Photo courtesy of Perfect World
Evil Geniuses continue to be the talk of the town with their solid performances and results. At the end of The International 8 Day 2 group stage, the North Americans went undefeated to keep their top spot in Group A.
Although Group A has turned out to be quite consistent as the teams have shuffled in spots very little between Day 1 and Day 2 of the The International 8 group stage, the results themselves are more surprising than most expected. Evil Geniuses remain at the top after an undefeated run in the second day, Fnatic has put up quite a performance and fight, PSG.LGD Gaming has taken the middle road, and OG struggles towards the bottom —although they were able to rise one rung in the ladder thanks to their series win against Mineski and Winstrike. The latter fell to the bottom and shifted the rest of the teams that were below them up one spot.
In the highly anticipated grudge match between OG and Evil Geniuses, the North American's showed no mercy in the first game. Throwing around their strength and experience they destroyed OG without so much as breaking a sweat. The second match OG had a slight advantage to start with, much better than their last, but once EG was able to come online it was all over for OG. Evil Geniuses then went on to crush PSG.LGD while OG was able to rebound and recover after that, finding their footing and sweeping through Mineski 2:0.
Fnatic continues to give some of the longest and most exciting matches across the board. Although they came out with a 2:2 record, they continue to hold on to their third place position and entertain fans around the world.
Winstrike had started out by holding their own in Day 1 but quickly fell off the horse in Day 2. Facing off against one of the tournament favorites, PSG.LGD, the Russian underdogs were just no match for the Chinese powerhouse. They went on to challenge VGJ.Thunder to no avail and ended their day without a single win to their name.
Group A will kick off The International 2018 Day 3 at 18:00 CEST.
Group A:
Winstrike
Fnatic
PSG.LGD Gaming
Mineski
Evil Geniuses
VGJ.Thunder
Team Liquid
OG
Invictus Gaming
The International 2018 Format:
- Group Stage - August 15th - August 18th, 2018
- All eighteen teams are divided into two groups where they play in a Round Robin format
- All matches are played in a two-game series
- The top four teams in each group advance to the Upper Bracket of the Main Event
- The bottom team in each group is eliminated
- The remaining teams advance to the Lower Bracket of the Main Event
- All eighteen teams are divided into two groups where they play in a Round Robin format
The International 2018
The International 2018 will take place August 15 through August 25. For the first time ever, The International will be held in Vancouver, Canada with a total of 18 teams competing. Currently, the prize pool is over a staggering $24 million.
