When one thinks of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, they probably don’t think of gaming. However, that’s just what took place in PyeongChang, South Korea over the past few days. Intel hosted the Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang tournament ahead of this year’s winter Olympics to “showcase the excitement and influence of esports.” The tournament pitted 16 of the world’s best StarCraft II players against each other in a winner take all tournament.
“The Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang demonstration ahead of the Olympic Winter Games was an exciting moment for gamers around the world to see the industry elevated to this global sporting stage,” said John Bonini, vice president and general manager of the VR, Gaming and Esports Group at Intel. “Intel is leading the growth of esports, not just with the best gaming products and technology, but also in elevating esports to every global stage, reaching new audiences, and paving the path to the next billion fans.”
The competition took place over three days between February 5–7th. After the dust settled, Canadian Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn — and the only female to qualify for the tournament — beat out South Korea’s Kim “sOs” Yoo Jin in an upset to win the $150,000 prize pool. The full results are below:
Round of 16
- Mikolaj “Elazer” Ogonowski (W) vs Huang “Nice” Yushang
- Joo “Zest” Sung Wook (W) vs Ilyes “Stephano” Satouri
- Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn (W) vs Le “TIME” Peinan
- Joona “Serral” Sotala (W) vs Sebastian “eGGz” Lattore
- Diego “Kelazhur” Schwimmer (W) vs Gabriel “HeRoMaRinE” Segat
- Kim “sOs” Yoo Jin (W) vs Adrian “DnS” Bouet; Aleksandr “Bly” Svusuyk (W) vs Sean “Probe” Kempen
- Juan Carlos “SpeCial” Tena Lopez (W) vs Varun “Demi” Immanuel
Round of 8
- Elazer (W) vs Zest
- Scarlett (W) vs Serral
- sOs (W) vs Kelazhur
- SpeCial (W) vs Bly
Semifinals:
- Scarlett (W) vs Elazer
- sOs (W) vs. SpeCial
Grand Finals: Scarlett (W) vs sOs
Winner: Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn
The Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang was held in with support from the International Olympic Committee and in partnership with ESL.
What do you think about Intel and the IOC featuring esports just before the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang? What do you think about the results and the prize pool that was up for grabs? With games like Chess and Bridge applying for Olympic game inclusion, do you think video games could be far behind? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
