TNC Predator were eliminated while Team Secret and Virtus.pro continue to dominate the games at Kuala Lumpur Major and head to the upper bracket finals.
Picking up Micha? "Nisha" Jankowski seems to have been advantageous for Team Secret. With the young Polish talent, the European team has found their groove and is now on a 10 game win streak at the Kuala Lumpur Major. Team Secret has not dropped a single game so far between the group stage and playoffs and been having some extraordinary performances to kick off the first Major of the new season.
Both of the matches in the Team Secret vs PSG.LGD series started out pretty even, with a slight advantage for the Chinese team. But PSG.LGD were not able to hold on to their lead. Nisha's Arc Warden was given free rein and farm and easily turned the tables in the first game. Somehow, the hero was able to slip through for a second match and once again, dominated the game for a clean 2:0 victory.
Meanwhile, Virtus.pro may have dropped two games in the group stage, but they still clinched the top seed in their group and since then have been on an undefeated streak in the playoffs. NiP came to the upper bracket match against VP with a Drow strategy in mind and lost both times. Virtus.pro were just able to outplay and overpower the Swedish based organization without exerting a terrible amount of effort.
Both Virtus.pro and Team Secret have advanced to the upper bracket finals and secured at least a third-place finish.
NiP dropped to the lower brackets and was forced to fight in one more series today to keep their tournament dreams alive. Fueled by the fire of disappointment or building pressure of elimination looming over their heads, the European team were on fire against TNC Predator. In two heavily one-sided matches, NiP destroyed TNC thanks in part to a flawless game from Martin "Saksa" Sazdov followed by a perfect performance by Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard and the help of their stellar stand-in Ivan Borislavov "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov.
TNC exit the Kuala Lumpur Major with a commendable 5-6th place finish as NiP will take on either Evil Geniuses or PSG.LGD in the lower bracket round 5 series tomorrow.
The action resumes on Saturday, November 17th at 05:00 CET with Lower Bracket elimination series between Evil Geniuses and PSG.LGD.
The Kuala Lumpur Major details:
- Group Stage
- 9 to 10 November 2018
- Four groups of four teams each.
- Bo3 double-elimination (GSL) bracket.
- Top two teams from each group advance to the Upper Bracket of Main Event.
- Bottom two teams from each group advance to the Lower Bracket of Main Event.
- Playoffs
- The playoffs will be held from November 11 to 18.
- Only the final three days will be in front of a live crowd.
- Double-elimination bracket.
- All games except Grand Finals and Lower Bracket Round 1 are Bo3.
- Lower Bracket Round 1 are Bo1
- Grand Finals is Bo5
