A few days ago we already introduced our Dutch players, knowing that it would be a little miracle when they would both progress through the groupstages of the DreamHack Eizo Open games this DreamHack Summer. Ret made it through to the RO16, as expected, but the Dutch wonder this year is our own Packer Kevin ‘ Harstem‘ de Koning. The 17 year old Protoss player, hailing from Vlaardingen the Netherlands is amazing every StarCraft II lover out there. Beating all the odds winning the games against ThorZaiN and LaLush in the Groupstage #2 he went on to the third Groupstage.

His opponents came out to be Bly, Naugrim & MaNa. If we are talking about the European championship it is kinda like:

Bly = the weaker Denmark.

Naugrim = a Portugal that is not to be underestimated.

MaNa = the undefeatable Germany.

Harstem = The Dutch team.

Losing his first two matches in the third groupstage, both with 2-1, there was not much hope for Harstem. The situation came out to be exactly the same as the Netherlands in the European Soccer Championship. He had to win his next match and hope that the other guy would loose. While the Netherlands got their asses kicked by Portugal, Harstem did the impossible. He won the game against Naugrim with 2-1 ending up with a total of 4 map wins and thus progressing on to the RO16.

Now Harstem is the first Packer that ever got in to the RO16 of a DreamHack StarCraft 2 tournament, and he has a good chance on progressing on to the RO8, where he will either meet SaSe or the other Dutch guy in the tournament, Ret. We are excited to see it, check out www.dreamhack.tv for the streams later today! From all of the Packers:

Good Luck Harstem!

A Little Interview with Harstem after coming through the second Groupstage.

