Written by Mark “wombat” Larsen
With the Round 1 matches full of BYEs, Round 2 promises to have some exciting matches. Still in single elimination, the losers here will be heading home early. The top part of the Upper Bracket is loaded with talent, and features many great matches early on. Below is a look at some of the top matches in Round 2.

#33 Christian “deatz.de” Dotzki vs. #32 Alejandro “x6|ve-elpajuo” Gonzalez

Although coming in with the slightly better seed, elpajuo is fighting an uphill battle. Deatz is a very skilled player, finishing 5th at ESWC 2004 for Painkiller. While elpajuo may be a known name in the world of Venezuelan Quake 3, he has yet to make a name for himself in PK. Now is the time to shine for him if he expects to move onto double elimination.

Predicted Winner: deatz

#17 Alexey “LeXeR” Nesterov vs. #48 David “4K^Zaccubus” Treacy

The seedings are a bit misleading here, as Zaccubus should be nowhere near the 48th seed. He Became the first member of the 4Kings Painkiller squad by winning the Intel Extreme Edition Challenge 3, which hosted an 8 man qualifying tournament where the winner became apart of 4Kings. Lexer is a seasoned veteran, however, winning QuakeCON 2002 and being known worldwide for his dominance on LAN.

Predicted Winner: LeXeR

#25 Alexander “e*star Ztrider” Ingarv vs. #40 Michael “Moerser” Froese

Yet another match featuring two well-known European players. Ztrider is an extremely skilled player, just last week winning the European Painkiller Tournament 1 (EPKT1). Moerser, on the other hand, is known mainly for his performance at ESWC 2004, where he finished 3rd, even after managing to beat Fatal1ty twice. Moerser’s practice routine has remained a mystery to most, but if he has been practicing since ESWC, we may see an upset here.

Predicted Winner: Ztrider

#45 Geoffrey “geoff” Akers vs. #20 Timothy “FireBlade” Lobes

This match may not feature as well known players, but the skill level of these 2 players is pretty close. FireBlade recently participated in the GotFrag tournament, winning only 1 match, against Toast. Geoff comes from a Quake 3 background, which is why I’m familiar with him, but many of you may have never heard of him before.

Predicted Winner: geoff

#19 Jared “pfb” Keahey vs. #46 Dan “4K^Kuula” Marshall

Onto the lower bracket, and again we see a 4Kings player with a tough opponent. In the GotFrag tournament, we saw pfb defeat clown (#8 seed) and carnage (#7 seed). Kuula recently finished top 4 at the qualifying event in England, and his chance at advancing past pfb looks pretty bleak. Unlucky seeds may result in the 4Kings having two of their members knocked out early.

Predicted Winner: pfb