Despite being favourite to win the inaugural ePremierLeague, Liverpool’s Donovan Hunt (F2Tekkz) had to battle through to Friday's quarter-finals in the Xbox category.
Live: Watch Day 2 of the ePremier League Final
And there was a surprise pacesetter as Josh Jones (Jonesy17FIFA) was in impressive goalscoring form for Manchester United.
In Group A, Hunt had lost his round 1 tie 4-3 against Manchester City's Connor Keys (iBattle Cat), leaving himself a tough task to qualify.
But the world’s top-ranked EA SPORTS FIFA 19 player came through a tense winner-takes-all Round 5 encounter against Cardiff City’s Rhys Griffiths (RGCFIFA) with a 4-3 aggregate success to join Keys in the last eight.
In an incredible finale to Group B, Crystal Palace's Michael Faria (ItsMeAuzio) was denied in a sudden-death penalty shootout against Jamie Rigden (Jamboo) for West Ham United.
Victory would have sent Faria through but instead Tottenham Hotspur’s Kylem Edwards (Lyricz) and AFC Bournemouth's Marc Marley progressed to Friday's knockout rounds.
In Group C, Southampton's Reece Rusher (Rusher7x) and Arsenal's Tassal Rushan (Tass) went through.
Rusher beat Joe Evison (JoeEvo) for Wolves and Burnley's Brad Colston (Brad_ColstonBFC) before stunning Rushan in a penalty shootout, leaving the Arsenal man needing to beat Colston in the final match to take his expected place in the last eight.
In Group D, Man Utd's Jones emerged as the man to beat, winning all four matches and netting an incredible 26 goals in the process.
He will be joined by Fulham's Diogo Mendes (SCP Diogo), who beat Leicester's Alex Shaw (Hashtag Shawrey) 5-1 in a final-round eliminator for the second qualifying spot.
