Yesterday marked the start of Starcraft 2 World Championship Series Global Playoffs, featuring matches from Groups A and B.

Group A saw Ryungwoo "Dark" Park claim a clean 2-0 victory against Théo "PtitDrogo" Freydière, followed by another win from Daeyeob "Stats" Kim over Jens "Snute" Aasgaard. The two victors will face each other on the 30th in the Winners match. Snute, considered by many as one of the Zergs to watch out for in the tournament, was defeated in the Elimination match by underdog PtitDrogo.

Group B kicked off with Alex "Neeblet" Sunderhaft, the 2016 KeSPA Cup champion, claiming a 2-1 victory against Jihyun "Patience" Jo. In the post-match interview, Patience mentioned Neeblet had made him very nervous even before the match begun, reminding everyone of Neeblet's current level of skill. Round 2 saw Sungwook "Zest" Joo claiming victory against Taesoo "TRUE" Bang.

Game 2 of the Group B Elimination match featured an epic battle between TRUE and Patience. After falling to Patience in the first set, TRUE decided to test his luck by repeat the opening strategy he used against Zest, driving Patience all the way to the verge of destruction. True to his name, however, Patience kept his calm against TRUE's fierce attacks while at the same time building up a deadly Archon-based army to eventually strike back and conclude the series.

Starcraft 2 World Championship Series Global Playoffs - Day 1

Group A
Round 1: Dark (Z) 2 vs 0 PtitDrogo (P)
Round 2: Stats (P) 2 vs 1 Snute (Z)
Elimination: PtitDrogo (P) 2 vs 1 Snute (Z)

Group B
Round 1: Zest (P) 2 vs 1 TRUE (Z)
Round 2: Patience (P) 1 vs 2 Neeblet (P)
Elimination: TRUE (Z) 0 vs 2 Patience (P)