Table of Contents

Day One
Recap


Interview
Liquid`HerO


Check out DreamHack Summer on Liquipedia

– Favorites cruise through RO128, knock-outs begin in RO64

With the round of sixty-four halfway completed at the end of day one, a few of Starcraft II's notable names have already seen themselves knocked out at DreamHack Summer 2012. The crowd at Jönköping will have less of their countrymen to root for as the tournament goes on, as well-known Swedish players Bischu, SjoW, HayprO, and Merz were eliminated in the RO64.

Despite a strong player field, there was enough space for the more famous players to be limited to two per group in the RO128 – which caused a tepid first round of play before the true fight for survival began in the RO64. Alongside the aforementioned Swedes, other key national representatives such as America's qxc and Finland's elfi were also forced to become spectators the rest of the way.

– DIMAGA and TiTan survive 'Group of Death,' JYP drops out

The biggest upset of day one came when EG's JYP, a familiar face in the GomTV studio and the SlayerS house, failed to advance out of a group containing DIMAGA, TiTaN, and biGs. Tied on match score at 2 – 1 with DIMAGA and TiTaN, JYP fell to third place in his group with a map score of 4 – 3 compared to Eastern Europeans' 5 – 3. Once again, PvP was the culprit in a foreigner over Korean upset, as a 0 – 2 loss to TiTaN was key in this loss on maps.

– Matches of note

As is the case in most tournaments, some of the most anticipated matches of DreamHack pitted top foreigners against players coming out of Korean team houses.

Stephano vs PuMa further bolstered Stephano's reputation as a Korean-killer, as the French Zerg swept aside the EG Terran in two sets. A lack of overall finesse (in particular, an inability to spread marines against fungal) caused PuMa's downfall at a previous meeting between the two at Assembly Winter 2012, and it was largely the same story at DHS 2012. PuMa nearly achieved a comeback win in game two by leveraging every advantage he could on Antiga Shipyard, but he fell short in the end.

DIMAGA vs JYP game one continued the tradition of long, attrition filled games between Ukrainians and Koreans, including 'classics' such as Kas vs Zenio at IEM Kiev or DIMAGA vs any Protoss. The game appeared like it would be a near repeat of two players' clash on Dual Sight during HomeStorycup IV, where DIMAGA was able to emerge victorious after an hour by turtling behind a sea of spines and spores. However, JYP came with a modified game plan this time around, and was able to force his way through DIMAGA's defenses with mass carriers.