Qualifying from the top bracket is the orcish Spaniard Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán and while he failed to receive an invite or make it to the polls, he's surely left his mark all over NGL ONE after today.

Concerning LucifroN, some were still on the fence regarding his status, he's been performing well as of late, but whether or not it would stick is another story. After today, it's probably safe to bet we'll see LucifroN gracing his fair share of top three's in 2009.

Also qualifying from the upper bracket is Korean free agent Dae Hui 'FoV' Cho. FoV had a rough go of it through 2008 after a moderately successful 2007 campaign. As the year wound down the former ESWC champion was released from his team and left to fend for himself, he was linked to nGize for a brief period, but in the end nothing came of it. FoV chomped his way through some pretty tough opponents this afternoon, his day culminated with a win over rival Korean undead Jae Wook 'Lucifer' Noh, putting him in the finals versus LucifroN.

Making his way into the regular season via the lower bracket is Sung Sik 'ReMinD' Kim. Much like FoV, ReMinD has had a relatively uneventful year after a promising 2007 run. ReMinD also fell victim to the recent belt tightening amongst teams after SK chose to release him alongside teammates Seong Deok 'SoJu' Lee and Seo Woo 'ReiGn' Kang.

The NGL ONE league is one of few events where a player can showcase their abilities as a solo player without the need of financial backing, fortunately for ReMinD he made the cut. Under normal circumstances, chances are ReMinD would be snapped up in a second, but given his lackluster performance as of late as well as the current economic situation, he may well have to turn some heads in the NGL before regaining his eligibility as a worthwhile investment.

The final player to have qualified is Daniel 'LiiLD.C' Claesson, who also made his way into the league via the lower bracket, where he'll face ReMinD at some point in the near future for third place. LiiLD.C has done well for himself recently, on the local level at the very least, he was able to finish second at Dreamhack Winter and first in the Swedish Starleague to earn himself the top spot in Sweden, while a trip to Paris for the initial ESWC Masters event gave him a little international flare.

LiiLD.C hasn't panned out to be the prodigy so many expected him to be, not yet anyway, but having qualified for the NGL ONE season gives LiiLD.C a very good opportunity to showcase himself as a top solo competitor.

Today was the first of three qualifiers to be held over the next few weeks and while these four particular competitors are no longer eligible to compete in the following two, four more entertaining players are sure to step in and take their place next weekend.

Apparently the reason so few Chinese players were competing this afternoon was that a large portion of Asia celebrates new years a day or two from now, meaning we're liable to see a lot more Chinese hats thrown into the ring next week.

The second qualifier will take place Saturday, January 31st.