For StarCraft II, Opening Week has come to a close, and the top 16 players from WCS Circuit and WCS Korea have been whittled down to the top 8. After some tense matches and a few remarkable upsets, the players going head to head on the BlizzCon stage for part of the $500,000 prize pool will be Dark, Stats, Zest, Neeblet, ShoWTimE, ByuN, TY, and Elazer. The top Korean players continue to show why Korea is the dominant region in StarCraft II. But with three players from other regions headed to the top 8 in Anaheim this weekend, this is the greatest number of western contenders to make it to the finals at BlizzCon.

Day 1 of Opening Week started with no shortage of great games. One of the more exciting stories came from the French player PtitDrogo. He joined the WCS Global Finals to fill Polt's position after the star Korean player was called to serve in his country's military. PtitDrogo showed he belonged on the global stage as he eliminated Snute from the tournament. He later fell to Stats in the decider match on Day 4.

The second day provided some of the most memorable upsets. First we saw Germany's ShoWTimE defeat Dear in a convincing 2-0 set. Later in the day, Elazer defeated the highly prolific Korean champion Solar, taking the set 2-1. Immediately afterward in the elimination game, Nerchio also took his set against Solar 2-1, ending Solar's tournament run.

Our third day of Opening Week had two of the most unbelievable matches in the tournament so far. First we saw ByuN, a Terran so seasoned and practiced he's often praised as having perfect gameplay, fall to ShoWTimE without taking a single game. Then in the very next match, Elazer used some highly aggressive strategies early on in both games. It didn't work out for him in either game, and TY took the 2-0 set in the fastest matchup of the WCS Global Finals by far.

The final day of Opening Week decided the four second-seed players to move on to the top 8 playing at BlizzCon. We saw some great mirror matchups that showed just how close these games can get. When Neeblet and Patience had their rematch, we saw some of the tensest Protoss versus Protoss moments. Each player danced in and out of battle, trying to seek an advantage over the other. In the end, Neeblet took the set in game 3 with some quick aggression. Likewise, we saw some impeccable Zerg versus Zerg play as Elazer and Nerchio went head to head. Though both players were at the top of their game, Elazer managed some really potent flanks, sandwiching Nerchio's army into an inescapable kill zone, which secured his place in the quarterfinals.

As we look ahead to BlizzCon on November 4 and 5, we have a good split of Korean and non-Korean players as well as a good mix of all three races. Half of the players do battle as Protoss, while two play Terran and the remaining two play Zerg. All of the matches on the big stage will be must-watch battles, but there are a couple of standout sets you won't want to miss.

Hot off his unprecedented victory at the KeSPA Cup, Neeblet is certainly a player to watch. If he's able to defeat Dark in the quarter finals, then we’ll be guaranteed to see a player from somewhere other than Korea in the grand finals, which has never happened at BlizzCon before.

TY versus ByuN is another exciting matchup scheduled during this Friday’s quarterfinals. Throughout this tournament, we have yet to see a Terran-versus-Terran match. With these two set against one another right off the bat, we'll have a chance to see the two best Terran players in the world duke it out.

As BlizzCon draws closer, one thing is for sure. This is the most exciting WCS Global Finals we've ever seen, and absolutely any of these 8 players could take home the first-place trophy. Keep up with the brackets and the schedule on blizzcon.com, and make sure you tune in live for the WCS Global Finals starting Friday, November 4th at 20:30 CET on Twitch.