GotFrag.com - Day one of the Extreme Masters III European Continental Finals in Hannover, Germany has wrapped up. The community witnessed some very entertaining matches along with some big upsets throughout the day. Each team played every other in their appropriate group once. This allowed for five matches played total with group play.

And then there were four...

In the end, iNNERFiRE.WoW and SK Gaming found themselves on top of their select groups with undefeated 5-0 records. As a result of their flawless records, they were each guaranteed a spot in tomorrows final four bracket play.

The first and third place teams from each group however had to play one another to determine who would move on to claim the final two spots in bracket play. Group A runner-ups aAa nawaK were defeated by third place finishers x6tence.AMD.

Meanwhile, the exact same upset was playing out in Group B between two German squads. Second runner-ups Nihilum Plasma and first runner-ups Mousesports Cake fought for the final position inside the final four, and when the dust settled Nihilum had sealed the deal.

Progressing to Final Four

iNNERFiRE.WoW
Nihilum Plasma

x6tence.AMD
SK Gaming

Bracket play kicksoff at 4am EST on March 5th, so grab a redbull and tune in!

EM Euro Scores/Brackets

Showdown for the final EM World Championship spot

With only seven total positions available at the upcoming EM World Championship, the top three teams from each group were automatically awarded slots. To determine who would be granted the final position, fourth-place teams Mousesports and Tera-Gaming were required to play eachother in a showdown.

As far as the actual matches played, some were very entertaining, with a large inordinante amount of upsets taking place. Defending EM Euro champions Mousesports surprised many by just barely scraping out a win in their showdown for the World Championships spot. While SKY upset the defending Blizzcon Champions Nihilium Plasma 3-1 in a very intense four game series.

Highlighted Matches Overview Day 1

Questions were rampant concerning the comps each team would select to run in what most consider the first major tournament since WotLK was released. Not only were lineups being decided on adjusting to the RNG stun removal, but setting up to counter one another.


Round 1 Nagrand Arena 1-0 Nihilum Plasma
Nihilum Plasma decided to run with Paladin/Lock/Rogue to matchup against Mousesports running Warrior/Mage/Paladin. On paper, most would give advantage off the bat to Nihilum because of the lock to counter the mage, on top of warriors being very easily shut down if trained because they are forced to play so defensively. Well, the first round went as most would have thought, as Nihilum Plasma trained the Warrior of Mousesports 100% of the game, and with great CC from the Warlock, were able to bring him down within the first 30 seconds.

Round 2 Nagrand Arena 2-0 Nihilum Plasma
Mousesports obviously had to adjust something in order to have a better chance of competing , so the Paladin switched over to a Druid healer, giving them a better chance to survive against a Lock/Rogue combo of Nihilum because of the hot based heals. Once again Nihilum trained the Warrior to shut him down, however the Druid was able to keep him up through early burst attempts. Unfortunatley, the Druid found himself out of position several times and was caught in some deadly fears, enough to eventually down the Warrior and finish the round.

Round 3 Blades Edge Arena 3-0 Nihilum Plasma
Nihilum had no reason to change its makeup, while Mousesports decided to substitute the Warrior for a Hunter in its place. This would allow for them to have a very heavy range team with hopefully more offensive pressure applied despite taking a lot of damage and CC themselves. The hunter was able to apply a lot of early pressure on the team of Nihilum, but unfortunatley the Mage for Mousesports found himself out of position and had to Ice Block about ten seconds after engaging. The fight eventually fell below the bridge, where the Druid and Mage found themselves oom, while the Paladin was fine with half mana. Eventually, the Mage was killed in the end, and Nihilum finished the sweep of the series.