Week 3

In Challenger nearly all the 2-0 players from last week won again, and won easily: bitbandingpig won 7-1, quicklime won 7-2, and sheph won 7-3. The exception was the hotly anticipated dowsey–incnone matchup, with both players coming in undefeated. incnone won a tight (casted) set, 7-5, in what could end up being a finals preview. And zerdoom jumped out to a 6-3 lead on basshead before the latter won the last three to force a tie (analyzed on the EU cast).

Of the 75 players in Challenger, we’re down to seven undefeated, six a perfect 3-0, and a dozen or so within a couple of points.

In Iron, one match is pending and two others have resolved as forfeits, as the three-week pending match rule is starting to effect early MIA players.

It isn’t especially valuable in reality, but in the SCL Copper is one of the rarest metals. Just three of the scheduled nine matches have resolved, and just two have been actually played. The lone completion this week was steph against marimo, who went 9-1 en route to a co-Championship in Iron last season. Both players are among the favorites in Copper, and it showed in the 6-6 result, with snipers winning all 12 games. The match was casted in two parts.

In Bronze arturiax defeated sgnurf 7-4 and catnip and jyaty started 4-4 before the latter took the last three games. jyaty is 3-0 and already has a sizable three point lead over second place.

In Silver, yerand goose-egged turnout8 7-0. Combined with his comfortable 7-2 win over teetery in week 1 and a yet-to-be-played matchup with checker for week 2, yerand looks like an early favorite to take home the gold in Silver.

In Gold, falconhit and pwndnoob tied 6-6, elvisnake scored a comfortable 7-1 win over sharper, sweeping the last four games on Balcony, and scallions defeated royalflush 7-3. Three players at the top of Gold are within a point of one another.

We saw a huge shakeup in Platinum this week, with cleetose, demoted from Diamond in season 3, defeating wunderkind pires 7-4, in the final match of this week’s NA cast. Between season 2, his perfect run last season, and his start this year, pires was riding a 14-match winning streak. And owing to four draws in season 2, this is actually only his second SCL loss ever, in 24 matches.

canadianbacon and magician1099 played their week 3 Diamond match early to circumvent travel disruptions, with bacon winning 7-3 (featured in the EU cast). warningtrack swept a doubled High-rise and defeated kcmmmmm 7-3, and krazycaley and bloom played to a 6-6 stalemate, with snipers winning all 12 games.

Expect big changes over the next week or two as pending matches resolve into forfeits. This should be particularly pronounced in Iron, where it appears two of the six competitors may effectively drop out.

For full standings and replays, visit the SCL Manager.