ESL Montreal station naturally attracts the attention of almost all Star Wars enthusiasts.
Although the number of StarCraft players is not particularly large, they are all very loyal and regard them as their natal game.
Since the beginning of the auditions, countless StarCraft players have paid close attention to ESL anchors.
StarCraft's auditions are different from many other e-sports events. Those who can sign up for ESL and participate in the auditions offline are all professional players.
The professional level in Europe, America and South Korea is higher than Fox and Jq, so the game is not easy for them.
For the 24 directly invited players, the official has specially prepared a room, and there is also a special computer in the room.
The conditions for other contestants participating in the audition are not so favorable.
The auditions have begun, and Brother Huang and Brother Sun have also begun live broadcasting the entire journey of the auditions for Chinese players.
The main focus is still on Time.
With Time's strength, it's totally OK to make it out of the auditions. Jq and Fox's strength is a little less impressive.
Sure enough, in the second round of the qualifiers, Fox met the Korean professional player Zoun, who was also a member of the league. After some resistance, he lost the game 0-2 without any suspense.
Zoun's current world ranking is around 30-40, and it's relatively easy to beat Fox.
Jq's draw is slightly better, as almost all players he encounters in each round are European and American players.
Players in Europe and the United States are at a higher level than those in the Korean competition, but in terms of average level, they are definitely not as good as those in the Korean competition.
Jq had two consecutive 2-1 thrilling passes.
Time's game was not going well either. He met Korean professional player Impact in the second round of the auditions, and European and American player MarineLorD in the third round. Both of them narrowly advanced after three hard games.
Fans here in China watched the game with trepidation, but there were no near misses.
Fox was eliminated at the end of the first day, and Jq also lost to Bunny in the last round of the first day and fell into the loser's bracket.
The winner group must first select 4 places.
Time and Bunny are also old teammates in the club. Time is slightly better in terms of strength. This time the draw is also good. In the qualifying match, Time encountered Bunny, whom he is familiar with.
Against the same clan, they successfully reached the top 32 with a score of 2-0.
As a result, three players from China have advanced to the top 32 of ESL Montreal.
Another Chinese player Jq also failed to create miracles and failed to perform at his best against Korean professional player Super.
Was eliminated 0-2.
In this way, the players in the Chinese division did not exceed everyone's expectations.
Both newcomers failed to qualify for the main draw.
Three players, Gao Ran, Time and Rocket, successfully advanced to the top 32.
In the knockout rounds, almost all the people who qualified were familiar faces.
In this way, all the auditions have been settled, and the top 32 have been finally determined.
However, the live broadcast is not over yet. On the official live broadcast page, they still have a live draw.
There is no break in ESL games. It is played continuously. There are two days of auditions, two days of group stage, and two days of knockout. A total of 6 days of competition, the schedule is also very compact.
Zhang Shengze also sat next to Gao Ran and watched the lottery ceremony.
Just now he asked Gao Ran if he was watching the game. Gao Ran said that he would go to Gao Ran to watch the game together.
You can also secretly learn Gao Ran’s game understanding and make progress.
"Aren't you nervous?"
Gao Ran looked at Zhang Shengze's calm look and asked curiously.
Zhang Shengze shrugged.
"To be honest, I can definitely count these 32 on one hand."
"Just don't assign me to that kind of death group."
With Zhang Shengze’s current strength, he can compete with non-top players in Korea, Europe and the United States. It’s hard to say who will win and who will lose.
You will definitely not be able to beat the top players.
Therefore, no matter which group he is assigned to, Zhang Shengze mainly focuses on fighting. He played ESL for 2 years and reached the top 16 once.
"here we go."
…
The live draw ceremony began, and everyone was paying attention to the grouping situation.
For the audience, grouping is just a matter of watching the excitement and is not a big deal. They are eagerly looking forward to having a few more death groups so that the group stage can start to get fierce.
All the players are also paying attention. Tomorrow the ABCD group competition will start, and they don't have much time to prepare.
The drawing process was very fast, and the first place players in the 8 groups were already determined in the first round of drawing.
There are only a few weaklings who can make it to ESL32.
Gao Ran was drawn in the second round.
Drawn to Group F!
The first player in Group F is Clem, currently ranked 7th in the world.
Clem was relieved to see a Chinese player drawn into his group.
The Chinese players are not very good except for time. They are 2 out of 4 in the group stage. If they really encounter a few tough opponents, they will lose a layer of skin even if they qualify.
When Group F was drawn again in the third round, the Chinese and Korean audiences were stunned.
Dark!
It can be said that he is the best Zerg player in Korea.
European and American audiences don't know Gao Ran's strength, but they know it all too well.
Clem, who is ranked 7th in the world, Dark, who is ranked 8th, and Gao Ran, whose strength is unfathomable.
This group...
Now it has the flavor of a group of death.
"Damn it, whoever gets in your group will die."
"I won't be so unlucky."
Zhang Shengze clasped his hands in front of Gao Ran. Time has been drawn to Group B, and his name has not been released yet.
He is not as relaxed as he was just now.
"Amitabha!"
Zhang Shengze really doesn’t want to have competition experience. Who can come out of this group?
The remaining Korean professional players who did not draw are also praying.
Don't be so unlucky.
In terms of strength, this group of three players are among the top 10 in the world.
In the final round of drawing, when the last person was chosen, the Chinese and Korean audiences were dumbfounded.
Parting is also stupid.
Damn it.
what's the situation?
The last person in Group F is surprisingly the Korean Protoss Parting, who is also the top three Protoss player in South Korea!
"It's over, it's all over."
Parting's face is ashen.
The Protoss is very passive against Gao Ran. They are forced to attack Gao Ran and are unable to perform the defense that the Protoss is best at.
It's hard to beat.
Not to mention the strength of Clem and Dark, it is difficult for Parting to win.
He felt that his coffin board had been covered.
There are still a large number of viewers in Europe and the United States who are relatively familiar with Gao Ran, because the team leagues here are also broadcast in Europe and the United States.
This group was a surefire group of death as soon as it came out.
However, in addition to group F, group H can also be called the group of death.
The four people inside are Flime, currently ranked number one in the world, Cure, the top human from South Korea, Byun, the top human from South Korea, and Tav, a European and American player (ranked 31st in the world).
Except for the European and American player who is surprisingly weak, it would be too cruel to have two of the other three players.
But everyone still thinks Group F is the scariest.
There is no weakling in this group, and the confrontation between any two people will be fierce.
