[s]event_223[/s]Yesterday a WCG local preliminary was held that is tougher then WCG nationals in many other countries- yes, I am talking about WCG Moscow. With attendance of such talents as Mamon, Creativ and Potrax this year proved to be as exciting and tough as ever. Fourty Eight(48!) players have attended the tournament, proving once again that Brood War is still alive(WarCraft nomination, for example, attracted only 47 people!)

In the end only 5 people were left standing. 3D.Escape, hands red in blood of his opponents, was standing on top, looking over the battlefield. His number one rival, MCA aka Lammerman didnt betray his habit and yet again proved that talent prevails over practice placing 2nd. MiG.Finger suprised everyone by placing 5th and getting the last qualification spot, over Potrax[S2]. In other news, two of the favorites, the most active Russian player fAke.Mamon.oO and another closet gosu, MiG.Scout, on the countrary to all the predictions, have not made it and been eliminated (intresting enough, both fell victim to 3D.Escape in the winnerbrackets). And yAn who once put fear and despair into the hearts of his enemies, now tried on a new rule- of a friendly and cuddly judge!(Don't try to cheat around him though- he will strike you down with vengeance!)


yAn repremanding the mischieving youngsters

1st 3D.Escape
2nd MCA
3rd Notforu[S2]
4th Casper[S2]
5th MiG.Finger

What happens now? Tommorow, starting 10:00am Russian Time 32 best StarCraft: Brood War players from all over Russia will face off in a battle to make one's dream come true. The dream of Monza. Only 3 however will leave the tournament with the magical tickets in their pockets. Who will it be? Nobody knows, and only a few dare to predict. Not even the Iron Trio of Advokate, Ex and Androide know. All of them denied me an answer when i asked whether they think they can make it, telling me that only time will tell...



Autobirth mYm.Advokate[S2]
RoX.BenQ.Ex[S2]
3D.Androide
St.Petersburg fake.BRAT_OK.oO
--v|Leprosy
RoX.BenQ.Bruce[S2]
Novosibirsk 3D.Chekanog
Tumen FD.furt1g
Yakutsk eLk
Irkutsk 3D.Drag.TFS
Vladivostok fAke.Assault
Volgograd fAke.Yago
ah2
Krasnoyarsk Kazuya[S2]
Habarovsk Krusty_Zone
Voronezh Jung-su]n.b[
Samara fAke.gogna
Kazan Jogi[a2]
Krasnodar Iron[S2]
Tomsk fAke.Lester.oO
Rostov aFz.NiC
SaratovfatUm
Nizhniy Novgorod aFz)ho8ot
fake.gagTerran
fake.Chaki_bzzz
Ekatirinburg 3D.Demich
Nt.Executer
Moscow 3D.Escape
MCA
Notforu[S2]
Casper[S2]
MiG.Finger


Three of the people are unfortunately unavailable for the time of the finals, and will be substituted by RoX.BenQ.Pomi[S2] (WCG Russia 2005 5th place) and Potrax[S2] (WCG Moscow 6th place) and Rus_Brain(WCG Vladivostok 3rd place). If more people would be absent the spot will go to either someone who finished in a close proximity to, but has not earned a qualification spot in one of the local preliminaries (i.e.: --v.Profy who finished 4th in St.Petersburg prelims) or a freeslot.

In the last second I managed to catch up with Casper who could not sleep and was kind enough to give me the following statement:

Moscow WCG Preliminary was not too hard for me. The hardest game was in Round One against --v.Pallmall which lasted for 42 minutes. There i miraculously managed a come back after an awfull start ... I think anyone can defeat the Advokate-Ex-Androide Trio, but I think the Pomi and Bruce have the best chances as the most experienced players there.



And just as everyone else I talked to, Casper refused to tell me what does he think about his own chances, and assured me that he will take every opponent seriously and give it his 100%.

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