The main online stage of The Summit 2 kicked off last week with the European, Chinese and SEA groupstages, while the American teams begin tonight at 23:00 CEST. The top four of each region will advance to the double elimination playoffs and fight for a spot in the Los Angeles finals.
The first stage of The Summit 2 qualifiers has just concluded, and two teams have emerged victorious from each region's respective single elimination bracket. These teams have joined the rest of the invited participants in their respective main groupstage. The group matches began last week with teams from Europe, China and Southeast Asia, and the American games are scheduled to kick-off tonight. Each team will play 11 matches in total (7 for China), hoping to gather enough points to reach the top-four of their leaderboard that leads to the double-elimination playoffs. The winner of each bracket will secure a ticket to Los Angeles and the LAN finals of The Summit 2, which will take place in December.
China
The TI4 champions NewBee are currently undefeated in the Chinese groupstage, and they hold the first place despite having played only three matches. However, the sister teams LGD.CDEC and LGD are in close pursuit, with 3-1 and 2-1 scores respectively. Invictus Gaming and DK are tied for the fourth position with a 1-2 score, far from ideal if they want to secure a spot in the playoffs. It should be noted that ViCi Gaming have yet to play any of their best-of-one matches, as they were in United States for ESL One. Their first match is scheduled for Thursday against NewBee.
SEA
Seven matches have been played in total for the SEA division, and Invasion along with MSI TRIC have yet to enter the action. The boys of Team Malaysia won both their matches against Insidious and MVP.Phoenix this weekend, earning an early point lead in the group. They are followed by Arrow, MiTH and CSW, all having one match and one victory in their name. The matches continue tomorrow with MSI taking on Invasion at 12:00 CEST.
Europe
The European matches have only just started, and five teams (Alliance, Secret, Na'Vi, Empire, Cloud9) have yet to play any matches. The top of the rankings belongs to Team Tinker, after snatching the first place from VP.Polar earlier today. Two Russian squads complete the final-four with Kompas Gaming being third with 2-0 and Moscow Five being right behind with 2-3. Unlike Kompas, the second team that entered the groupstage through the first qualifier stage, Balkan Bears Corleone, is not doing very well, as they are currently last with a 0-4 record.
America
The American groupstage will commence tonight at 23:00 CEST with the match between Inphinity Stack and ROOT Gaming. It should be interesting to see teams such as DeMoN's Gerg Squad and Turn My Swag On return to action after a slight period of absence (mostly due to the lack of competitions in the United States). This will also be the debut of the renovated Stay Free, the former squad of Ludwig 'Zai' Wåhlberg, Peter 'ppd' Dager and Corey 'corey' Wright. These three players have been replaced by MYM's former members Andreas 'Cr1t' Nielsen and Mete Han 'Exist' Aksüt, along with Marcus 'jigglebilly' Dastrup who previously played for eHug.
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