With the second qualification round of the SY(China) Nations Cup now complete, we can safely say it was every bit as enthralling and thrilling as the first. If these first two rounds are simply appetizers, one can hardly imagine how delectable the main course will be!
North & South America |
This round featured the debut of a number of teams who had BYES in R1 who many expect have the ability to compete for a chance to win the entire tournament. Brazil B, led by dogao, FeAge, and miguel made short work of a brave, yet overmatched, Argentina C team. Due to one of Arg C's players not showing up, Brazil B agreed to play all 2v2s, and subsequently swept them 3-0 to win the set.
Argentina A beat Chile 3-0, in a somewhat expected result although
the Chilean team is stronger than many realize and put up a respectable performance.
Mexico A beat Mexico C in a civil war matchup... but Mexico C managed to take a win
away from their A team and nearly steal another as well. Good show guys.
Asia |
Another tournament favorite, Vietnam A had no trouble defeating India A, 3-0. India was hoping getting their star player CarlosFerdinand into the mix would propel them to an upset, but it wasn't to be against a Vietnam team that can accurately be described as a juggernaut. Many have speculated that with CooL now playing alongside BacT and Yellow, the VNS team may be among the 2 or 3 best teams in the entire tournament. We shall see.
Another team that flexed its muscles were (hong kong) Hong Kong China, as Ding and company beat a talented Japan B team, 3-0...While HK pretty much had the games in check at all times, Japan B showed their worth in a hard-fought BCC3@Fortress match, which is well worth watching. It's also worth noting that HK achieved this impressive result even with their allstar Ding (poZ_Tammy) only playing in one of the matches. Impressive..
Two tournament favorites, China B and Japan A, made short work of their opponents, India B and Nepal, respectively. Their wins set up an intriguing third round matchup between each other, one that has already been played but will be detailed a bit more in depth in the next write-up. (Semi-spoiler: Watch the LN game)
China C beat Japan C, 3-0, in what may be considered the battle to determine which country has a deeper well of talent. In this instance, China proved to be a bit better.
Europe |
In arguably the most exciting games of the tournament so far, Spain A took on Sweden in a heavyweight matchup that more than lived up to the hype. Spain proved its strength by pulling out a 3-2 victory, but it was a valiant effort by Spaden, 2S and the other Sweden members as they lost a 1.5 hour Island game that was as back and forth as it gets. In fact, all of these games are well worth checking out, and one has to believe if these teams matched up 10 times, Sweden would win 5 and Spain would win 5, that's how closely matched the games were.
The (czech) Czech B team, led by trabant and Mango, put together a nice performance against Norway to the tune of a 3-0 victory. Norway put up a pretty good fight on Arabia, but seemed just a bit overmatched on other maps.
In what may have produced some of the more intriguing games of the tournament so far, Finland battled Italy and managed to pull out a 3-1 victory. Given the overall quality of Finland's players, it was an impressive showing by the Italian team which managed not only to take a game on Gold Rush, but nearly managed to win a Baltic game that was very viewer-friendly and featured an intriguing strategy by the Italian team which nearly pulled them through. However, the great individual skill of Finland and their great experience pulled them through. But we think they had a fright
In what may have been the most surprising result of R2, Turkey B beat France A, 3-0. Many
thought getting Hani_ back would be key for France A, but he seemed a bit rusty and Turkey B took advantage. Overall it was a bit of a disappointing effort by the French team, but Turkey B should be commended for their astute team play and underrated skill that carried them to the victory. Baltic, like in the Finland-Italy matchup, produced the best game of this set.
The UK team beat Albania, 3-0 in three relatively short games. Hungary A beat Russia 3-2 in what some may consider a minor upset, but Hungary showed their worth and maybe set themselves up to be a bit of a sleeper going forward.
Turkey A beat (czech) Czech C in three quick games, and should be an interesting team to keep
an eye on going forward. Emin put together a couple of great performances in the winning effort for Turkey.
And lastly, (czech) Czech A beat Holland 3-0. Somewhere, miguel pumps his fist as his Czech A 5-0 Germany prediction doesn't look completely unrealistic just yet!
The Voobly Team would like to thank Andrew for this wonderful write up!