The Oceanic region will send one of its strongest StarCraft players in recent memory to the international stage at the World Championship Series stop in Valencia—and he certainly earned that distinction this weekend.
Sheldon “Seither” Barrow and his teammate Nicholas “HuT” Hutton will represent Oceania and Southeast Asia at Valencia in July. The two Terran players from SYF Gaming met in the finals of the WCS Challenger OCE-SEA Valencia qualifier on Sunday, but Seither dominated the proceedings.
Seither was the favorite entering the event. He qualified for both WCS Leipzig and WCS Austin this year, reaching Austin as the top seed from the region. This weekend, he was automatically seeded into the round of 16. And he showed why he deserved it. He absolutely dominated the proceedings, winning every single map he played as he cleanly swept every foe he faced. That included two series against fellow future Valencia competitor HuT, who he beat 2-0 in the quarterfinals and 3-0 in the finals.
Seither has dominated his region this year, and this weekend was no different. Whether he can bring that success to Valencia, though, is another story. He declined to attend Leipzig due to personal reasons earlier this year and has always seemed uncomfortable with international travel, but he did win a series at WCS Austin to earn a top 24 finish. He’s capable of advancing out of the right group at Austin, but he’ll need to play at the level he showed this weekend to do it.
His teammate, HuT, had a much rougher time qualifying this weekend. He had to survive a close 2-1 series against Ethan “iaguz” Zugai—the region’s most successful player over the past two years—in the second round of the double elimination bracket, and then he faced a gauntlet of the region’s best in the lower bracket after falling to Seither.
HuT had to first beat Zerg player Ryan “NXZ” Jones, who like Seither was seeded into the finals bracket thanks to qualifying for WCS Austin at the last Challenger tourney. Then he had to beat Sean “Probe” Kempen, the region’s top Protoss player and one of the favorites to reach Valencia entering this weekend. Probe dominated the open bracket portion of the event on Saturday, including a 2-0 win against HuT, so the Terran player did well to get revenge when it mattered more.
Finally, HuT beat Vietnamese Zerg player Tran “MeomaikA” Hong Phuc, the Cinderella of the event. MemaikA wasn’t a favorite entering the event this weekend. He barely qualified for the final 16 of the event, only winning one match on Saturday with losses to iaguz and Jamie “Peppy” Austin. But on Sunday, the Vietnamese player was a terror, nearly earning a berth at Valencia. The Zerg opened the day by beating Probe 2-0, the start of a run to the upper bracket final. He beat Peppy in a rematch and then took down Ben “Crimson” Macdonald, one of Seither and HuT’s teammates, to earn a top three spot at the tourney.
That led into the match against HuT, which may have been one of the best to watch on the day. MeomaikA’s creative brand of Zerg gave him a big lead in the first game, but HuT somehow held out against incredible offensive pressure to eventually pull off a huge comeback to win the game. Then, in the second game, HuT seemed to build an unstoppable force powered by his strong macro, but MeomaikA made smart trades and army movements to keep the Terran at bay. Eventually, though, HuT eked out a win thanks to judicious use of Ghosts, earning him a trip to Valencia.
So the Oceania and Southeast Asia region will send two Australian Terrans to Valencia next month. The region isn’t a top competitor on the international stage, usually falling behind the bigger contenders like Korea, North America, and Europe. But they’ve got some tough competitors, and they’ll be going to Valencia in July. Seither has shown the ability to win matches on the international level, and he’s only improved as the year has progressed, as evidenced by his dominance this weekend. HuT earned his berth by beating most of the top players at this event outside of Seither, showing the kind of mental fortitude needed on the big stage.
WCS Valencia is the third event of the WCS circuit this year. Tune in on July 12 to 14 to see if Australia’s top talent can compete at the world level.
