Photo courtesy of ESL
Newbee ended the day as the Group B leaders, claiming a playoff spot in the StarLadder iLeague Season 4 Invitational Minor.
The second day of the Group Stage showcased some impressive match ups and two full three game series. While the opening game of the day was fairly quick in nature - taking just over 30 minutes for Mineski to close out, Kam "NaNa/Moon" Boon Seng had a flawless performance on Timbersaw and almost doubled the networth of the leading hero for Team Kinguin. It was the second game that would become a thriller though, putting Mineski on the map as one of the more formidable teams in the group. A 66 minute game was accentuated by a turn of the tides in the SEA team's favor 47 minutes in as they continued to hold out against the Mega Creeps attack. To make things even more exciting, a phenomenal Roshan Pit fight 62 minutes in ultimately gave Mineski Mega Creeps and 20k gold deficit comeback.
Team Empire managed to take the first game off of one of the tournament favorites - Newbee in a fairly one sided fashion. Rostislav "fn" Lozovoi destroyed the Chinese team with his impressive Sven performance and cut off any chance for the core heroes to gain momentum or power. For the next two matches the Chinese team was back in form with Song "Sccc" Chun at the helm of domination and aggression. The reverse sweep allowed Newbee to prevail and face off against Mineski for the first playoff spot.
As expected, the last series of the day was pushed to a full three game series with both teams giving fans some incredible Dota 2. Armed with on point combinations and flashy, high risk plays, Mineski stole the show and the victory in the first game. Once again, being put on the back foot, Newbee pushed back hard to destroy Mineski and their momentum, evening out the series 1:1. An early slight lead for Mineski was not enough to secure their place in the third match as Newbee turned the tides once again to come snatch the lead from behind and were able to maintain a grip on it despite Mineski's hardest and most valiant efforts. Newbee's victory gave them the coveted playoff spot and guaranteed TI8 points.
All the group stage matchups are best-of-three series. The top two teams will advance into the playoffs, while bottom two will be eliminated.
The Group Stage concludes tomorrow with four teams being eliminated. Two more teams will join Team Liquid and in the playoffs.
Group Schedule for February 3rd
03:00 CET - Group ? elimination match - compLexity Gaming vs Infamous
06:00 CET - Group B elimination match - Team Kinguin vs Team Empire
09:00 CET - Group ? finals - LGD Gaming vs TBD
12:00 CET - Group B finals - Mineski vs TBD
