The results for the Intel Extreme Masters Season V are in, and some intense mirror match-ups tested each players skill against his own race. All the players showed a great deal of creativity throughout the qualifiers, and put on some interesting games. Here are the results from this half of the round one European qualifiers.
| ESL Intel Extreme Masters Europe | ||
| Qualification Round 1 | ||
  Nbs | 3-2 |  iD.TuZeR |
 NTT | 3-2 |  Skyless |
  WuLvEraTe | 0-3 |  Naniwa |
 xEi | 0-3 |  HasuObs |
 sunhiNe | 1-3 |  h34D_hUnT3R |
  Skruf | 3-2 |  Empire.ho8ot |
Highlights
In a qualifier round dominated by Terran and Protoss, I would be remiss to ignore the entertaining Zerg vs Zerg between Skruf and Empire.ho8ot. The scrap station game in particular was entertaining to watch--after an early attempt at a Zergling/Baneling attack by Empire, Skruf responded with a well timed Roach/Hydra attack through the destructible rocks. What made this interesting was the inclusion of 3 Queens into the mix, which he used for a liberal amount of transfusion to keep his Roaches alive and well. This allowed for Skruf's Hydras to plow their way through the Zergling/Mutalisk army that Empire had amassed, and Empire was forced to type out.
NTT and Skyless had some fun Terran vs Terran games, including one where the game lasted for well over an hour. The game ended up becoming a stalemate with NTT making great use of Seeker Missile to destroy Siege Tanks and Viking balls, using Point Defense Drone to close the gap before unleashing death from the seeker missile. This game was great just because it's a reminder that sometimes, Starcraft can just be plain fun.
Last but not least, it's worth mentioning that apparently cannon rushes are all the rage these days. HasuObs used them twice as a contain against his Protoss opponent xEi, and h34d_hUnT3R's cannon rush on Desert Oasis killed his opponent sunshiNe for a quick and decisive four minute victory.
With some interesting games and some lackluster ones, we expect more to come in second round. If you want to check out the replays, head over to the IEM website to grab all of the round one qualifier matches.
Check back in with GosuGamers on October 7th, 2010 for coverage of the second round of European qualifiers.
Links
ESL - replays
