SC2I Team League Season 2 Kicks Off!

The SC2Improve Team League Season 2 sprang into action over the weekend as 22 teams took part in the qualifier to determine which teams would complete the First Division. A full overview of the bracket can be found at http://www.excello.net/tournament/4796/#brackets

Teams had to make it to the semi-finals to advance to the First Division. The competition started with many expected results, and early rounds saw the teams who signed up just for a bit of fun drop out fairly swiftly, but things heated up pretty quickly in the RO16 as scores became pretty tight between teams as they battled for a chance to play in the final round on Sunday.

Most notably Alloy eSports fell to Followers Of Extermination in a nail-biting 4-3 series in the RO16, setting up a RO8 match against Team SC2Improve, meaning that one of two underdogs in the competition would clinch a chance in the First Division.

Alongside the heavy upset in the upper half of he bracket 7x Team and Deimos eSports found themselves battling in the RO8 having taken out Micronae Supremacy and Skill Forge respectively both with 4-2 score lines. It was a shame these four teams met in the same bracket - as slightly different seeding could have seen all four having a good shot at making it through the qualifier.

The upper-bracket Ro8 matches saw Team SC2Improve win with a 4-2 victory, Ground (aka MystiC) taking the final two matches in TvTs to close it out. Deimos eSports prevailed over 7x Team but it was close as Val made a valiant effort to bring down the Protoss players from Deimos, evening the score to 3-3 from 3-1 before he finally fell to Bails on Daedalus Point in the ace match.

In the lower side things were much more plain-sailing. eSuba's Academy were reverse all-killed by Wolves eSports in the RO16 - but ECVisualize wasted no time in dispatching Wolves in the RO8 with a 4-1 scoreline after Daz showcased some cracking TvZ games. against All authority cruised through PunchLine! Academy and Team Mistral to secure their place in the First Division.

The four teams who qualified to the First Division, against All authority, Deimos Esports, ECVisualize and Team SC2Improve.

With the qualifiers finished it was a rush to get groups sorted on Sunday night ready for the official start of the league on Monday, but eventually the groups were set and matches released with 24 teams in the First Division and 31 teams in the Second Division. If you are interested in seeing the groups and in which order the matches will be played you can find all of this on the Liquipedia : http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/SC2Improve_Team_League_S2

We cannot wait for things to really get started here in the second season of the SC2ITL but when they do they are going to be amazing! The first match is already scheduled to take place tonight (Tuesday) at 1900 CEST between Alien Invasion and Team ALTERNATE.  It's bound to be a tight series as the two Germany-based teams will clash against each other. Full information and stream links for all matches can be found on our new SC2ITL Calendar : http://www.sc2improve.net/sc2itl-s2-calendar