I recently attended “Power Overwhelming 4†a StarCraft 2 tournament hosted by Local Battles in Anderson New Jersey. Playhem powered POW4, which is a notable daily tournament holder in the SC2 community. POW4 had over 9 attendant’s competing for glory and a sizable amount of spectators cheering them on. The skill levels between the 9 players were fairly even and it was the first SC2 local tournament I’ve attended that almost all the players were of grand master ranking. The tournament started at 1:00pm EST and ended by 11:00Pm EST; most matches lasted 10-30 minutes on average.
Local Battles also had a stream station going for the tournament with some commentary from local SC2 player “ErickTheRedTV†and a fellow co-host. There was some pretty intense match’s going on between players but of course the jewel of the night were the grand finals. The final match between Siphonn and OpTik Nemesis had me mentally strained as I was trying to digest everything that was going on. Nemesis was definitely the odds on favorite to win seeing as he was the undefeated champion of the winners bracket. But Siphonn even though being an eliminated by AGIANTSMURF early on wouldn’t allow him to take POW4 by storm. Siphonn not only won his salty run-back against the eliminated AGIANTSMURF he also put a physical L on Nemesis’s record causing the bracket to reset. The PVP battle going on between these two was no short one either; their set lasted over 2 hours.
 
Both players were shockingly clashing at each other with almost the same exact build. The difference always came down to whom had little bit more unit production. At one point during their set there were 3 mother ships that had come into play and all I could do was face palm. But what kept me sane during POW4’s were Local Battles accommodations. LB’s location has always been very comfortable and welcoming and is a place I enjoy spending my free time at. LB is definitely becoming that “place†for all competitive and casual PC gaming needs in NJ and soon to be the tri-state area. I cannot wait to attend “Power Overwhelming 5†in August and experience some more high level SC2 game-play. Hopefully there will be salty run-back between Siphonn and the defending champion Nemesis next month.
For more information on upcoming Star Craft 2 tournaments and hosting head over to http://localbattles.com/
If you’re interested in seeing the playback from POW4 check out the play-list at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16C8C8E3FE573022&feature=plcp
And if you’re a local Sc2 player why not try your hand in POW5 registration has already begun over at http://pow5.eventbrite.com/
