MVP, Stephano advance to WCS EU grand finals

After a day almost exclusively of ZvTs, a final one will decide the European champion. Having defeated their opponents rather one-sidedly, MVP and Stephano meet for $20,000 first place prize.

The fall of the last Protoss yesterday made for a ZvT-exclusive semi finals over at WCS Europe. MVP, Dimaga, ForGG and Stephano were the last four remaining and right after the consolation bracket was played out, the former two plunged right into their face-off.

Although he was playing the most accomplished Terran in StarCraft 2 history, Dimaga actually stepped into the series knowing that Mvp had already fallen by his hand in the Ro32. However, the rules of the game were changed this time around and the series had gone from Bo3's to Bo5's, historically MVP's stronger format.

The Korean powershouse spawned on Planet S for the first game and brutally eviscerated Dimaga with puncturing bio play to show that after long periods of lackluster results, he still has his mojo with him and his reign over Europe was yet to come. 

MVP's dominating performance in game one would only be dwarfed by that in game two. In a split-map scenarion on Newkirk District, MVP defended and defied all odds by defending against Dimaga's borderline perfect game. MVP's heroic perseverance lasted for almost one full hour before it could see Dimaga's last (and unsuccessful) attack and make for arguably the most intense TvZ of WCS Europe thus far.

Mvp was put on the defense yet another time on Star Station but this time the affair was much shorter. Repelling Dimaga's roaches and counter-attacking with a lethal hellion riposte shot MVP straight into the WCS EU grand final. 

For Stephano, the odds were even higher as the Frenchman not only had his 2012 crown to defend but also the foreign honor, being the last remaining non-Korean in the tournament.

In front of the manic audience of the Cologne studio, the EG ace brought pain and suffering to ForGG and outclassed him in a 3-1 series, dropping but a single game to a double proxy rax on Newkirk Precinct. In every other instance, however, Stephano was downright flawless, using ling/bane/mutalisk compositions to dictate the mid-game and transitions into ultralisks whenever the time frame required it. His swarms were everywhere ready to stop every drop, push or hellion timing attempt of ForGG and after an hour of conflict, Stephano gladly accept the third and final surrender out of ForGG on Planet S.

As a result, WCS Europe will end in a TvZ between the four-times GSL champion MVP and the most winningest foreigner of all time Stephano. The Korean powerhouse is looking forward to his second premier victory after IEM Cologne while Stephano is all about defending his throne and proving that, in his own words, "Europe belongs to the Europeans.