The much anticipated debut of new the Chinese team, NewBee, came to an abrupt end as they were eliminated on the qualifiers of Sina Cup Season 3. The main event, which will feature the four invited teams and the four qualifying teams, will start tomorrow.
Titan, CNB and DT, all favorites on their respective match-ups, qualified into the main event after defeating their opponents on the best-of-three qualifiers. The other pairing was an upset though, as newly-formed Chinese team NewBee ran into all sorts of trouble and got eliminated after losing to CIS 2-1.
NewBee looked good after taking the first game of the series, but it didn't take long before CIS turned the tides and won the series. The star-laden team cannot solve the puzzle presented by the rather unorthodox carries of their enemy: a Wraith King on the second game and a Sniper on the third game.
From a single-elimination qualifiers, the tournament will now shift to the double-elimination main event. The games on the upper bracket will be best-of-threes, while the games on the lower bracket will be best-of-ones. Exception are the bracket finals, which will be best-of-five and best-of-three for the upper and the lower bracket respectively. The first game of the main event will start at 11:00 CET (18:00 SGT) tomorrow, 1 March.
The Champion of Sina Cup's third season will get 60,000 RMB ($9,760~), while the runner-up and third place team will receive 20,000 ($3,250~)and 10,000 ($1,625~) RMB respectively.
Vici Gaming will be one of the favourites to take out the tournament after winning the second season of the Sina Cup, defeating LGD.cn 3-0. LGD also finished as runner-up on the first season, losing to Invictus Gaming on the finals, 2-0.
