Covering the events in the other world of Warcraft, this is the first issue of The Week in Warcraft. Each week we will cover all the biggest stories from around the globe – think Weenus only not as funny. Without further delay, here it is.

Eurocup
The biggest event of the past week was the Clanbase Eurocup LAN finals. With just four contestants, and RotterdaM filling in for Deadman at the last minute, Grubby arrived in Aarhus, Denmark as a clear favourite. The first round drew him against his fellow Dutchman but things did not go to plan. RotterdaM, playing like a man possessed, dispatched his mentor to the lower bracket for a comfortable victory over Paladyn. RotterdaM himself faced SaSe on Friday night and continued his incredible form to overcome the Swedish Elf player.

This set-up a lower bracket final match between Grubby and SaSe. The Orc legend took two of three maps to send off the Swede and gave himself an opportunity for vengeance for his earlier defeat in the grand final. It would be no small task for the favourite; coming from the lower bracket he had to win two best-of-three series. In one of the most symmetrical finals ever seen, the two Dutch Orcs played a fantastic series, but one which was ended in short order as RotterdaM claimed the prize money in two straight games.
The man from Rotterdam was not such a surprising winner if you go back and watch the replays. He played nearly perfect games against Grubby and outclassed him in the final. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain the form and finally make the step up to the peak of the WC3 scene.

WC3L
Hoorai’s defeat of mYm last Sunday was the biggest upset of the season so far and was made even stranger by the fact that their only loss came from their best player, Nilknarf. The Korean-based team has been in rocky form for a while now and this result epitomized their downfall. On Thursday they snuck past ONE but the problems they’ve been facing were still apparent. Nightelf superstar, Moon, suffered yet another defeat and their two-on-two performance was far from impressive. Still, a win is a win and they will fancy their chances of back-to-back victories this Thursday against Verge.

It seems like 4k is the only team this season which can preserve good form, but what good form it is. Eight play days in and they remain undefeated atop the table. With WE, SK and mYm already seen-off there seems to be nothing in the way of the kings finishing in first place for a ridiculous sixth season in a row. They played two games this week, destroying a weak SK.ger on Tuesday and overcoming Verge on Thursday.

SK.ger were handed their second thrashing of the week on Thursday, going down 5-0 to WE. The German side claimed just three maps from a possible fifteen and is looking rough to say the least coming into the end of the regular season. World Elite will face a much tougher test this week against the senior SK team in a game that will probably decide who finishes second for the season.

The surprise story of the season has been the renewed Mousesports team. Sitting in fourth place, just one point behind SK and two behind WE, they ripped through the Chinese team last Sunday with a 4-1 score. The German organization has lost just once this season and is on course for yet another playoff appearance. However, they have still to face 4k and with mYm’s easier run-in there are still no guarantees for any team.

WSVG China
This was always going to be one of the most competitive WSVG events in terms of WC3 and a huge array of players turned out. Zacard, Sky, Fly100%, Sweet and FoV were all amongst the favourites and it was two of these, FoV and Sweet who met in the grand final. FoV was able to overcome two high caliber Orc players on his way, seeing off Zacard and xiaOt, but his weakness in mirror matches showed again as he went down to his fellow Korean. Still, fifteen hundred dollars and a free trip to the finals should be consolation enough. The only Chinese player to qualify from the Chinese qualifier was xiaOt, who walked away with $750 for his troubles as well.

The brackets are very hard to make sense of with so many players, but whichever way you look at it the top eight has a very unfamiliar look to it. No Sky, no Fly100% and no Guangmo are visible as the random seeding system played havoc with some of the players. TeD was another victim of the tournament format who would surely have been disappointed to go home so early.

InCup #7
The seventh edition of InCup’s summer season brought with it the usual host of unknown players and surprise results. Fnatic’s Russian superstar, Abver was the first major scalp, losing to Dbl of Poland. Two-time winner Satiini was quick to follow, falling in round four to HATE-LOVE-ANGER. An all-Bulgarian clash was the highlight of round five, with the unheard-of Sir J upsetting DieseL. Though there were still a number of good players remaining it was SK’s Ukranian star, HoT who looked like the favourite by now, especially with Satiini already gone. He progressed to the final without dropping a single map which continued to the tournament’s climax. Impressive up-and-comer OC[Zn] looked great in the earlier stages but he capitulated in the final, losing in three straight maps to give HoT his first victory of the summer season.