Among the esports scene, few games have had the same prolific impact as the StarCraft series. Many people consider the franchise to have been responsible for kickstarting popularity, especially in Asia, with StarCraft still remaining one of the most popular in many nations.
But for today’s tournament, we aren’t going to to the scene that has become massive in Korea and multiple other nations. Instead, we’re going to Blizzard’s end-of-year tournament that they hold in South America, the Copa America.
This third tournament has already been packed with plenty of dramatic finishes and excellent plays leading up to this final day. Sixteen players from Latin America have come to compete from seven different nations, including Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Chile. The sixteen players are as follows:
- nanO (Protoss, Brazil)
- Pacomike (Protoss, Mexico)
- Kelazhur(Terran, Brazil)
- SpeCial (Terran, Mexico)
- Fuego (Terran, Peru)
- Kaozfate (Terran, Peru)
- Sinner (Terran, Mexico)
- TerraN (Terran, Brazil)
- Cham (Zerg, Mexico)
- Erik (Zerg, Brazil)
- DarkUnnamed (Zerg, Bolivia)
- eGGz (Zerg, Colombia)
- EON (Zerg, Costa Rica)
- HalfBreed (Zerg, Chile)
- JimRising (Zerg, Mexico)
- Ryu (Zerg, Peru)
Today is the day of the finals, so all but three of these have been knocked out. As of writing this, the current remaining players are SpeCial, Kelazhur, and Cham. SpeCial was able to get the best of Kelazhur in the Winner’s Finals, moving onto the final today and knocking his opponent into the loser’s bracket. In that bracket, Kelazhur faces Cham in a rematch after being the one who had sent Cham to the loser’s bracket in the Semifinals. Whichever wins their best-of-five series will face SpeCial in the grand final to see who claims the ultimate title.
Estamos en vivo con los partidos decisivos de la Gran Final de #sc2copaamerica.
¡Ven a animar a tu país o jugador favorito!🏆 https://t.co/xJIQODidUV pic.twitter.com/gKQO25bsXS
— Blizzard Esports América Latina (@BlizzEsportsLA) December 29, 2019
With over half the players split into Zerg, much of the competition has been either mirror matches or ZvT. Cham’s journey has seen him playing against Pacomike in the quarterfinals in a ZvP, followed by the ZvT with Kelazhur that would see him knocked into the losers bracket. There, he played two mirror-match ZvZs against Ryu and Erik, managing to win up to this possible redemption bid against Kelazhur.
Kelazhur, similarly, has played almost all ZvT matches. His opening against eGGz was a ZvT, followed by his victory over Cham before moving onto a mirror-match TvT against SpeCial that would see him knocked to the loser’s bracket. Kelazhur’s third ZvT of the competition against Cham tonight could be his last, or he could continue to ensure his dominance over Zerg players.
