The second edition of StarLadder i-League Season has kicked offjust two days ago and Group A concluded with a winneryesterday. Hak-Jun “Kranich” Baek managed toemerge victorious after a couple of harsh Bo7 series, advancing tothe final.
The Team Dignitas’ player first faced SK Gaming’s Powder. Eventhough he started off behind in score with a 2-0, after losingto Powder’s C’Thun Warlock and Tempo Mage, he managed to pull a winwith his Shaman against Powder’s Control Warrior, getting his firstwin and drawing a score of 2-1. The next game was once againwon by Powder who was now one breath away from advancing to thenext round but unfortunately his Control Warrior lost all theremaining match-ups and the score overturned from a 3-1 in hisfavour to a 4-3 against him.
Up next, Kranich faced Natus Vincere’s Xixo and managed to pullsome easier wins, as Xixo only managed to snip just one win fromthe Korean with his Control Priest. The score ended with a 4-1 infavour of Kranich. The last series was against young talentAmnesiac and turned out to be the most difficult series forKranich. This time it was Kranich that started leading with a 3-1after the first couple of games but Amnesiac managed to overturnand draw the score on 3-3. The last game was Kranich’s Paladinagainst Amnesiac’s Freeze Mage. The game was really close butKranich made it to the desired win.
The rest of the matches in the Group were pretty exciting aswell. Surprisingly, powerhouse StrifeCro did not manage to advanceas he first lost with a 4-1 to ShtanUdachi and then with adevastating 4-0 to Neirea. Powder also got eliminated after losingwith a 4-0 to Rdu in the lower bracket. Up next in the lowerbracket, Xixo managed to win against Neirea and ShtanUdachieliminated Rdu, so the two will play in a couple of days againsteach other. The winner of the match-up will face the runner-up ofupper bracket, Amnesiac for a spot to the main event or the LastChance qualifier.
