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Photo: MLG Live Stream

It's back again - the MLG Arena. This time round, there's only the one arena serving to provide qualification into the MLG Summer Championships in Raleigh come August. This is the first arena this year with actual free content, so everyone can check out the action from the main stage. If you missed day 1, or just want to relive it, the information is below (some necessary spoilers, but for the most part they are in spoiler tags).

View the MLG Summer Arena Brackets

There weren't many upsets in the first round, with the majority of matches taken by the higher seeded players. The unlucky ones who dropped at the hands of a lower seed included...

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Sheth (0-2 vs Ryung)
Illusion (1-2 vs Revival)
Puma (0-2 vs Welmu)
Golden (1-2 vs Top)
Real (0-2 vs LosirA)

None were particularly dramatic upsets - a testament to the overall strength of the player pool.

Day 1 Highlights

QXC vs Stephano , round 1

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QXC is one pro terran who has been vocal about imbalance creeping into the game. Taking on the greatest foreign zerg would be no easy task, however Stephano manhandled an error-prone QXC with an ease that said little about imbalance and a lot about Stephano being a class above other foreigners. Stephano demonstrated why he is a serious contender for the championship.

Alicia vs Ryung , round 2

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Alicia's 2-0 victory over Ryung further demonstrated his impressive form, carrying over from his strong showing at NASL where he claimed second place.

Future Highlights

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Look out for Alicia vs Hero in a PvP winner's bracket showdown, the winner of which goes on to play the victor of Oz vs Stephano, in what will be the equivalent to the WB semi final. These four players are all reasonable bets to take the whole thing, and hopefully the games will live up to expectation.

In the lower bracket, check out Dream vs Puma. The winner moves on to play SaSe, whose warp prism play strikes fear into the heart of foreign terrans. Whether the koreans will be phased is yet to be seen.

Lower Bracket Contenders

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Grubby shouldn't feel any shame being knocked down by Hero, and faces some strong yet entirely beatable talent in his coming matches. Welmu finds himself in a position to have a breakout performance, and the Finnish protoss may well outperform all expectation. Their greatest tests will be decided by who drops from the WB.

You can catch more MLG Summer Arena action here tomorrow.

Quick Comments

ProAnnn:

NICE ARTICLE!