Photo courtesy of Newbee
Newbee kicked off Perfect World Masters Minor as the frontrunners for Group B, leading the pack with three points.
Group B was widely considered the 'Group of Death' by players, personalities and the community. Stacked with two of the direct invites - Team Secret and Newbee, four of the five teams have already accumulated TI8 qualifying points and have proven to be formidable opponents on the international Pro Circuit. The rising European force, Team Kinguin, looked to be the odd one out and garnered sympathy, pegged as the team that would easily drop from the group after the two days.
To the surprise of many, Group B ended up being more balanced than originally thought. There was only one team that seemed to stand out above the rest - Newbee being the only team to take one full series win at the end of the day. Their 2:0 victory over Mineski moved the TI7 runner up team into the first place spot in the group and pushed the SEA team into the last position with the least amount of points - one point to be exact.
Team Secret have taken a slight hit, adding Chen "Cty" Tianyu from EHOME stepping in for Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng who had to bow out in the last moments due to an urgent family matter. Despite the language barrier and need for the chat wheel in game for communication, the team was able to continue with prime performances and take a game off of both LGD Gaming and Mineski.
Team Kinguin proved their worth upsetting Newbee in the first game of their series with some really intense clashes, 112 kills on the board and a 16k gold comeback. They were also able to take a game off of LGD Gaming as Natan "Exotic_Deer" Michalewicz had a spectacular game on Ursa.
Group B
Group Stage Format:
- Ten teams are seeded into two groups, five teams each
- Round-robin format; all matches are played in a Bo2
- Top four teams advance to the playoffs
- Bottom teams are eliminated
Groups will continue tomorrow, with five more series per group to be played. By the end of the day, one team from each of the groups will be eliminated. Action begins at 10:00 CST/03:00 CET with the first series LGD Forever Young vs ViCi Gaming in Group A and Mineski vs Kinguin in Group B.
