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Who came out on top during Week 5 of Xel’Naga Finest?
Could Clem make it four wins out of five? See what went down in the weekly StarCraft 2 series here.
Clément ‘Clem’ Desplanches has done it again! Last night (May 6) live on the Twitch stream he picked up his fourth Xel’Naga Finest victory out of the five editions of the online StarCraft 2 tournament so far. This time he did it in a dominating fashion against Mikołaj ‘Elazer’ Ogonowski, claiming revenge after a loss to him in the round of 16 during Week 2.
Before this, Clem was able to win twice against Riccardo ‘Reynor’ Romiti in the showmatch with Reynor taking one victory. Was Reynor able to tie up the head-to-head? Or was Clem able to win what is turning out to be a tournament-spanning best of five? Read our recap of the finals and the showmatch right here.
The final
Elazer managed to get to the finals in the second edition of the Xel’Naga Finest where he lost 0-3 against Gabriel ‘HeRoMaRinE’ Segat. This time he faced off against three-time Xel’Naga Finest victor Clem. The first map of the finals was Nightshade, with a standard opening from both sides. Clem gets a little bit of damage in with a couple of Banshees, but nothing really notable until he starts pushing with his Bio army. At the same time, Elazer uses Banelings to kill 13 SCVs on the other side of the map. Unfortunately for the Zerg, this means that he hardly has any Banelings left to defend his fourth base. Clem pushes in hard with his force and with some great Tank positioning, and takes down Elazer’s army to win the first map.
The second game of the series brings us to Eternal Empire, where both players open up for a standard macro game. Clem pushes out with a double Medivac plus Stim push. Elazer doesn’t really have the units to deal with it and decides to place his fourth base at an awkward position in the south. Clem finds out and starts pushing it from his own fourth position. Elazer wraps around with his Zerglings and cleans the Terran army up with some great Baneling connections. Then the Zerg tries counterattacking with his Mutalisks, but loses them all to Marines. From then on, Clem is in the driver’s seat. He keeps pushing and pulling Elazer apart. While Elazer manages to hang on heroically for almost 10 minutes, in the end he bows out. Clem wins on Eternal Empire and is up 2-0.
Golden Wall is the third map of the series. Since it’s one of the biggest maps in the pool, it lends itself to great macro games. Elazer opens up with a really greedy quick third base, but Clem is unable to punish it because of the map’s size. Clem decides to go with a Hellbat Marine Medivac push while Elazer fires up eight Drones. The previous Xel’Naga victor walks down to the Zerg base and Elazer is completely caught off-guard. While he tries to quickly morph some Banelings, Clem sees them and burns them down. With no army left, Elazer taps out and Clem wins Xel’Naga Finest for the fourth time in five weeks!
The showmatch
The showmatch between Clem and Reynor starts on Nightshade. Clem dives in with Hellions, but a great surround from Reynor means that Clem loses all of his map control. Behind this, Clem opens with a Battlecruiser and gets a few Drone kills, but not enough to stop Reynor’s rapid economic progression. The first Terran push starts a few minutes later, with Clem assaulting Reynor’s fourth base. At the same time, Reynor starts with his famous counterattack strategy and kills a few of Clem’s workers. During the midgame, Clem keeps trying to push Reynor’s fourth base, but he isn’t able to take it down. Behind the pushing Terran, Reynor is able to tech to Hive and starts Viper production to deal with Clem’s tanks. This early Hive also means that Reynor is able to get an upgrade lead. Reynor uses his Zerglings and Banelings for a counterattack and kills 30 SCVs while Clem finally kills Reynor’s fourth. They both lose a lot of workers, but Reynor’s stronger army prevails and he picks up the first map.
With Reynor being up 1-0 in the series, Clem risks it all on Everdream LE with a four-Barracks opening. Last week Clem did exactly the same build, on the same map. Reynor scouts it again, but a bit later than previously. He responds with two Spine Crawlers in his main base and a couple of Zerglings and queens. While Clem builds a Bunker to siege Reynor’s expansion, he pushes out with his Marines to deal damage. Reynor then wraps around the Marines with his Zerglings to prevent them going back into the Bunker. Reynor defends successfully and Clem taps out. Reynor wins the series 2-0 and ties up his head-to-head against Clem in the show matches.
Did you enjoy the games? Do you want a chance to win some of the 500 Euro prize pool and a chance to win an AOC Gaming monitor? Then sign up now for the final edition of the Xel’Naga Finest next Wednesday, May 13!
