January 6th saw the end of the first round of group stage matches at the HomeStory Cup 4. After HerO's and JYP's triumphs earlier the same day, Grubby and Sound came strong to win the last top seeds for the Ro16.
The second day of HSC 4 began with JYP and DarkForce crushing group E to win their spots to the next round. Yet that was just the start of the next step of dominance of the South Korean's as HerO left no chance to his opponents and topped Group F with a 6-0, ReaL being the only other player with that score around the time. Naama and KawaiiRice engaged in a long and tense TvT to determine who will follow the Liquid protoss to the next group stage and eventually the Finnish terran prevailed 2-1, looking to make another impressive tournament run after finishing top eight at DHW 2011.
In Group G, StarTale's Sound accomplished the third and last 6-0 for the first group stage. The Korean terran was placed amongst some of Europe's finest players, harboring one of tournament's favorites Stephano, top 4 DHW finisher NightEnd and another one of France's finest zergs - Moman. His flawless run through the group stage put him on equal ground with his compatriots ReaL and HerO in terms of final map score and left the French star Stephano trailing behind with a 4-2.
StarTale Sound
Photo by GosuGamers.net
As the night grew late, Grubby came out as the last group winner, enjoying a 6-2 score after some back-and-forth series. The Dutch protoss and WarCraft 3 legend snuck out 2-1 victories over Goody and Destiny yet he found it much easier to defeat fellow Dutchman Ret who was the arguable favorite to top the group. Second placed Goody, who besides his loss to Grubby, played two flawless series against Ret and Destiny to end 5-2 in the group.
Thus, the second day of HomeStory Cup 4 brought the first phase of the group stage to the following final standings:
| HomeStory Cup Day 1 results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Group A | Group B | |||||||||||||||||||||||
  Nerchio | 6 | 1 |   MarineKing | 4 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
  Socke | 5 | 3 | ViOlet | 4 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
 InControl | 2 | 5 | Delphi | 4 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||
 Thorzain | 2 | 6 | HasuObs | 0 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Group C | Group D | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ReaL | 6 | 0 | MC | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
 Dimaga | 4 | 2 |  ClouD | 5 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
 Attero | 2 | 4 |  PoYo | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||
 Adelscott | 0 | 6 | Aures | 1 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Group E | Group F | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| JYP | 6 | 1 | HerO | 6 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||
| DarkForce | 4 | 2 |  Naama | 4 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||
 Bling | 3 | 4 | KawaiiRice | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||
| DarkHydra | 0 | 6 | HayPro | 0 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Group G | Group H | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sound | 6 | 0 | Grubby | 6 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Stephano | 4 | 2 | Goody | 5 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
 NightEnd | 2 | 4 | Ret | 2 | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Moman | 0 | 6 | Destiny | 1 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||
The second round of the group stage matches will fire off today, January 7th, at 15:00 CET.
