Although the event itself was plagued by some technical difficulties, DreamHack Eizo Open: Bucharest went pretty smoothly for the Western Wolves’ StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty  team in the beautiful capital of Romania. Two of our very own members, Rickard “SortOf” Bergman and Daniel “StarNaN” Ohlsson, survived the first day of the tournament and qualified for the final round. Unfortunately, one of the Wolves fell victim to the dreaded team-kill scenario.

In the opening stage, the two Swedish stars had already been seeded in the same group, while their teammate Nick “Ziktomini” Copello drew the same group as feared veteran TLO. Ziktomini took second-place in his group after being defeated in a thrilling 2-1 series by TLO. SortOf and StarNaN advanced as well, with SortOf going undefeated.

The random seeding for the second stage worked against the Wolves once again, with Ziktomini finding himself in the same group as SortOf. It started off promisingly, as both Wolves exceeded expectations by taking down Korean Protoss player, Sage. Unfortunately for Ziktomini, his momentum was halted after being defeated by Seiplo 2-1. Then, it was time for the unpleasant Western Wolves vs Western Wolves match-up. SortOf, who already secured his spot in the final 16, would come out on top of the encounter by only one game. Map score was the deciding factor, and regrettably Ziktomini didn’t meet the criteria to advance to the playoffs. StarNaN, on the other hand, secured second in his group after annihilating Elfi and AureS, but falling to Scandinavian comrade, TargA.

Much like day one, day two also saw an unfortunate match-up resulting in the remaining Western Wolves players having to face off in the Top 16. After the smoke cleared, 19-year-old Daniel “StarNaN” Ohlsson, stood victorious over his teammate Rickard “SortOf” Bergman, 2-1, leaving the young Protoss player the lone Wolf in the tournament.

StarNaN’s next opponent was Austrian Protoss Phillip “monchi” Simon, who would prove to be a tough match. Nevertheless, the slick Swede managed to break away with a 2-1 victory, progressing through to the semi-final round. Hot off the heels of a 2-0 win over TLO, the favorite from Team Acer Artur “Nerchio” Bloch faced StarNaN in what was an extremely intense match-up.

The first game saw Nerchio dominate the lone Wolf. However, StarNaN was quick to recover, picking up the second match and making it all square at 1-1 with a solid immortal all-in push. The final frame looked to be headed in StarNaN’s favor, but a turn of fortune saw Nerchio’s army composition become far too strong for the Swede to manage. After that, a lone slip-up cost StarNaN the game and ended his tournament run. Nerchio then went on to defeat his fellow teammate, Bly, 3-0 to win the tournament, allowing StarNaN to keep his head held high since he so narrowly lost to the overall champion.

Well-done to all of the Western Wolves participants, and big congratulations to Daniel “StarNaN” Ohlsson on his 4th place finish and securing himself a spot in the DreamHack Winter Grand Finals!

Tags: Bucharest, Daniel Ohlsson, DreamHack, Eizo Open, Nick Copello, Rickard Bergman, Romania, SortOf, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, StarNaN, Ziktomini