No more double-elimination group stage. This year is going to be fast and furious, with the first round starting on 10/27 and the best of 3 final scheduled for 11/2-4.

Round 1:
Hong Seongji vs. Tong Mengcheng
Park Jinsol vs. Lian Xiao
Gu Zihao vs. Ichiriki Ryo
Kim Cheayoung vs. Yang Dingxin
Shin Minjun vs. Tang Weixing
Lee Donghoon vs. Ke Jie
Lee Changho vs. Li Xuanhao
Park Junghwan vs. Xie Erhao
Shin Jinseo vs. Liao Yuanhe
Kim Minseok vs. Xu Haohong
Shi Yue vs. Ida Atsushi
Kang Jihoon vs. Hsu Chiayuan
Cho Hanseung vs. Zhou Hongyu
Byun Sangil vs. Chen Yaoye
Lee Yeongkyu vs. Li Weiqing
Choi Jaeyoung vs. Mimura Tomoyasu

Some exciting matches, but could also mean a wild lineup later if some top players get knocked out early.

no Iyama, no Shibano

Yes, but this might not be too bad, since Ichiriky Ryo has done better than either of those to in this year's International tournaments.

Round 1 results (winners in bold):

Hong Seongji vs. Tong Mengcheng
Park Jinsol vs. Lian Xiao
Gu Zihao vs. Ichiriki Ryo
Kim Cheayoung vs. Yang Dingxin
Shin Minjun vs. Tang Weixing
Lee Donghoon vs. Ke Jie
Lee Changho vs. Li Xuanhao
Park Junghwan vs. Xie Erhao
Shin Jinseo vs. Liao Yuanhe
Kim Minseok vs. Xu Haohong
Shi Yue vs. Ida Atsushi
Kang Jihoon vs. Hsu Chiayuan
Cho Hanseung vs. Zhou Hongyu
Byun Sangil vs. Chen Yaoye
Lee Yeongkyu vs. Li Weiqing
Choi Jaeyoung vs. Mimura Tomoyasu

Ichiriki Ryo excelled again in beating Gu (gorating #4).

Round 2:

Shin Jinseo vs. Lian Xiao
Hong Seongji vs. Li Weiqing
Xu Haohong vs. Xie Erhao
Choi Jaeyoung vs. Shi Yue
Byun Sangil vs. Li Xuanhao
Kang Jihoon vs. Yang Dingxin
Shin Minjun vs. Ichiriki Ryo
Cho Hanseung vs. Ke Jie

Round 2 results:

Shin Jinseo vs. Lian Xiao
Hong Seongji vs. Li Weiqing
Xu Haohong vs. Xie Erhao
Choi Jaeyoung vs. Shi Yue
Byun Sangil vs. Li Xuanhao
Kang Jihoon vs. Yang Dingxin
Shin Minjun vs. Ichiriki Ryo
Cho Hanseung vs. Ke Jie

Lian Xiao lost on time after battling back against Shin. And Ichiriki beat another top 10 player to advance!

Quarterfinal (10/30):

Yang Dingxin vs. Li Weiqing
Ke Jie vs. Li Xuanhao
Xie Erhao vs. Ichiriki Ryo
Shi Yue vs. Shin Jinseo

Results:

Yang Dingxin vs. Li Weiqing
Ke Jie vs. Li Xuanhao
Xie Erhao vs. Ichiriki Ryo
Shi Yue vs. Shin Jinseo

Poor Shi Yue, he lived up to his killer reputation, but then Shin Jinseo went revenge kill beserk and managed to pull it off. Re-live the drama at https://www.twitch.tv/bibalive

I was surprised to see TWO losses on time in this internet event.

To misquote Oscar Wilde: to lose on game on time, Mr Worthing, is unfortunate, but to lose two suggests something odd, such as drastically shortened time limits or connections problems. Has anyone seen any reports of such issues?

As expected the finale will be between the number 1 shin jinseo VS the number 2 ke jie. Best of 3 starts next monday ^^

The final everyone wanted to see:

Shin Jinseo vs. Ke Jie (11/2 - 4)

Ke Jie is going for his 4th Samsung Cup title, while Shin is looking to complete one of the most dominant years ever.

Got to see a minute of the Samsung Cup, and on move 32 (I think), Shin Jinseo played on the first line because of a misclick.

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Occupy Babel!

It's move 21: https://ww4.sinaimg.cn/bmiddle/007vqutdgy1gkaomi0zm2j30zk0ku77x.jpg

There wasn't much suspense after that early misclick, as Ke Jie won game 1 in just 120 moves.

It wasn't even a misclick in that Shin's finger did not click the mouse when it was in the wrong place. He was using a wired external mouse with a laptop and the wire trailed over the keyboard and touchpad of the laptop which evidently did not have the tap to click feature disabled, so the wire movement on the touchpad registered as a click.

Shambolic organisation and refereeing.

One more reason why i absolute hate online tournaments even with absolute cheating control.

Online tournaments could be run a LOT more professionally than this. I work for a company which makes project management software. One of the features customers use a lot is the "Risk Register", which is basically a big table for each project where you enter things that could go wrong with the project, the probability of them happening (not exactly, usually just a 1-5 low to high scale), the impact if said bad thing happens (again usually just a rough 1-5 though sometimes more quantified), mitigation steps, whose job it is, mitigated probability/impact, manager sign off etc. Here's a few brainstormed entries for a risk register of a "let's hold a big international tournament online" project:
1. Power cut
2. Internet down
3. Wifi outage
4. Windows update during game
5. Mouse failure
6. Computer crash
7. Lag, leading to loss of byo-yomi period
8. Toilet break
9. Cheating with bot from on-person device
10. Cheating via signals from accomplice
11. Server downtime
12. Misclick from user error
13. Misclick from hardware error
14. Battery run out (e.g. wireless mouse)
15. Lag leading to loss of game
16. Technical failure e.g. internet connection lag from hack/DDOS from malign parties

Great list. The thing that went through my head yesterday was that talking to established esports figures would be a good idea. A big tournament like the Samsung Cup could probably afford to pay someone for a short "consulting" engagement, but smaller events and organizations could probably just talk to someone over virtual coffee and come away with a ton of ideas. I'd wager someone in that community has a blog post that runs through disabling tap to click, and a great many other things.

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Occupy Babel!

Do the organizers have no protocols for these kinds of situations? Or is it something like the player is responsible for their own hardware, which does not fall under the organizer's responsibility?

What a shame for both players—I'm sure Ke Jie didn't want to win like that.