[breadfan]

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!

[nirvAnA]

Really looking forward to the Oz vs Stephano match! Wow at Welmu beating Puma 2-0! Breakout performance indeed, good luck man!

Quick Comments

ROCCAT_Savior:

exactly what I was thinking; Stephano Oz should be awesome.

[Cyanide]

I think Stephano will take it. The rest of the players are P?

[AxS.Sorathez]

Stephano should take this tourney IMO.
Cue transformers music:


STE-PHA-NO!
KOREAN IN DISGUISE!

[breadfan]

Originally Posted by Cyanide

I think Stephano will take it. The rest of the players are P?

He has an all protoss run until WB semi final. They've done some weird thing where instead of a WB and LB final, there's two WB/LB matches, and the winners go onto the championship. So it will depend on the next 5 LB matches.

[SmirkToT]

protoss or zerg to take this

[Mox]

Stephano so gosu! I hope he wins it. The game vs Oz should be wicked! He pretty comprehensively smashed Alicia 4-0 so hes in form!

[AxSGRiM]

Thank you very much for doing a recap man! It would also be great if you could add some of the TeamLiquid interviews because I feel like all HotBid interviews are extremely hilarious.