This game was spectated in the point of view of Konna.

Konna plays for Meet Your Makers, recently integrated into the international team. He’s known for being one of the more talented members of the former Scandinavian squad.

SaSe on the other hand, is known to be one of the best Swedish players. His dedication to the game – from laddering hard everyday and his eventual move to China made him one of the most popula European players alongside cohorts Grubby and ToD.

Konna and SaSe are the two favorites to progress to their group, and they immediately face each other right in the beginning of the day.

They met on the map Echo Isles, with SaSe spawning on the 10 o’clock and Konna on the 2 o’ clock. Konna starts with a standard build of Altar, Burrow and Barracks; and picks up the Blademaster as his first hero.

Konna at WCG 2007.

Konna goes to creep in the nearby trolls above his base, and then builds a shop at the 3 o’clock position. He continues to creep the Gnolls in that area, purchases items and moves away towards the middle of the map.

SaSe took the Demon Hunter as his first hero, and probably built a couple of Archers to help him creep along with an Ancient of War. Konna goes to the Goblin Merchant in the 6 o’clock position, quickly purchases a Dust of Appearance and Boots of Speed for his hero.

At this stage, both players still haven't encountered each other. Both players seem more focused on creeping on their own rather than harassing.

Konna moves up to the Marketplace, only to find out that SaSe has already crept the Ogre Magi that drops the high level item. He moves out to scout SaSe’s base, and sees that he’s doing a standard strategy of teching to tier three and going Druids of the Talons.

Konna builds a Beastiary and a Spirit Lodge while training a Tauren Chieftain as his second hero. SaSe picks up the Beastmaster, along with putting down two Ancients of Wind.

Small skirmishes occur during this time, with Konna managing to kill an archer, but quick staffing by SaSe led him to miss the chance of killing some mercenaries.

In the first big battle, three heroes for SaSe (with the Tinker) and DotTs, faces off with an army of Raiders, Spirit Walkers and Grunts. In a crucial moment, both the Demon Hunter and Blademaster are low in hp. The Blademaster uses the Lesser Invulnerability potion while trying to take the Demon Hunter down, but at the last minute gets saved with the Staff of Preservation. The Blademaster gets cycloned after his invulnerability runs out, ending up with a surround from SaSe. Konna had no other choice but to TP out to save his hero.

SaSe looking over his shoulder.

SaSe has a whole group of DotTs, creeping camps nearby. Konna scouts with his Blademaster while his Tauren Chieftain is levelled up to 3 and sets up an expansion at his natural.

SaSe moves to Konna’s base to snipe Burrows and managed to kill one or two, forcing Konna to TP back to his base. Konna continues to creep after that fight at the nearby Mercenary Camp, picking up a Pendant of Mana for his TC.

Konna moves to his expansion to defend it from SaSe’s incoming attack. Level 3 Demon Hunter comes in front of the battle, quickly ensnared and taken down to low hp. He moves away on the back while the two heroes of Konna gets cycloned up in the air. Konna uses Shockwave to try to take down the HP of the Talons, but SaSe is stocked with Healing Scrolls. Konna adds some Peons into the battle to disperse more Fairie Fire mana along with HP spread out with Spirit Link.

Konna loses the battle but his expansion goes up, along with peons mining on it right after the battle. He moves his heroes back to his base to regenerate HP and much needed mana to cast spells. In a desperate move, Konna tries to kill a low HP Demon Hunter, but instead he loses his Blademaster instead. SaSe launches an attack and without his Blademaster, Konna suffered several casualties too late to be amended when he finally revived his Blademaster.

“I made a mistake in scouting SaSe’s strategy. I thought he might go Chimeras instead of the standard Talons.” Konna said after his match against SaSe.

SaSe continues to be the top contender for the group. Konna says that he’s still feeling positive that he can qualify. “My next hardest opponent will be Protois, who will play Human [instead of Undead] on Terenas Stand.” Konna said he practiced hard for this matchup and he’s confident that he’ll be able to beat the German player.