Top German eSports talent gathered on the weekend of June 2/3 in Cologne to compete for the title of German StarCraft II champion and four slots in the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) Europe Finals.

While Germany’s 16 best players battled it out, the live action was shoutcasted by James “Kaelaris” Carrol and Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen in English, and Dennis “TaKe” Gehlen and Philipp “monchi” Simon in German.

The crowd in Cologne and the logo of the event.

Day 1

The first day featured a couple of notable newcomers, as well as two dramatic defeats.

A protoss vs. zerg match between Dario “TheLittleOne” Wünsch (TLO) and Dennis “HasuObs” Schneider ended with TLO heading off to the Consolation Bracket. But TLO’s misfortune didn’t end there, as protoss underdog Alexander “Jaxx” Quaiser surprised the crowd by eliminating him with a 2:0 victory.

TLO and HasuObs - The faces of defeat and victory.

TLO wasn’t the only veteran who took a fall – Sascha “GoOdy” Lupp (dubbed the “Panzer General”) met a similar fate when he lost 0:2 against terran underdog Thorsten “DBS” Seifert.

But alongside the surprising defeats, the first day also saw some unexpected displays from two promising newcomers: terran player Andreas “KrasS” Ullrich had a hopeful run before HasuObs finally took him out; and 14-year-old terran Gabriel “HeRoMaRinE” Segat elicited many cheers from the audience as he made his way through four matchups before hitting his limit and losing 0:2 to Jonathan “DarKFoRcE” Belke. The young newcomer had been only one match away from qualifying for a slot in the WCS Europe Finals, and may have a great eSports career ahead of him.

KrasS, young HeRoMaRinE, DarKFoRcE - all doing well in the tournament.

By the end of the first day, three of the four Europe Finals slots for Germany had been won by DarKFoRcE, HasuObs, and Giacomo “Socke” Thüs.

Day 2

The second day kicked off with a Consolation Bracket match between KrasS and DBS, which ended with a 2:0 score and KrasS securing the fourth and final slot for Germany at the Europe Finals.

The Grand Final. Fighting for the cup live on stage.

And so, with all the German slots taken, the question remained – who would be the German champion? It came down to veteran players Socke and HasuObs in the Grand Final, and whoever won the German championship would be guaranteed a slot representing Europe in the Global Finals!

Coming from the Consolation Bracket, Socke needed to win not one, but two best-of three matches against HasuObs. The battle was hard fought and the tension in the room was palpable, and eventually Socke took the championship, earning himself a spot in the WCS Global Finals in Asia later this year.

Congratulations to Socke and the three other players moving on to the Europe Finals, and thanks to each and every participant!

Socke presenting the tournament cup.