Apart from a handful of minor surprises, the first day of the Grand Final of the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2017 in London largely stuck to the script, with the pre-tournament favourites all advancing to the quarter-finals.

FIFA.com takes a look back at Wednesday’s intriguing group phase.

Memorable moments*Tough time for TASS*: After the pools were drawn, Group 2 of the Xbox One division was widely described as the “Group of death”, as it featured three serious contenders for the title: France’s ROCKYY, the Netherlands’ DANI and England’s TASS. However, the latter, who emerged victorious from the Season 1 Regional Final, was not able to live up to those lofty expectations, finishing last.

Last man standing: Out of the 32 finalists present in London, only MANIIKA took part in the 2016 tournament in New York. This is the third Grand Final for the Frenchman, who also participated in 2014 in Brazil, and who enjoyed an excellent opening day in London.

Home disadvantage: In football, it is always preferable to play at home, but the opposite effect has been observed thus far in London, with GORILLA, who finished second in Group 1 of the Xbox division, the only one of the five English gamers to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Leading from the front: Of the four table-toppers, three ended the day with unbeaten records. CODYDERFINISHER, ROCKYY and ICEPRINCIPE were the only players not to lose any of their seven encounters, while MANIIKA suffered just one surprise defeat at the hands of TIMON in his final match.

The stat 19 – The number of goals netted by the French pair of MANIIKA and ROCKY, who were the day’s joint top scorers. MANIIKA had a slightly better record overall, with a goal difference of +10 (compared to ROCKY’s +9).

What they said“The standard is very high this year. This is my third FIWC and I can tell you that while the prize is ten times higher than last year, the level of play is also ten times greater,” Colombian player JANOZ, finalist in 2011

Standings