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Oliveira wins IEM Katowice’s StarCraft 2 competition

fragster Radu M. 14. February 2023

Everyone talks about G2 Esports and their superb victory in IEM Katowice’s CS:GO competition. But few people know about the victory of Li “Oliveira” Peinan, a Chinese player who defeated the world’s best players to become the champion of IEM Katowice’s SC2 competition.

The 22-year-old hadn’t won a single big event in his career, but at this age it’s never late to start. Nobody gave him a chance. And it’s understandable why. With players like Joona “Serral” Sotala, Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti, and Cho “Maru” Seong-ju in the competition, how do you even reach the Grand Final?

Oliveira’s exceptional run

Oliveira entered IEM Katowice as one of the tournament’s many underdogs. He was not even expected to survive the group stage, but somehow he secured a spot in the playoffs despite winning just two of the five matches.

At this point, people were convinced that his second place result from World Team League 2022 Winter was due to Serral’s prowess, not his. The Finnish player had teamed up with him for that competition and the two of them nearly won. They were defeated only in the Grand Final, with a score of 5-4, by a South Korean team.

Despite looking hopeless, Oliveira started the playoffs with a victory against Gabriel “HeRoMaRinE” Segat, one of Germany’s best players. The score was 3-1.

The second match of the playoffs was against the strongest Zerg in the world, Reynor. Normally, Reynor doesn’t lose against underdogs. And he almost never loses after he’s won the first two maps. But Oliveira made the comeback of his career in this match and won 2-3.

After this win, the fans were starting to suspect that the dark horse might prove everyone wrong. And indeed, the next two matches were an amazing demonstration of talent and skill.

The first victim was Kim “herO” Joon-ho, who got defeated 3-1. The second victim was Maru, who is regarded as the best Terran player in the world. In the best-of-seven, Maru started with a win on Dragon Scales. But the next four maps were won by Oliveira.

This TvT matchup proved that the Chinese player has an incredibly deep understanding of the Terran race. The casters, Daniel “Artosis” Stemkoski and Nicolas “Tasteless” Plott, were completely shocked by what Oliveira was able to do against his seemingly unbeatable opponent.

Because StarCraft 2 is such a technical game, we rarely see outsiders winning big events. But Oliveira managed somehow to find a way to outsmart everyone. Now we have to see if he can continue or if this was the biggest fluke of his career.

Header: ESL