The first day of the World Cyber Games is infinitely more exciting than the next. Most of the big names managed to find themselves in the first half of the tournament; with the possibility that most of them end up making it to the final 4.

Three human players and three Night Elf players managed to qualify out of their groups. These playes are Xyligan, HoT, ToD, Moon, SoJu and Sky. XlorD is the lone Undead player, coupled with the Peruvian wonder DanGer.

Checking out of what may come (brackets on page 2) -- players that are playing today will either have to face ToD, XyligaN or SoJu on the upper part of the brackets or choose to battle HoT, Moon or Sky on the lower part. Either way, they have a tough road ahead.

Here's the recap of what happened in Day 1, the players who qualified, and whose performances earned high regard.

WCG 2007 Warcraft III - Group A
View Group A Match Scores/Results

Group A Mikhail "XyLigan" Ryabkov Mykhaylo "SK.HoT" Novopashyn

Last year’s 3^rd and 4^th place end up meeting each other right at the group stages. XyligaN, who lost to HoT to settle for 4^th place, managed to take his revenge this year. He beat HoT in the group stages, now allowing him to take 1^st seeding for the bracket play. Potentially, he can either meet Konna or Protois from Group E, that is, if SaSe manages to take 1^st place.

While it doesn’t affect the future outcome of the tournament, it’s interesting to note that New Zealand player Kowi managed to beat Longwalk in the group stages.

WCG 2007 Warcraft III - Group B
View Group B Match Scores/Results

This group is a little more obvious when it comes to who would actually manage to advance to the later rounds. The main question is, who would take the top spot? ToD or Moon?

The big stage showed the epic matchup between the Romantic Human and the 5^th race on Terenas Stand. ToD’s capabilities in playing Human became immensely apparent as he defeated Moon without much difficulty. ToD now takes the 1^st spot on his group, getting ready to face Group F – where Fly100% is expected to take 1^st place, so ToD would probably face Myst in the round of 16.

WCG 2007 Warcraft III - Group C
View Group C Match Scores/Results

XlorD takes the 1^st seed without dropping a map – no surprise there. For the rest of the group, DanGer and HasuHasi managed to get a 4-2 score, with DanGer getting the upper hand since he defeated HasuHasi head to head.

XlorD should meet either apm (Canada) or Swift (Russia) from Group G, considering that Creolophus should manage to take the top spot.

WCG 2007 Warcraft III - Group D
View Group D Match Scores/Results

Finally, the most interesting group of all! Let’s list the matchups that send tingles down our spines:

SoJu > Sky

This was the last match of the day. Everyone considered Sky to completely sweep the group, with his 6-0 run. SoJu has a 5-1 score, and this win makes him take 1^st seed for the group while Sky takes second. This ends up making the bracket matchups much more interesting – their potential opponents range from Grubby, DeMusliM, xiaOt, or GlaDe. Theoretically, Grubby should take the top spot, and Sky manages to meet him in the round of 16 while SoJu can either meet xiaOt, DeMusliM or GlaDe. No one wants to face Grubby if it’s not necessary, but Sky has always been someone who can take down the EmperOrc even in a bad day.

Ciara > SoJu

SoJu’s only dent in his armor is against Danish Orc player Ciara. Ciara trained immensely for his Elf Terenas Stand matchup and completely surprised SoJu with his tower push tactic against SoJu’s fast tech to tier 3. SoJu shook his head in disbelief after the said match, but it doesn’t matter – SoJu still managed to take the top spot.

Zeus[19] > Lyn

Lyn was in a bit of quandary after losing to SoJu in the first round. He probably didn’t “hope” that he can beat Sky in a best-of-one (he didn’t) so losing to Zeus[19] pushes his chance lower to qualify for the next round. He finishes fourth in the group, below the Croatian Elf player – a lackluster finish on a player whom everyone had high expectations of.

SoJu > Zeus[19]

Why is this exciting? Because prior to this battle, both SoJu and Zeus[19] are fighting for a spot for the next round. Whoever wins the matchup would advance to the next round. Zeus[19] emerging from Group D as the 2^nd seed player would certainly stir the whole Warcraft III community.

Since rankings are already known for the first day, we might see some "strategizing" done by better players in the second day. There's a possibility that they might end up deliberately losing to get the 2nd spot, if they feel that they would have better chance against that opponent. Then again... for a group like B, who would you choose? ToD or Moon? Either one of them would certainly spell doom.

Same for Group D -- going against both SoJu or Sky certainly isn't any either, nor HoT or XyligaN. Their choice would either fall on if they prefer to play a Night Elf player or a Human player. The only deviant in the first half of the final 16 is XlorD from group D, who plays Undead.

We'll see how things play out tomorrow, when the brackets for the top 16 are up and ready!