LGD have put on a beastly performance in day 1 of the Chinese qualifiers, coming out undefeated and having played the most games as well. DT and HGT make up the second and third places while the race for fourth place continues. The groupstage will resume tomorrow at 06:00 CEST (12:00 SGT).
In a long day of matches that lasted for almost 11 hours, the Chinese qualifiers have reached the mid point of their group stage with LGD leading the pack. With convincing victories in all 6 of their matches, they are already assured a spot in the playoffs, although they have yet to play the current second and third placed DT and HGT.
DT are in second place with one loss in five matches, with their sole loss to New Element. Meanwhile, HGT are third, having lost 2 of their 6 matches to DT as well as New Element. Given that most people predicted the top three to be LGD, DT and HGT, New Element have signalled their ambition clocking wins over both DT and HGT, yet are languishing in the center of the group with a 3-3 record.
With the matches already played, it looks likely that the teams will move on into the race for fourth place between NE, CIS, Tongfu.WZ and LGD.CDEC, with each of them maintaining 3 losses a piece. Orenda, Speed.cn and CNB are not out of the running yet, but will have to put in excellent performances tomorrow to maintain any hope of reaching the playoffs.
Notable matches today include the very first match between New Element and CIS, which went to a staggering 116 minutes, two divine rapiers and DJ's Morphling having 1,200 creep kills and four BKBs. This match caused some of the inevitable delay that led to the entirety of the group stage dragging out even longer than necessary.
Another interesting match was the final match of the night, with CNB, sporting a 0-4 record, trying to unsettle LGD with a Pudge pick. Unfortunately, they are no Na`Vi and were unable to put Pudge to great use, eventually falling apart in the mid-game fights. This appears to have been a last-ditch effort to notch a victory since with their current 0-5 record, it is mathematically impossible for CNB to make it into the playoffs.
The winner of the Chinese qualifiers will get a direct spot in the main event of The International, while the runner-ups will have to play the other regional runner-ups in the wildcard tournament. The teams will be competing to get a piece of the USD$6 million prize pool, the largest prize pool ever recorded in eSports history.
Head over to our wiki page for The International 2014!