On top of the Korean qualifier that concluded earlier this month, which saw June 'Lyn' Park and Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang marked their names as top two finishers, eight qualifiers are scheduled to take place in June and July in China before the Grand final hit the industrial city Ma’anshan in the first week of August.

Three berths in the Grand final are available in each qualifier and the World Elite quartet already sealed their passage as early as last Sunday.

Undead phenomenon Zhuo 'TeD' Zeng triumphed in Xiamen qualifier, followed by Chenglong 'Sai' Zhou of iNow and team-mate Youchao 'Syc' Su, while the Chinese heavyweights’ latest signing Shenghui 'Future' Li took the first place in Ma’anshan qualifier in his first outing after beating Xiaofeng 'Sky' Li and Nan 'ForDream' Xie in succession.

Despite qualification, two-time World Cyber Games winner Sky was greatly disappointed by his rigid tactical execution, which has increasingly become a major hurdle to the Chinese champion as of late, in the consolation final against ForDream.

He wrote in his latest blog entry, “I’ve been practising a strategy against Warden recently, which is quite effective in early and middle stage of a game. However, nothing was left in my mind other than to push when I played against ForDream at Twisted Meadows, not to mention creeping or expanding.”

“The same repeated in the second game as well.” Sky, who was eliminated in group stage of both ESWC Masters of Cheonan last month and the running GomTV Invitational, continued, “All I could think of remained pushing my opponent. My mind was stuck and I was defeated comprehensively.”

EOG 2009 qualifiers
Nan 'ForDream' Xie
Shenghui 'Future' Li
June 'Lyn' Park
Jae Ho 'Moon' Jang
Chenglong 'Sai' Zhou
Xiaofeng 'Sky' Li
Youchao 'Syc' Su
Zhuo 'TeD' Zeng