Title image courtesy of PSG.LGD
Today marked the conclusion of the group stage and with it came several winners, losers and a big surprise entering the playoff portion of the event.
The day’s foremost winner and only real surprise is Keen Gaming. During the day one action, Keen Gaming dropped their series against Team Secret in two games. Needing two victorious series to advance to the upper bracket, they defeated J.Storm and Team Liquid flawlessly. They now join Team Secret as representatives of Group A in the upper bracket.
Consequently, the obvious loser on the day is Team Liquid whom many expected to grab one of the upper bracket positions. Team Liquid failed to notch a single victory and will face elimination in a best of one series for what seems like the first time in recent history, if not ever.
The remaining groups most likely didn’t provide much of a surprise to most of the Dota 2 world.
In Group B, PSG.LGD roared back from an early deficit with Ninjas in Pajamas to secure a spot in the upper bracket. Meanwhile, Fnatic fought to escape a near scare against Infamous. Later in the day, Abed Azel L. ‘Abed’ Yusop pieced together a pair of impressive performances on Puck to secure Fnatic’s spot in the upper bracket.
Following WESG, a reunited Virtus.pro picked up where they left off. It comes with no shock that Virtus.pro would take the top spot in Group C, but there did appear to be a chink in the armor as they dropped a game to a struggling Forward Gaming. EHOME made a valiant surge for the second slot in Group C, but Mineski proved to be their kryptonite. Mineski dropped EHOME twice in two days to pry the upper bracket away from their grasp.
Finally, Group D featured Evil Geniuses asserting dominance over Vici Gaming. At no point in two games, did VG hold a real advantage over EG. EG cruised to the top of the group and into the upper bracket. However, VG bounced back later in the day. This time they reversed the trend and flexed their own brand of dominance over Na’Vi to round out the upper bracket.
Dreams will begin shattering tomorrow, March 16th at 14:30 CET, as eliminations commence.
DreamLeague Season 11 Stockholm Major format
- Group Stage - March 14th - March 15th, 2019
- Sixteen teams are divided into four groups of four teams each where they play in a GSL double-elimination format.
- The top two teams advance to the upper bracket of the playoffs.
- The bottom two teams advance to the lower bracket of the playoffs.
- All games are Bo3.
- Playoffs - March 16th - March 24th, 2019
- Sixteen teams play in a double-elimination format over eight days, with the final three days being in front of a live crowd.
- Eight teams begin in the upper bracket, eight in the lower bracket.
- All games except Grand Finals and Lower Bracket Round 1 are Bo3.
- Lower Bracket Round 1 are Bo1.
- Grand Finals is Bo5.
