The Clanbase Eurocup LAN Finals for Warcraft III revs up in the Netherlands, where four players will attend to take home the grand prize.

These players went through a rigorous online tournament, going against most of Europe’s best players. After winning their respective matches and gaining enough points, they now take their spots for the finals.

These four players are a good mix of old, new, favorites and underdogs. Two of them recently just left their teams to join new ones, which would make people heavily scrutinize their performance. This event is sure to be incredibly exciting for the spectators and fans of the European Warcraft III scene.

Head to Head Matchups

Grubby vs Tresh

Grubby came from several back to back tournaments in the past few months, flying back and forth from Europe, USA and Asia. Prior to the Eurocup Finals, he managed to take some weeks off to stay in the Netherlands for a much-deserved rest period, continuing to practice for his upcoming events.

This Dutch Orc player even managed to sign up for the weekly Incups last week, even though he vowed in the past to never participate in the tournament again. Nevertheless, this should have given him extra practice aside from his custom games or laddering.

Tresh is a name that always rings a bell, although no achievements ever come to mind. He’s somewhat of a dark horse –everyone knows he’s a very capable player, but not as active as his cohorts. He has certainly proven that he’s talented – he defeated players such as Happy and Neytpoh in the Eurocup qualifiers on his way to the finals.

The Verdict:
Grubby is the runaway favorite to win this match, but like all lesser-known players, Tresh shouldn’t be underestimated. Grubby is consistent and takes strength on experience, while Tresh’s less-familiar playing style might throw Grubby off.

LiiLD.C vs Paladyn

LiiLD.C recently left his former team JuSt to join the Four Kings, an offer that’s hard to refuse. He’s slated to fill the gap that Creolophus vacated, which should translate to a huge amount of pressure to this Swedish Elf player.

I’d expect LiiLD.C to have increased his practice and training up at least 50% after he started wearing the 4K tag. Criticism comes along with the prestige of being part of the team – the pressure should force him to practice harder.

Paladyn managed to "qualify" for the LAN finals by sheer luck. Bulgarian DieSeL was supposed to be the one to play against LiiLD.C, but unfortunately, he and his team were unable to come up with sufficient funds to send him to the Netherlands. Luckily, Paladyn was high up the hierarchy of ranks and was the next logical choice to send to the finals and was able to at short notice.

Paladyn has never been considered as one of Europe's best players, however, he does manage to surprise people once in a while. On top of that, he has a wealth of experience both online and off -- as he is usually the representative for Poland at events such as WCG and ESWC.

The Verdict:
LiiLD.C is the favorite in this matchup. LiiLD.C has performed better than Paladyn in recent months – but Night Elf mirror is a pretty volatile matchups, so Paladyn still has a decent shot of making it through.