A few things:
Malek and Keev were in two of the toughest pools of the day, and Keev was one game away from making it into top 8, losing to the same opponent twice, along with defeating players like RTD and Tokido. It's not like France has fallen off the map all of a sudden just because of one tournament, nor should their performance be discounted.
It shouldn't be a surprise that there's two Patroklos' in the top 8 with Xeph using him as a counterpick, but Pat is one of the best characters in this game. It sucks that Partisan had to run into Tokido. I was expecting him to go far.
I don't know what Bibulus said, but Shen Chan and Shen Yuan were the ones to watch out for, especially since they characters that people don't have alot of experience fighting against in Cervantes and Siegfried.
What EVO has shown me is that you really need to be on point with your knowledge, matchup experience, and your execution or you'll be out quick. I'm hoping that this experience has made people hungry to compete and spend the time exploring the game since we've only scratched the surface of SCV.
Now I am going to spend the day drinking and playing Divekick. Peace.