EPT Spring Regionals - Group Results + Playoff Preview

EPT Spring Regionals – Group Results + Playoff Preview

Time Stamp: April 25, 2024 2:58 AM

Group Stage Results & Playoff Brackets

by Wax

The group stage of the EPT Spring Regionals has concluded, eliminating half the players from the competition and sending the remaining half onto the playoffs. The double-elimination playoffs will begin on April 25th, with each region having a slightly different schedule.

  • EPT Europe estimated start time: 14:00 GMT (+00:00) start – April 25-28, May 2-5
  • EPT Americas: 18:00 GMT (+00:00) start May 2-5
  • EPT Asia: 10:00 GMT (+00:00) start – April 25-28

Streams (English)
Playoff Bracket

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The start of Serral’s military service on April 15th made this the first season of EPT Europe without the Finnish Phenom, and thus the Swiss group stage was played with one ‘extra’ playoff ticket up for grabs. Interestly enough, only one out of sixteen playoff spots from the previous EU regional changed hands—the aforementioned one vacated by Serral. goblin was the player who seized the opportunity, narrowly advancing with a 3-2 group stage record.

On the whole, the group stage was mostly free of drama or major upsets—though playoff regulars like SKillous and Lambo cut it close with 3-2 records. One minor surprise was Reynor advancing with a 3-0 record despite playing cross-server from Korea. However, with Reynor’s wins coming against Aristori (2-0), YoungYakov (2-1), and Harstem (2-1), things will certainly get tougher for him in the playoffs.

Speaking of the playoffs, Serral’s absence and Reynor’s cross-server play has left Clem the strong favorite to win the tournament. After all, the Serral-Clem-Reynor trinity are the only players to ever win the EU regional championship, and Clem is the most successful of them all with five titles won. With the Liquid ace’s two biggest rivals waylaid, who’s to stand between him and a sixth championship?

The obvious answer might seem like MaxPax. There have been many ebbs and flows in the MaxPax vs. Clem match-up, but in recent months, the two have been close to even (with Clem holding a slight edge). Also, when going by Aligulac.com rating, MaxPax and Clem are favored heavily against everyone else in the tournament (except Reynor, but he has a latency disadvantage), and a grand finals clash starts to look inevitable.

However, the big mark against MaxPax is his lack of success in events bigger than weekly cups. In mid/large size online tournaments such as the AfreecaTV Champions Cups, King of Battles, and NeXT, MaxPax has never reached the top four. In EPT Europe tournaments played with a double-elim playoff format, MaxPax has just a single top four finish, three top six finishes, and three top eight finishes—poor results compared to his reputation as a top Prtoss. While MaxPax did finish second in the single season of EPT Europe played in single elimination format, he benefited heavily from a lucky bracket and lost 2-4 to Serral in the finals.

Still, players like Cure, Zest, and herO have shown us that stretches of cup dominance eventually translate into major tournament success, so perhaps this is MaxPax’s chance to finally break out in a big way.

Group Stage Results

Group A

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Group B

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Playoff Bracket

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The Americas region also saw a top contender miss the playoffs, but not for out-of-game reasons like Serral. SpeCial—the regional powerhouse who went 3-0 in the previous season’s Swiss stage—found himself exiting the tournament early after going 2-3 this time around. Nina was the player who completed the upset, defeating SpeCial 2-1 in a winner-take-all duel for the playoff spot. Only one other playoff spot changed hands, and it was also a LATAM-for-NA exchange as Future entered the playoffs while eGGz bowed out.

Even though last season’s playoffs ended with the expected result of Astrea winning the championship, the rest of the bracket showed that the merged American region was quite competitive and unpredictable. Two of LATAM and NA’s most decorated players in SpeCial and Scarlett were eliminated early on, while Kelazhur enjoyed a surprising resurgence to claim second place. Also, rising Protoss talent trigger had his first breakout run, finishing in third place. The upcoming playoffs will tell us if last season was just a blip, or the start of a larger power shift in the Americas.

Group Stage Results

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Playoff Bracket

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The Asia regional was a chaotic scene, with upsets coming left and right. Oliveira, Firefly, and Cyan—the top three players from the previous regional—all barely advanced with 3-2 records. At the center of the storm was little-known Taiwanese Protoss Lemon, who upset Nice, Oliveira, and Firefly on his way to a 3-0 record. With the big three somehow all struggling at the same time, regional stalwart Jieshi also nabbed a 3-0 group stage record.

Historically, Asia has been the most top-heavy EPT region and the one with the fewest upsets, so one has to be cautious about reading too deeply into the group stage results. There’s a good chance that the group stage results were just a freak occurrence, and the favorites will get back on track and dominate as expected in the playoffs.

However, looking at Oliveira specifically, there’s a small chance that the group stage could have revealed a real problem. TvP has historically been Oliveira’s problem match-up, and the match-up was responsible for his only ever failure to win the EPT/DHM China championship (a 3-4 loss to Cyan in the finals of 2021 Winter). If Oliveira truly is hitting a rough patch in the match-up, then there’s a chance for Cyan, Firefly, or another enterprising Protoss to capitalize and seize the regional crown.

Group Stage Results

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