Famous faces fall flat on day one of GamesCom

Grubby joined Kaelaris for a casting session after successfully finishing his heroic run through Open Bracket #2
Photo by: Martin Rehberger


A pretty long day of Starcraft has come to an end, but the groups for the main phase of the tournament are now ready to roll.

A somewhat convoluted system of qualification meant that day one of IEM Cologne featured a ton of games. Big names like Bomber, MVP and MC had to go through the wringer and several didn’t make it.

Bracket one put paid to both Naniwa and YongHwa, with the Swede going out in shocking fashion and without a single map win. Korean's run, however, was much deeper as he made it to Losers Bracket Round 4 before falling 1-2 to ReaL, who in turn advanced to the group stage along with bracket wrecker Bomber. The very same bracket saw what could very well be the game of the day between Bly and Bomber on Entombed Valley which can be found in our coverage hub.

Bracket two saw the unfortunate Targa fall at the final hurdle to Grubby, despite stunning both Ace and Oz in earlier rounds. MVP was the only Korean to make it through that bracket, in fact, with Grubby claiming the losers bracket final to advance to the group stage. The Dutchman eliminated the very same Korean protoss duo before confronting Targa in a dramatic series that ended with a 50-minute game on Daybreak.


Photo by: Marting Rehberger

Two out of three Koreans advanced to the group stage with Killer being the unlucky one this time, losing to Nestea in the all-important match which after a forty minute long Metropolis set and a plot twist on Ohana easily became the highlight of this open bracket. Puma took the high seed after staying undefeated despite not showing his very best performance today.

Finally, the fourth bracket had its own upsets. Whitera went out very quickly, losing first to Lucifron and then to JYP. MC and ForGG emerged unscathed into day two after the terran player managed to 2-0 JYP in the last match.

IEM Cologne Group Stage
Group A	Group B
SortOf	Feast
nerchio	Kas
Inori	PiG
DeMuslim	viOlet
Puma	MVP
ForGG	NesTea
Group C	Group D
Slivko	HasuObs
Elfi	Vortix
Moonglade	Supernova
Minigun	KiLLeR
Bomber	MC
Grubby	ReaL

If you've missed today's stream action, fret not: we've got you all covered as we've collected everything you might possibly think of!



Links
GosuGamers - IEM coverage