Day one of the IEM EU Quake Live finals has come to a close with groups A and B being completed. Surprises include German dueller Benjamin 'calipt' Jakob, who overcome Dreamhack champion Maciej 'av3k' Krzykows to advance to the knockout stages, and fnatic's Sebastian 'Spart1e' Siira bowing out following a mad three-way tie in group A. Elsewhere in group B Anton 'Cooller' Singov put on a dominant performance in his three games to comfortably top the group.

Group A

The shock of the day was definitely Sebastian 'Spart1e' Siira's elimination. Despite tallying two wins and a loss, the same as two other of his group stage opponents, conceding a map to British dueller Gareth 'GaRpY' Marshall saw a head-to-head ruling decision go against him, resulting in elimination. Spart1e declared after learning about his exit how before the tournament began he would've preferred the playoffs, as opposed to best-of-three group games: "If I go through to the playoffs, I will be a contender to win because I'm a lot better at best of fives."

Benjamin 'calipt' Jakob's progression to the brackets was well deserved after taking down Dreamhack winner Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowski in two straight maps; a smoothly played ztn and a 10-9 scoreline gave a heap of momentum to the German and continued his form winning dm13 11-5. The two have both qualified for Saturday's knockout games.

Group B

Russian star Anton 'Cooller' Singov eased to Saturday's bracket stages winning all three of his games, headlined by impressive rail performances versus Alexander 'Z4muZ' Ihrfors. A smart red armour steal on ztn set the tone for the rest of the match and although dropping dm13, Cooller followed-up on dm6 winning convincingly 11-1.

In the post-game interview Cooller mentioned how he wants to hit the top six for world finals qualification but also said "If I get my form, then I can get top three for sure."

Kevin 'Strenx' Baeza joined Cooller in the top two after a close series versus Z4muz. Having lost to the Russian earlier on, Z4muz required a win to claim a top two finish while a win from Strenx would nab it from him. A brilliant contest throughout saw Strenx's superior aim take him through to the quarter finals, winning 2-1.

You can follow the tournaments progress on our coverage page.