The pair are from group E - a group whose remaining matches will be played on Friday - and with the match handpicked to be the match to officially end the opening ceremony it was clearly chosen in the hopes that national hero Xiaofeng 'Sky' Li would kick start his competition with a win in front of his home crowd, but it was not to be.

Marc 'yAwS' Förster was confident ahead of the match despite knowing the crowd would be rooting for his demise. Yaws even flashed a cheeky little smile on the player cam prior to the start of the match, which was greeted with a warm cheer.

The German played exceptionally well in a cross spawn best-of-1 on Turtle Rock. Sky opened with aggressive harassment managing to beat Yaws' Archmage down to low hitpoints as well as cancelling his arcane vault but was forced to withdraw. Both then crept the orange turtles in the central gold mines with Sky deciding to expand but quick action and good micro by Yaws forced a cancel.

Human is one of Yaws' strongest match-up, and with both players going Archmage, Panda, priests and breaker, it was a match of micro. Yaws' control of his priests was particulary note worthy. Yaws' attention to fine detail in his micro meant he came out ontop in the main battle and with an expansion already up for Yaws his opponent decided to end the torment.

After his win the majority of the crowd still wanted to see their talisman in the flesh with Sky forced to flee the tournament area accompanied by two security guards after he had watched the replay of his defeat. The competition truly kicks off tomorrow with the reigning champion Manuel 'GrubbY' Schenkhuizen on-stage, and given his popularity in China, we can expect the crowds to gather.

Sky flees mainstage, press and fans follow