Enough IPL 4 action for today! The eight players to advance to the playoffs are known: seven Koreans and a French zerg overlord shape the top eight of the tournament.

At the very end of day two, NesTea was strong in exerting his IPL hegemony as the "professor of zerg" met Ganzi in the final match for Group A. NesTea's earlier victories had already secured him a place in the finals but that did not hold him from clutching a final group stage triumph against the SlayerS terran. Ganzi took the early lead in the series by putting near 40 drones to the preigniter torch and almost stretched it to a 2-0 win with some good marine play on Atlantis Spaceship but NesTea's crisis management, ling run-byes and abundance of infestors kept him in the match. The final game saw a proper, textbook TvZ with a lot of early aggression from both and with NesTea emerging the victor. Second in Group A came Fnatic's terran Alive who was merciless towards the newcomers Parting and Ganzi and sent them packing.

In Group B, MarineKing continued to do what MarineKing does - displaying in great and motley details why very few people are as good as him in StarCraft II. Although his group stage run wasn't as smooth as expected--always winning 2-1--he did in the end secure the top spot and will compete for yet another championship. He will be joined by the group runner-up Stephano, who is slowly but surely turning into the icon of IPL. After all, this is not his first time being alone against a Korean army.

The other two groups were much closer and tense, with group C becoming really, really interesting when Squirtle defeated MC 2-1 and threw some wood on his funeral pyre. In fact, what started as a pool under the banner of a long rivalry, ended up being dominated by Polt with Squirtle behind in just one set. Creator was really close to a 3-1 finish himself but Puma's last dying wish was for his defeat and the EG terran scored his only win in the tournament to end Creator's hopes for a playoffs spot.

The terran fest in Group D ended with Bomber and MMA advancing futher. The StarTale terran was the first to reach three wins while MMA had to survive a base race and use his mad dropship skills to crush Jjakji 2-0 in order to make the final step to the Ro8.

IPL 4: Standings after day 2
Group A Group B
NesTea4-08-2MarineKing4-08-4
Alive3-16-3Stephano3-17-4
 Tails2-24-5 Curious2-26-5
Ganzi0-31-6 JYP1-35-6
Parting0-33-6 WhiteRa0-41-8
NesTea 2-0 ALive
NesTea 2-0 Tails
Alive 2-0 Tails
NesTea 2-1 Parting
Tails 2-1 Parting
Tails 2-0 Ganzi
Alive 2-0 Ganzi
NesTea 2-1 Ganzi
Alive 2-1 PartingMarineKing 2-1 Stephano
MarineKing 2-1 WhiteRa
Stephano 2-0 WhiteRa
Stephano 2-1 JYP
MarineKing 2-1 JYP
MarineKing 2-1 Curious
Stephano 2-1 Curious
JYP 2-0 WhiteRa
Curious 2-0 WhiteRa
Curious 2-1 JYP
Group CGroup D
Polt3-17-4Bomber3-17-4
Squirtle3-17-4MMA3-17-3
 Creator2-26-5 Jjakji2-25-7
MC1-33-5 Byun2-25-6
Puma1-33-7 Idra0-42-8
Polt 2-1 Puma
MC 2-0 Puma
Polt 2-0 MC
Squirtle 2-0 Puma
Squirtle 2-1 Creator
Puma 2-1 Creator
Polt 2-1 Squirtle
Creator 2-1 Polt
Squirtle 2-1 MC
Creator 2-0 MCBomber 2-1 Idra
MMA 2-0 Idra
Bomber 2-0 MMA
Byun 2-0 Idra
MMA 2-0 JJakji
Bomber 2-1 Jjakji
MMA 2-1 Byun
Jjakji 2-1 Idra
Byun 2-1 Bomber
Jjakji 2-1 Byun

Tomorrow we tune in for Championship Sunday to see the best eight duke it off. Can MarineKing win a third championship in a row (or fourth should Prime conquer GSTL later that night)? Will Stephano do the barely possible and stand atop the Korean armada and keep the IPL crown on his head? Shall this event be the landmark in NesTea's path out of a horrible slump and towards restoring his past glory of the perfect zerg?

I don't know but I'm sure as hell I can't wait to find out.

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