Day two of the IEM IV EU Quake Live finals brought with it no shocks, unlike day one, with the two favourites qualifying with ease.

Fans were treated to a real showcase in rail and rocket work from Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky who tore through his first two opponents with an aggregate score of 73-14. Although he was eventually halted by Marcel 'k1llsen' Paul he has more than shown his intentions to win.

Fnatic's Pierre-E 'l1nkje' Portier was first up for the Belarusian and showed signs of promise on t9 after snagging the game's first mega but was overpowered by Cypher's in-form rockets. At 6-1 l1nkje made a brief attempt at a comeback grabbing two quick kills but the resurgence only spurred Cypher on, who went on to win 15-6. Continuing from t9 onto ztn saw Cypher's immense rocketing, this time paired with awesome railing, take a 4-0 lead inside two minutes. A five minute deadlock after a sharp double kill gave l1nkje a glimmer of hope, but the map ended 10-4 in Cypher's favour.

Against Dan 'zsx' Sanders Cypher was even more impressive, and despite zsx racking up a 200-200 stack Cypher eliminated the advantage through an awesome mid-air rail. Although zsx gathered two quick kills Cypher dominated the entire game, winning 21-2 on t7. t9 saw an inspired rocket only six seconds in rock zsx, who couldn't find his feet in the game at all and blamed his lack of experience versus top-class opposition in the post-game interview as he accepted his 27-2 defeat.

Marcel 'k1llsen' Paul kicked off against zsx prior to his game with Cypher and immediately went to work. For half of the game k1llsen's rail accuracy was 100% as he outclassed the Brit to win 10-6. On dm13 zsx suddenly began to hit the shots which many saw from him online but they weren't enough to overcome k1llsen's steady aim and solid movement, as he went on to win 9-3.

Against l1nkje k1llsen dominated both maps, ztn and dm13, regularly taking all of the armour leaving the Frenchman with nothing. He said after the game that "[k1llsen's] luck was here" and declared "I wasn't really in the game" as he came to terms with his elimination.

The two wins for both players assured their qualification for Saturday's quarter finals and they met in the last group game to determine who took the top spot. Cypher again displayed his rail in stunning fashion on ztn and stormed ahead without looking back; a hefty 10-1 win shifted all the momentum to the Dubai runner-up.

On t9 k1llsen came out strong and took an early lead. Cypher fought back to tie the game up with three minutes to go, but a crucial kill from k1llsen prevented Cypher from grabbing the mega and set the win up for the German which tied up the series.

With dm13 as the decider four minutes of play went by without a death being conceded. Gathering a decent stack k1llsen began to push Cypher continuously towards the latter stages and it paid off, as he amassed five kills in a row to defeat the group favourite 2-1.

Although both Pierre-E 'l1nkje' Portier and Dan 'zsx' Sanders were eliminated, they can take a handful of promising moments from the tournament. l1nkje did string together a couple of kills at important times and should now be aware of his consistency issues, while zsx shown he has the aim and movement to compete at a high level but found himself falling behind at the start of games far too often.

Group D kicks off at 18:20 CET and ESL TV will be streaming all of the games. Keep up with all the goings-on via our coverage page.