Quarterfinals

For the first time in the tournament, all higher seeds won their matchups.

ryoo‘s deep run came to an end after meeting #1 seed turnipboy, who lived up to his seeding with a strong 9-4 victory. All three of his matches have been by that exact margin. He’ll be unlikely to win that comfortably against his next opponent, however: #5 seed plastikqs, who defeated #13 brskaylor 9-6. brskaylor cruised into the quarter-finals without even allowing an opponent to reach four wins before running into one of Challenger’s best.

On the other side of the bracket, sheph defeated davidw 9-4. Before this loss, davidw had yet to even play a close match, winning 9-3 in each of his previous two bouts. sheph, on the other hand, survived a scare in the second round, defeating watermeat just 9-8 before winning definitively in round 3, 9-1.

lazybear (#10) was nominally the favorite over pofke (#34), but the latter was clearly underseeded due to late SCL entry, and was considered the favorite by many, particularly after their 9-1 thumping of monaters in the previous round. But lazybear’s incredible run continued with a comfortable 9-3 victory.

There are just four players left, and only #10 lazybear has made it this far without the aid of a first round bye.

The full Challenger Tournament bracket is available here.

Week 10

The players in Challenger kicked up a lot of dust, but it’s finally settled, and dowsey has taken the top spot, scoring a 7-2 win over sheph. After losing narrowly in week 3 to incnone, dowsey won his last seven matches, five of them by margins of 7-2 or better. He went 28-6 over his final four matches. Joining him in the top two (which are both auto-promoted) is pox, who defeated plastikqs 7-4.

There are two more auto-promotes available to the remaining Challenger players, who have been placed into a single elimination bracket. As of this writing, turnipboy, tarekmak, plastikqs, bitbandingpig, sheph, and davidw are the top seeds, and are receiving first-round byes.

Continue reading →

Week 9

In Challenger sheph won the first four games en route to a 7-1 victory over degran, plastikqs defeated motionblur 7-2 on the strength of three spy wins, pox beat tarekmak 7-4, and dowsey continued to hold first place with a definitive 7-2 win over turnipboy (casted here). dowsey’s performance has gotten stronger as the season has progressed even as the opponents have gotten tougher, presumably thanks to the steady accumulation of data available on Challenger’s challengers. His last three match wins have featured a sparkling 21-4 margin.

Continue reading →

Week 8

If you were sleeping on sheph in Challenger, it’s time to wake up. After a 0-1-2 stretch, sheph has won their last two matches and is second in the division, largely because the other top two players just fought each other. Those would be pox and dowsey, with the latter winning definitvely 7-2 in a casted match to hang on to first place in this crowded messpionage.

Continue reading →

Week 7

In Challenger dowsey won in staggering fashion over plastikqs 7-0 (casted here), and now sits at the top of the division with pox who defeated waterhouse 7-4. Both players started 2-0 and dropped their week 3 matchup, but have won four straight since. c9high started 5-0 but, following his first loss, has forfeited to turnipboy. incnone shook off two straight losses (after a 4-0 start) to defeat mastrblastr 7-4.

Challenger looked like it was clearing up, but the narrowing of the field has narrowed the margins, with just two points separating the top 11 players. In this division’s Swiss style, the matchups get harder as you go, and we’re just now starting to take the true measure of its competitors as they collide with, and react to, one another.

Continue reading →

Week 6

In Challenger the last perfect season in SCL fell, as plastikqs played spoiler to c9high, winning 7-3. mastrblastr bounced back from consecutive losses after a 3-0 start to narrowly defeat fancypants 7-5. And dowsey won his third straight, beating bitbandingpig 7-5. bitbandingpig opened 4-0 but has dropped matches to c9high and dowsey respectively, as Challenger sharpens its field. The top five players are all within one point of each other, and nine more are within two of that group.

Continue reading →