The groups/pools just finished today and we’re down to the top 8. I’ll list the won-lost records from each group, with the qualifying players in bold.
Group 1:
1st. Laugh (Korea) [2-1]
2nd. Ryan Hart (United Kingdom) [2-1]
3rd. Yagami (Sweden) [1-2]
4th. Yamazaki (France) [1-2]
Notes: Laugh lost to Yamazaki, but beat Ryan head-to-head to earn the tiebreaker for 1st place. Laugh and Ryan are both sticking with their vanilla characters (Ryu & Sagat respectively).
Group 2:
1st. infiltration (Korea) [3-0]
2nd. Zak Bennett (United Kingdom) [2-1]
3rd. CNB.brun0 (Brazil) [1-2]
4th. HANDY (Indonesia) [0-3]
Notes: Definitely the easiest group. infiltration never lost a game with his Akuma, and Zak had no problem taking out the other two with Balrog.
Group 3:
1st. Marn (USA) [4-0]
2nd. Luffy (France) [3-1]
3rd. FOX (???) [2-2]
4th. GeoM PKK (Colombia) [1-3]
5th. chunkis (Ireland) [0-4]
Notes: Marn had at least somewhat close matches with Luffy and PKK. Also, since the tournament was suddenly changed to character-lock rules in the middle, Marn is stuck with Rufus; Luffy is of course using Rose.
Group 4:
1st. Justin Wong (USA) [3-0]
2nd. LordDvd (France) [2-1]
3rd. blackieEX (Poland) [1-2]
4th. Chasin (Netherlands) [0-3]
Notes: Not much to say here, Justin’s running Rufus obviously while LordDvd is apparently a good Honda.
Just like in the actual World Cup, the #1 seeds all play #2 seeds in the first round of semis. I’m not sure who plays who yet, though. Rooting for Luffy to draw one of the Koreans…