- (Top)
[lion] MYM|Merlini (Middle)
[leoric] MYM|Fear (Bottom)
[lich] MYM|PusHer (Bottom)


Semi Final 2: Zenith (Singapore) vs Evil Geniuses (USA)

Zenith, Sentinel
[puck] ZENITH HYHY RSC (Top)
[necrolyte] ZENITH MUJI RSC (Top)
[visage] ZENITH MAG3 RSC (Middle)
[leoric] ZENITH KING RSC (Bottom)
[lion] ZENITH TOFU RSC (Bottom)

Evil Geniuses, Scourge
[dazzle] EG.Whisper (Top)
[mercurial] EG.King (Top)
[shadow fiend] EG.Remstar (Middle)
[qop] EG.DOGKaiser (Bottom)
[earthshaker] EG.HiT0Mi (Bottom)

With this, the ESWC has made its history to host an all Asian grand final in their first ever edition of DotA division. The final is expected to be played tomorrow morning (Australian time). Could be an epic match to see an Asian showdown for the crown of the most prestigious competition in e-sports.

p/s: KS-MYM matches ended just 30 minutes before my afternoon classes started at 3pm - luckily I still manage to catch the bus and arrive on time XP

ESWC Grand Final 2008