osu!catch World Cup 2018: Quarter Finals Recap

Another week of historic fruit catching action down, just three more to go. This year's osu!catch World Cup Quarter Finals bracket was potentially more hyped than any before. Read to find out who booked an early trip to Finals Week!

Hello everyone and welcome! With regular writer JBHyperion on vacation, I, Dohland present to you the osu!catch World Cup 2018 Quarter Finals Recap! We had high expectations going into the weekend with one of the most stacked Winners' Bracket Quarterfinals we've ever seen. Let's see who came out on top!

Quarter Finals

We kicked the weekend off with a banger! Germany, who had an impressive 5-0 win over the Netherlands last weekend, battled against South Korea, who took down Japan in the Round of 16. South Korea got things rolling with Hidden, while Germany elected to go with Hard Rock.

Although these mod selections surprised no one, the outcome sure did – Korea took an early 2-0 lead after breaking the Germans' pick. Germany wouldn't go down easily though, as they fought back to level the match at 3-3. Their counter-attack was ultimately to no avail however, as Korea continued winning in the same way they had last week. Despite giving up some early points, they would win on Double Time and No Mod to take a 5-3 victory.

Next up was another Winner's Bracket encounter between Indonesia and Hong Kong. Both teams started off strong by winning their opening picks, but things would take a turn for the worse for Hong Kong, who dropped their next two picks and found themselves staring at a 4-1 deficit. After two more break points we would arrive at our final scoreline of 5-2. Indonesia took the win and advance to Finals Week for a third year in a row!

Unfortunately, we saw our first two “win by default” results of the tournament this weekend. Sweden and Finland forfeited their Losers' Bracket matches to Poland and Mexico respectively. This eliminated the two Scandinavian teams from the tournament. Hopefully we will see them again next year.

Next up, Netherlands clashed with Japan – both teams were at risk of being eliminated and sent home, so they put their all on the line. Netherlands bounced back strongly from last week’s loss, taking an early lead and never looking back. Japan was unable to maintain consistency with the Dutch team and would eventually fall 5-1.

Then came the match everyone was waiting for – China versus the United States and so much at stake for both teams. After all the amazing moments and matches we've had so far in this tournament, it was hard to imagine anything topping what we had already seen. But leave it to the top two teams to shock us all!

The match had no break points – both teams would win all of their picks which meant one thing, and one thing only. Tiebreaker. It's the kind of situation that you dream of when you're a kid. Bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded, down by three. Who would be the hero?

Not one, not two, but three players stepped up to the platter. Guillotine and Playboy put in full combos for the United States and Dusk would put up an SS for China. But the SS wouldn't be enough. The Americans pulled off the impossible by beating China to advance to Finals Week in the first ever encounter between the two goliaths in the osu!catch World Cup. China were sent to the Losers' Bracket in the Quarter Finals. Yeah I know, crazy right? I was there.

Tasked with following up one of the most hyped matches of all time, Chile and Taiwan would also do battle with a trip to Finals Week on the line. Unfortunately, Taiwan were never able to establish substantial momentum in the early stages of the match. Although both teams played well, Chile would come out on top 5-1, advancing to Finals Week once again in prime position to make a bid for a top 3 finish.

The closing match saw France and Norway square off in the Losers' Bracket. France continued to impress, routing the Norwegians 5-0. Norway played well, but were simply outmatched by the French. It has been an excellent year for the Norwegians however, and we will definitely be looking forward to more from them in the future.

Upcoming Stage - Semi Finals

The hype only gets bigger as we transition into what could be a historic week of matches for some of our remaining teams. In the Winners' Bracket, the United States are looking to clinch their first ever podium spot, whilst Chile are looking to return the podium for the first time since they won it all in 2013. Both will face fierce competition from the ever-consistent Indonesia and a growing-in-strength South Korea respectively.

Meanwhile in the Losers' Bracket, China seek to regroup against the Netherlands, Mexico square off against Hong Kong, and Germany cross blades with Poland. Perhaps most interestingly however, Taiwan and France meet for the second time this tournament, after their Group Stage encounter ended in a nail-biting tiebreaker victory for the Asian team.

Summary

Show your support for your team by buying a banner in the osu!store! All proceeds go towards funding the tournament prize pool. The first match next week will be South Korea vs Chile at 02:00 UTC+0 on Saturday. Be sure to follow @osugame on Twitter and catch the stream on the osu!live Twitch channel so you don't miss out any of the action!

I'll see you guys next weekend from the commentators' booth. Hope to share even more awesome tournament moments with all of you!

–Dohland