Zero Hour World Series 2021: The Final Four
Hello Generals,
We are reaching the end of the biggest Zero Hour tournament in history: The World Series 2021. With a prize pool of $3,500 this tournament has the highest prize pool ever. After the quarterfinals has ended, sixty players were defeated and only four players are left and they will play for the money.
Those players already have $200 in the pocket, as this is the prize for getting fourth place. However, if they win their next match, they can prepare themselves for the big final and a possible $1,600 prize. The runner up of the WS still gets a nice $800. Even when they lose the semifinals, they can still try to get their hands on third place and take home a nice $400. Who is still left and what was their path to the semifinals? Find out below.
OoE-ExCaL^
OoE-ExCaL^ came back last year, and the World Series 2020 was his first tournament he enrolled. As runner up, he showed that experts from the past are still a dangerous force. After getting second place in the WS 2020, he won quite some tournaments after with the ExtraVaganza Tournament as the most recent one. Because of this, he is the favorite to win, 53% of the people predicted him to win the WS, 81% thinks he will get at least into the finals again this year.
OoE-ExCaL^ started of the tournament with a match against -DarK9^. -DarK9^ is the only player in the whole tournament that was able to get on the scoreboard against OoE-ExCaL^. He lost with 5-1, but he got his win. In the second round, OoE-ExCaL^ faced satanic1. Satanic1 didn't lose a single game in the first round versus RouGe, but now he didn't get a single win: 6-0.
The third round was the clash of the experts: OoE-ExCaL^ vs HaWkY. HaWkY didn't play bad though, it was that OoE-ExCaL^ was just spot on with his engagements. A very convincing 6-0 victory over dual expert HaWkY granted OoE-ExCaL^ a spot in the quarterfinals against BasketBall.
BasketBall, he already took down two experts (-DoMiNaToR in the first round and BoYcaH0 in the second round), but his WS adventure ended in the quarterfinals. A whopping 7-0 for OoE-ExCaL^, he hasn't joined for fun. He wants to win it. To reach the finals again, he has to deal with Raging'Shaye.
Raging'Shaye
Raging'Shaye was the BasketBall of last year, it was him who took down two experts: BiG^SiZe and -DoMiNaToR-. This year, Raging'Shaye didn't face any experts yet.
In the first round, Balu101 was no match for Raging'Shaye resulting in a fast 5-0. Next round was MrX his opponent, and now Raging'Shaye had it a bit more difficult, but he still manage to get to the next round: 6-2.
In round three, he faced Marakar. This match was an absolute must-see as it was one of the closest sets thus far. Only five matches out of the sixty that were played had a deciding match. Match 11, a demo mirror on Farmlands of the Fallen, wasn't the longest for a GLA mirror (match was a bit over 15 minutes), but both Marakar and Raging'Shaye had good chance of winning it. It was Raging'Shaye who kept his cool and took the necessary last game: 6-5.
Raging'Shaye reached with this tight victory the quarterfinals and his next opponent was ViViD~. He played him several times in other tournaments, but he never got a win (3-4 in the Champions Cup, 0-5 in Golden Round Robin an 2-7 this year in the High Pro's League). Odds were against him, so were the predictions. 44 had ViViD~ in the semifinals, 9 had voted for Raging'Shaye. Against all odds, it is Raging'Shaye who took a spot within the last four, he won in a crazy set against ViViD~: 7-5. With a semifinal, he is performing better than last year. In 2020, he got defeated in the quarterfinals against: OoE-ExCaL^... Time for revanche.
Fargo
On the right side of the bracket, we first see Fargo. Fargo, the latest Zero Hour expert, has found himself into the semifinalist. He didn't have the most easiest route, but he had some convincing victories.
His first opponent wasn't hard, with a 5-0 -CyanSpider^ was eliminated quickly. Fargo's next opponent was from a different level: _spL_. Many expected a close set, but Fargo showed that he is an expert and he kicked out _spL_ without any mercy: 6-0. His next opponent came from the same community as _spL_ and he was about to get his revanche for his fallen comrade. With a 6-3 defeat, OwenCover took some games, first losses for Fargo thus far, but he also got defeated. Fargo isn't getting any more popular in the Russian community.
Then the big battle of the quarterfinals, a match between two experts: -BiG^SiZe^ versus Fargo. -BiG^SiZe^ doesn't need an introduction, everyone knows him and how great of a player he can be. After OoE-ExCaL^ it was -BiG^SiZe^ who got voted the most as World Series winner, he took 23% of the votes. Odds were against Fargo as 87% expected -BiG^SiZe^ into the semifinals. Fargo wasn't part of the mass, he voted for himself and he showed that selfconfidence can bring you far. As far as the semifinals, he won in an absolutely thrilling match with 7-6, or perhaps even further? Fargo picked himself as winner, and with the win against -BiG^SiZe^ he showed he is able to do so. Can he make everyone shut up and take his first big tournament win? He first have to deal with GooGle.
GooGle
GooGle, he goes away quite often but he always make a comeback to join the World Series. He did that last edition, and he did this year. Having him in the semifinals isn't a big surprise, 94% thought he would get within the last four and this is the highest percentage of all participants.
However, he was also predicted the most (72%) to reach the match for third place, only 21% thought he would get into the finals. Little note, most participants thought he had to face -BiG^SiZe^ so this outcome might give a wrong view. Seeing some recent challenges between Fargo and GooGle, the chances for GooGle will be higher than the percentage mentioned earlier. The challenges showed one thing: Fargo and GooGle are both playing on a high level and ggs can be expected.
GooGle didn't had the hardest route of all semifinalist. The first two rounds were over quickly. A 5-0 against srisis and 6-0 versus Antrip got him in round 3 without any problems. Hsn'Leb was the first player that took a few games, but with 6-3 it was GooGle who we saw in the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals was a battle for the best Arab player, ROLL was his opponent. With a convincing 7-1, GooGle showed that he is still the number one Arab player of Zero Hour. Can he show that he is also the best player of the world? For that, he has to deal with Fargo first.
Semifinals schedule
Both semifinals will be live streamed. The first match that will be played is OoE-ExCaL^ - Ragin'Shaye. This match will be played this Saturday (13 June) at 16 GMT by
Millard9.
The other clash, Fargo - GooGle is streamed by Mr. Stanislav aka
xezon. This match is scheduled for Sunday (14 June) at 16GMT.
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