The WarChiefs Classic II Grand Finals - Friday, December 6th at 16:00 GMT

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The WarChiefs Classic II Grand Finals - Friday, December 6th at 16:00 GMT

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Post by occamslightsaber »

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The WarChiefs Classic II Grand Finals Are Finally Here!

The Best-of-7 series will be played between @Kaiserklein and @lordraphael
This Friday, December 6th at 16:00 GMT on ESOCTV.
So... what happened in the Semi-Finals? Kaiserklein scored a 4-2 victory against Knuschelbär in a déjà vu of the Grand Tour Semi-Finals two months ago. Kaiser took the first Iroquois mirror after his opponent made a fatal mistake of shipping 1200 resources to the forward war hut as he was losing map control. However, @knusch managed to even out the score in the following game despite being at a disadvantage as the Iroquois versus Kaiser's Ottomans on New England. Kaiser regained the lead in another Iroquois mirror, pushing with his colonial mass just at the right moment to destroy his opponent's army before it could be upgraded to fortress units and building on that momentum/map control with 4 stagecoached TPs. In the fourth game, Kaiserklein, playing as the Germans, successfully repelled Knusch's Iroquois colonial pressure with superb micro and advanced to the fortress age where his civ was at a decisive advantage. Knuschelbär was able to win another unlikely victory as the Ottomans versus Kaiser's Sioux in the fifth game, where his economic FF and macro ability eventually overcame Kaiser's mechanics, but he stopped short of making a comeback; Kaiser defeated Knusch in the next Germans versus the Iroquois match-up after gaining a huge economic lead from a doppelsoldner raid and closed out the series in his favor.

On the other hand, LordRaphael, who is the #1 seed for this tournament, moved on to the finals after a clean 4-0 sweep against @n0el. In the first game, LordRaphael's Iroquois quickly gained control of the map and the 5 TP line while n0el's Sioux opted for a fast fortress agenda. With the additional line of sight and economy from the TPs, LordRaphael could easily respond to raids and eventually crushed his opponent's army in a pitched battle. In the following game, n0el's Sioux attempted a cheeky war hut rush against the opposing Iroquois, but his pressure was quickly routed by LordRaphael's army supported with double unit shipments and the 5 tomahawks big button. The third game featuring an Iroquois mirror ended rather abruptly when LordRaphael, having advanced to the colonial age much faster than his opponent, managed to shut down n0el's forward war hut before it could be fully constructed with his 4 kanya shipment. n0el put up a much better fight in the subsequent Sioux mirror, but LordRaphael's more economic and faster fortress build prevailed in the end.
Image Introducing Our Finalists: Kaiserklein and LordRaphael! Image Kaiserklein and LordRaphael are our top 2 seeds for this tournament, so it's not much surprise that they made their way to the Grand Finals. Kaiserklein is usually the better known player of the two for many in our community, since he regularly streams and casts the game on his Twitch channel. But beside those contributions to the community, he is the two-time and the only champion of the ESOC Grand Tours so far. Before that, he earned the 4th place in the New World Championship this July and won quite a few tournaments, including the New Year's Classic and two Weekend Tournaments this year. In terms of gameplay, Kaiserklein is most recognized for his superb mechanics, which he has demonstrated time and time again throughout this tournament; after all, he was the runner-up for the Time2Micro Weekend Tournament last year. He is also considered to have a rather "standard" play style, generally preferring skirm-goon compositions, and his main civilization is the Germans, but he is also highly skilled with the French, the Russians, the Ottomans, the Iroquois and the Sioux.

Then we have LordRaphael, our #1 seed (as if I haven't emphasized it enough). The mere mention of his name inspires terror in his opponents, to the point that at least one player in this tournament decided that he would rather forfeit the match than face the Lord himself. He is one of the most accomplished tournament players in the history of ESOC and not long ago he had a whopping 89% win rate in tournament matches. LordRaphael was the runner-up for the New World Championship this July and although he didn't participate much in this year's Grand Tour, he was the winner of three Weekend Tournaments last year. Moreover, LordRaphael was the winner of the 2016 ESOC Autumn Championship and he also earned the 2nd place in the 2017 Spring Championship and the 2015 Winter Championship. As for his play style, LordRaphael is extremely proficient with all of the civilizations except the Chinese and the Spanish, although his swinging-axe civ used to be the French. However, it is worth nothing that LordRaphael has not yet shown his full hand in this tournament, since he has exclusively relied on the Iroquois and the Sioux to win his series, all of which have been 3-0 or 4-0 sweeps.

Now that we know a bit more about both players, how should we expect the Grand Finals to play out? Kaiserklein and LordRaphael have faced each other three times in tournament settings over the past year or so and that record is 2-1 in favor of LordRaphael. Their last meeting was during the second week of ESOC Premier League, when LordRaphael won a close 3-2 series over Kaiser. Before that, LordRaphael scored a more decisive 5-2 victory when they met during the semi-finals of the New World Championship. About a year ago, however, Kaiserklein managed to defeat Raphael 3-1 during the semi-finals of the Grand Tour Season 1, which he went on to win as well. While their record for the past year does slightly favor LordRaphael, it is also important to note that the WarChiefs Classic II has its own unique set of rules that can influence the outcome of the Grand Finals. It is quite fitting that knowledge of and proficiency with the TWC civilizations will determine this close contest between our top 2 seeds for the title of The WarChiefs Classic II Champion!
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