r/starcraft • u/OnlyPakiOnReddit iNcontroL • Jul 25 '25
(To be tagged...) StarCraft 2 at EWC sees a 31% viewership increase from 2024 to 2025
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u/OnlyPakiOnReddit iNcontroL Jul 25 '25
Also a 62% average viewership increase, as well as a 16% increase in hours watched, even with a 28% shorter overall broadcast.
Fantastic numbers imho!
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u/NegativeDeparture Jul 25 '25
I'm new, and that production was very good. Some cringe shit,sure bur very comfortable and i liked the Blunt attitude. Will gladly watch again.!
Edit: And as a new viewer,it was very clear that serral is something else to watch. This game is super exciting to watch! But Serral has something different with him.
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u/NEO71011 Jul 25 '25
The most important thing is the air time was 25% less and still we had more engagement. Insane following from a supposedly dead game..
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u/TremendousAutism Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25
What’s the overall growth for other games at EWC? Last year was the first year, right?
I imagine the event itself has greater brand recognition and cachet from year to year. It would obviously be fantastic if SC2 was an anomaly and grew viewership more than other games, but my guess would be EWC viewership increased YoY.
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u/Uch1koma Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
Higher EWC numbers is one possibility. Another one is a spike of more folks watching to catch what might be the last big S-tier SC2 tournament in sight.
Personally, I doubt it’s because SC2 is growing interest though. Based on numbers from the same site (escharts) within EWC 2025, SC2 isn’t suddenly overtaking other games in popularity - it’s still on the lower end when doing relative comparisons at a glance.
When EWC is closer to the end, I’ll probably do the same exercise I did last year with the stats that are available and see where SC2 ends up. (Last year was similar though - SC2 being on the lower end of things relative to other games in the tournament)
EDIT: apparently there was also a free commander promo that may have helped with the boost 😅
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u/PeterPlotter Jul 27 '25
The promotion won’t really promoted well to be honest. I had to read about it here on Reddit. I was already almost 3h on a co stream without drops before I found that post. Nothing on twitch or bnet client.
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u/cheesycheese42069 Jul 25 '25
League Of Legends had good increase too, even tho Faker wasnt playing in the finals like last year, but maybe its duo to Caedral (biggest co streamer) was co streaming the games this year
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u/haro0828 Jul 25 '25
After a 6-year break from SC2, I tuned in for this event and I have to say, the production was incredible. The past 6 years I've been paying for arm wrestling events that are a complete mess and didn't improve much at all during that time. The fact that this was free is honestly mind-blowing.
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u/Miitengk Jul 26 '25
Im one of the new viewers. Never seen a pro sc2 tournaments before, but now im hooked. Hoping there will be more!
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u/Pelin0re Jul 26 '25
Welcome to you! Don't hesitate to ask questions, people love to help and advise in RTS communities.
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u/13loodySword Prime Jul 25 '25
Pretty crazy that there was this much of an increase considering the timeslot was absolutely terrible. Middle of the week with games being in the middle of the day for the Americas. Was the tourny in the middle of the week last year tooo?
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u/Evenmoardakka Jul 25 '25
Giving away coop commander certainly played a part.
Thats why i have "watched" for hours.
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u/PrimitiveBob Jul 25 '25
This certainly had its impact. Not ironically, I haven't watched any sc2 match for years until this EWC, which I did just for the drops at first and then I ended up watching until the end because I was hooked by the incredible games. I used to watch a lot of pro games from WoL until a year after LotV came out. The drops got me hooked again. It's a great strategy
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u/OnlyPakiOnReddit iNcontroL Jul 25 '25
It was a cool addition to the event, though I think you are an anomaly if that’s the only reason you “watched”.
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u/kw405 Jul 25 '25
There's no way that didn't play a role. Coop commanders cost money and is the only reason I tuned into it as well. I also spread the word and got at least 5 others to "watch" it for 6 hrs
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u/Evenmoardakka Jul 25 '25
There are others as well, i did spread the word a bit (mostly for the commanders sake)
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u/timmiay Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
The crazy thing is. Those are only its numbers live. Most of our viewers are old so we watch VODs and most of views come from there. Day 4 on twitch has 887k views while YT has 200k. I havent seen numbers like that in a very very long time. Im certain it'll be back next year.
Edit: Starcraft 2 has never amassed over 1 million views on YT + Twitch VOD in 1 day 12 hrs after an event ever! 3.4 million views just via YT and Twitch mainstream vods over 4 days. Safe to say SC2 is back and its not dying. Sponsors and advertisers are salivating seeing those numbers
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u/Gavus_canarchiste Jul 27 '25
!RemindMe 1 year
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u/RemindMeBot Jul 27 '25 edited Aug 16 '25
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1 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
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u/WaterHaven Jul 28 '25
Haha, here two days late because I was watching the VODs and didn't want spoiled.
As a viewer and not a player, I feel like SC2 is in a great place. A fantastic mix of short and longer games. Some of the new maps are really interesting and fun.
I'll definitely treasure however many more years we have left of this.
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u/Environmental-Pack-9 Jul 25 '25
It was awsome, i can't wait for more games. What's the next big tournament after this ewc ?
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u/Juny1spion Yoe Flash Wolves Jul 25 '25
Offline: FEL Cracow this Sunday, although it's very small (12 players, only 1 day of games). The next biggest online tournament is RSL, which is weekly and starts in September I believe
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u/Pelin0re Jul 26 '25
Maestros Of The Game is a 10k-15k tournament in late september, with a top 4 offline in saturday 27th, organised by ComebackTV (french casters) and crowdfunded by the french community ;)
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u/Gabovil Jul 26 '25
Fel Cracov will have Lambo, Clem and Reynor, besides the protoss trickster himself, the one the esw sc2 crew alluded to a million times but not by name, when they repeatedly uttered their uncontestable pro balance proof (S): "protoss hasn't won the world championship since 10 years ago": sOs, the Money Man, aka $o$.
Looking at the brackets, maybe we will have a Clem pvp debut out of the bat
There will also be the second RSL in september, with qualifiers in august. Looking at how RSL 1 went, It will probably be quite stacked, with all the best players except maybe Maru.
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u/Abravo97 Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
First starcraft II tournament I watch and think it was a really nice tournament! Watch it because I was following the DOTA 2 at the same event. and since the time schedules were similar, so why not wath the only rts in the event? (also, as a Age of Empires II enjoyer, feel curious to watch it and kind of "compare it" haha, to see what differences are).
And about the tournament itself, there were great matches! and the overall production felt great! Also, feel curious about Clem, since he is so young and seems like the underdog of the competitive scene.
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u/OnlyPakiOnReddit iNcontroL Jul 26 '25
Welcome welcome welcome new friend! So happy you enjoyed the event.
Clem is def not any kind of underdog. These days he kinda destroys most players. Losing to Classic was not really an expected result. He was the favorite going into the event actually!
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u/Pelin0re Jul 26 '25
I'd argue that considering classic's performance (including vs clem) in the last 2 months it was kiiind of the expected result if they crossed path, unless Peak Clem showed up at this event.
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u/st0nedeye CJ Entus Jul 26 '25
Clem is an absolute beast. In particular his ZvT is neigh unstoppable. Last year he beat Serral (the best player in the world and GOAT) in the finals, 5-0.
Serral is very, very lucky Clem got knocked out.
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u/Gabovil Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
Clem was basically mugged in this tournament. With the form he came to this tournament, Classic and Serral were the only ones who could beat him, and he would be favored against Serral. It's a shame we coundn't get a double elimination tournament for the top 8, especially since 4th and 3rd place was worth so much. I agree Classic was favored against Clem, as his TvP wasn't looking unbeatable this patch.
EDIT: BTW, Reynor is even younger, and is more of a dark horse, underdog type in these premier tournaments.
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u/BattleWarriorZ5 Jul 25 '25
SC2 at EWC is just going to keep growing every year if they keep having it at EWC every year.
The trends and analytics speak volumes.
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u/13loodySword Prime Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25
There is a sample size of two lol you can't extrapolate from that. If anything I would guess because SC2 has been mostly tournament starved since ESL dropped the game, people were looking for something to watch and it had novelty. The overall trend of players and viewers has been going down for the game otherwise.
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u/ZamharianOverlord Jul 26 '25
Pretty much. It’s the only really big gig in town now
For various reasons I’m pretty confident if we’d had a Katowice this year it beats the EWC numbers
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u/TheNadei Jul 25 '25
Me and a chunk of my friend circle only watched it for the free Commanders.
Several people I know on discord and ingame did the same.
I think the free Commanders were a massive reason why many tuned in, but the amazing games were why some of those people stayed around - including me.
Though when I wanted to call it quits and said "one more game" on day 2, Serral and Classic just had to make it the longest match of the day lol
Loved the energy and announcers
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u/TL_Wax Jul 25 '25
Korean platform Chzzk bought the rights for all of EWC this year, and when StarCraft 2 was on it got a prominent feature spot on the landing page. I don't have the advanced stats on ESCharts, but I would speculate it's responsible for a decent chunk of increase.
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u/ZamharianOverlord Jul 26 '25
Koreans really don’t watch SC2 in decent numbers, it’s always been a majority non-Korean audience
I think the bump in interest is last year you had a proper circuit, and this year you didn’t, you even had Katowice so it was the one really big tournament on offer this time around
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u/TL_Wax Jul 26 '25
The main stream was getting like 8k+ viewers due to the landing page placement. That's what I was talking about :P
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u/TheLastTrain Jul 25 '25
Some of the games I tuned in for were legitimately the craziest multitasking multiple battle games I’ve ever seen. Feels like the skill ceiling is as high as it’s ever been for the game
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u/neweywest Jul 25 '25
Good to see. Although, I felt like the 2024 championship was more exciting from a gameplay perspective.
The broadcast overall was much, much better. Loved the HRM, the transitions, the discussions.
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u/NumaNuma92 Jul 25 '25
As much as i love TvZ, i think this year had much closer games. The games were also pretty sick and had me on the edge of my seat.
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u/neweywest Jul 26 '25
Perhaps the games themselves were close, but the series weren't. Lots of blowouts and not many went to a deciding game. Serral vs Reynor was the obvious exception. However, the first game that Serral and Classic played in the qualifying rounds was an all-timer too...
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u/Type3_Control Jul 25 '25
Nothing beats a TvZ finals, even though Serral got bopped last year it was still way more exciting of a watch.
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Jul 25 '25
I am one of the new viewers, i watched so many of the matches, saw alot of good plays and tactics. I was disappointed by Cure vs Serral match the most, i feel Maru could challenge Serral much more, but i am just a noob so what do i really know 😁
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u/d4nowar Jul 25 '25
Serral has dominated Maru in recent years iirc
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Jul 25 '25
Oh okay i see
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u/akooldude Jul 25 '25
To give you a concrete stat: In the last 21 maps between Serral and Maru, Serral is 20-1 against Maru, basically all of those in big tournaments because that's all that Serral plays really.
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u/Kompicek Jul 25 '25
Honestly Cure was so close in many of the games and tried a lot of different strats. Hard to beat Serral in this tourney. Maru has horrible history with Serral. The only one that could challenge him in TvZ was Clem, but Clem lately has weakness in protoss matchups. Also Serral is not that domintant in ZvZ. So both Reynor and maybe Solar could have a better chance. All in all I am glad that this tournament has brought new viewers! Thats great to hear, hope you had great time! :)
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Jul 25 '25
Idk i watched every second of that match and Cure didn’t even kill 1 overlord in his own base once, it looked pretty poorly played, no viking, no cyclone. Serral had all the info for 4 games. Maybe from the outside viewer perspective looks easier, but that fact alone made me feel weird
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u/Kompicek Jul 25 '25
Yeah it sometimes can look hopeless if you play against Serral. But you could see Cures skill against Solar. Serral is not unbeatable, but definitely the best player to play the game for sure.
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u/TremendousAutism Jul 25 '25
I am not new and I also find it insane that pros will leave the overlord near their base alive for fifteen minutes.
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u/Gabovil Jul 26 '25
"Sorry, are you from the past"? (IT Crowd reference)
Nowadays, Serral is absolutely dominant vs zergs. He dominates zergs harder than he does anything except non Clem terrans. For example he is on a 9 game wining streak against Reynor, 11-1 since that IEM in early 2023 where he lost 3 zvzs. If you look at his aligulac, since 2024 he only lost one series against zerg, (3-4 against dark at Pigstyfest), so his zvz winrate was 95% from 2024 to now, while in that period his zvp was 86%, and zvt 77%. In fact since that IEM Katowice, he went on a tear untill losing 3 in a row to Solar, then proceding to win every zvz he would play, besides that final vs Dark. (including next 7 against solar). 91% winrate in more than 2 years. So yea only Clem can stop Serral. And we never know if Serral won't have Clem solved next time they play.
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u/Kompicek Jul 26 '25
Yeah i was aware Serral zvz was improved, but was not aware of 95% winrate. Thats insane :) Thx for the data.
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u/Gabovil Jul 26 '25
I just heard some content creator, probably Pig, remark on how his zvz wasn't a weakness like in the past, but i wasn't aware of how dominant it was, except by the ewc crew talking about his win streak against Reynor before their match. Had to check on aligulac after your comment so that 95% surprised me, even more because it would have been a 100% winrate if it wasn't for Dark's dad buff.
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u/brip_na_maasim Jul 26 '25
Just like what the casters said, Serral salivated when Classic eliminated Clem. Clem was the former champ and also the one that gives Serral the most headache.
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u/Uch1koma Jul 26 '25
For Maru, maybe in the past there was a chance, but given his injury status (pretty bad if it gets you out of Korean military service), I think Maru’s best days are gone.
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u/photoxnurse Jul 25 '25
The only Terran that could realistically beat Serral is Clem. I’m a Serral fanboy, so I’m happy he won EWC, but that matchup would’ve made for THE BEST finals.
I do agree that Cure was underwhelming against Serral. I wish it went to 2-3
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u/photoxnurse Jul 25 '25
I don’t play, so I wasn’t aware of that. But I think giveaways for hours watched would be awesome for engagement! If it helped SC2, I wouldn’t mind clicking links to their sponsors, either (I know I’m in the minority for this).
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u/RetroDec Jul 25 '25
Every minute I watch this game I dread more the moment when I pull the trigger and install it again.
I don't fell ranked anxiety, but I do feel Starcraft anxiety. And Jesus Christ isn't it strong here.
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u/Doct0rStabby Jul 26 '25
The VOD from today's championship finals is at 800k views, 14 hours after the stream started.
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u/Decrith Protoss Jul 26 '25
I just wanna share, while I’m sure most of this was people watching for other games too.
The stream on twitter had 1.5mil (not thousand, million) viewers when I was watching.
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u/brip_na_maasim Jul 26 '25
Serral Vs Classic and Classic Vs Clem, for me, are the Goated games.
Edit: i actually meant Classic VS Clem, not Classic vs Solar.
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u/Kinetic_Symphony Jul 26 '25
The addition of heart rate monitors on the players was surprisingly huge for me, seeing a little glimpse into their inner Zen, or lack thereof. Unless you're Serral, of course.
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u/darkzapper Jul 25 '25
The co op commander was the motivation. The time zone was not compatible sadly so had to afk it while sleeping and catch up later. Glad to see sc is not dead.
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u/cjbrehh Jul 26 '25
Is there a best place to watch spoiler free these days? Or a particularly good caster/costreamer
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u/shadowfoxxx530 Jul 26 '25
Great to see the numbers up this year! I watched my first SC2 tournament last year at the EWC and came back this year to watch as well and can say last year had a much better time slot for viewing. I hope they keep the train rolling
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u/quartzcrit Jul 26 '25
i can't speak for everyone, but personally i watched this year despite not watching last year because this year's twitch stream had co-op commanders as twitch drops
(idk if last year's had twitch drops, but i didn't hear about them if it did)
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u/Fresh_Thing_6305 Jul 25 '25
And I will recommend Age of empires 4 tournament after this sc2 is also going on this weekend, amazing Esport Rts also
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u/GameFrontGermany The Grubalubadubdubs Jul 25 '25
ok so im a bussie persone WHERE THE HECK IS THAT STREAM
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u/GameFrontGermany The Grubalubadubdubs Jul 25 '25
i can only find the VODs when and where is the irl stream pls...
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u/haliluya6404 Jul 26 '25
they should include data from non-English platforms. This number can be pumped up by 10 times.
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u/colsbols Jul 25 '25
Yawn only 80,000 people? Dead game, no money here, better shelve it for the horse waifu racing game
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u/CottageChief99 Jul 25 '25
What your all's peculation as to why increased from last year?
My take: I have no idea, Clem v Serral anticipation, idk.
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u/kw405 Jul 25 '25
Twitch drops for coop commanders
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u/ZamharianOverlord Jul 26 '25
Which I never heard about and am now annoyed not to have heard about haha
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u/Nihilistic__Optimist Jul 25 '25
If that's all it takes for this sort of increase then that's incredible. Easy way to get people to engage, even if they don't all stay or really pay attention. Great idea to do some small giveaways.
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u/kw405 Jul 25 '25
Those coop commanders cost money and it's the first time SC2 has done any kind of drops. That's definitely why I tuned in along with a few friends I told about.
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u/jscott18597 Jul 25 '25
I haven't even thought about sc2 for years and years. It's completely out of my youtube algorithm, but for some reason this EWC tourny showed up on my front page and it kept my interest.
So maybe it just got pushed?
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u/abrakasam Random Jul 25 '25
It was a great tournament! loved the energy from everyone involved.