Title image courtesy of EHOME
EHOME and iG were the first two teams to be eliminated at MDL Macau 2019.
After two days of groups, the playoffs for MDL Macau 2019 got underway earlier today in China.
Upper Brackets
The day started off with the two upper bracket rounds. Team Liquid took on Chinas rising stars and new season hopefuls, RNG. Although RNG did seem to give the TI7 championship team a bit of trouble midway through the first match, Team Liquid was able to overcome their opponents to take a clean 2:0 victory.
Evil Geniuses and ViCi Gaming were next up on the menu. Both teams ended up with a 4:3 record in the group stage, with ViCi Gaming having a resounding victory over the North Americans when they last met up. However, it seems that EG was not about to allow a repeat performance and took the Chinese team head on. After a convincing first game win, EG then lost the second map to VG after a thrilling 53 minute back and forth battle. In the end, it was EG who would come out on top with a dominant victory in just 21 minutes to claim the series.
Lower Brackets
The first elimination series of the event were two unforgiving best-of-one matchups.
First up was last minute replacement team and TI7 runners up— Newbee taking on EHOME — whose offlaner Zhang 'Faith_Bian' Ruida, was injured during a photo shoot for the event. Newbee started out with a slight edge but about 31 minutes in a hiccup threatened their lead and chances. It proved to be only a minor blip in their performance, as they regained control and the lead and were able to secure the victory just over 10 minutes later.
The second was between Virtus.pro, who has been criticized for their lack of serious play in the group stage, and Invictus Gaming. iG seemed to have control of the game from the start, giving VP a run for their money and looking to create a fantastic upset in their home field. A bad team fight about 48 minutes in was all the CIS powerhouse needed to break open the win and turn the game on its head — claiming the victory 10 minutes later and avoiding an early elimination.
The action will resume tomorrow, February 23rd at 03:00 CET as Newbee take on RNG in another all Chinese lower bracket elimination series.
MDL Macau 2019 Format
- Bo1 round-robin Group Stage
- Top 4 advance to upper bracket of the Playoffs
- Bottom 4 advance to lower bracket of the Playoffs
- Double-elimination Playoffs
- Lower Bracket Round 1 matches are Bo1, the Grand Final is Bo5
- The other matches are Bo3
MDL Macau 2019 Prize Pool
1st place: $135,000
2nd place: $60,000
3rd place: $37,500
4th place: $22,500
5-6th place: $15,000
7-8th place: $7,500 - EHOME/Invictus Gaming
