The quarter-finals saw Stermy knock off Cypher, Cooller take care of DaHang, av3k overcome strenx and Z4muz eliminate the last American in dkt. The semi-finals for tomorrow are now set and see a number of strong players missing but at least one favourite still remaining.

Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone 2-1 Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky (ztn 6:17, t9 17:8, dm6 12:2)

Cypher really put on a show with an incredible ztn performance in the first map. The second, t9, was broken open as result of Cypher winning a fight which had he lost would have seen him with a better opportunity. stermy took his opening and ran as he pushed the score up to equally impressive numbers, though not exactly in light of map differences, as an aggressive Cypher couldn't hit all his shots.

The deciding map, dm6, went stermy's way first as he jumped out to a 5:0 lead and was still holding strong at 7:1 just before the 6 minute mark. Cypher was able to get some kills strung together to make it 6:3 and give himself a window to make something happen. It was not to be though as stermy won the key battles and Cypher even killed himself before the game was over. stermy had triumphed and knocked off one of the biggest favourites to win this event.


Anton 'Cooller' Singov 2-1 Tim 'DaHanG' Fogarty (t9 8:12, ztn 11:1, dm6 12:-1)

DaHanG began the game by surprising Cooller with a victory on t9 but ztn saw Cooller turn in yet another godlike performance on that map completely outclassing his opponent and making shots which demoralize. dm6 had the Russian fully locked and loaded and there was little to nothing DaHanG could do against a Cooller who was fully on his game and in 5th gear.

If Cooller can continue this form this tournament may well be his, it certainly feels like it will be as of right now.


Brian 'dkt' Flander 0-2 Alexander 'Z4muZ' Ihrfors (ztn 2:8, t9 3:19)

dkt found himself as the last American left in the tournament and facing an in form Z4muz. The Swede made short work of the man they call "the legend" with a solid ztn win and then a big t9 victory where he made good decisions every step of the way and pressured dkt with his at times very impressive aim.


Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza 0-2 Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski (dm6 8:26, dm13 6:18)

In what was the quietest match of the quarter-finals, getting no stream time, av3k handidly took care of the French player in too games which didn't appear close.



The semi-finals will be:
Anton 'Cooller' Singov vs. Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski (a rematch of the 2007 ESWC Quake 4 final)
Alexander 'Z4muZ' Ihrfors vs. Alessandro 'stermy' Avallone

The games are scheduled for 10AM CET tomorrow.

Check out galleries from day 1 of DreamHack here and here.