First day of matches in Arena 1 from Lima, Peru was still undergoing at 2 am local time as the playoffs debut of the first ever SA Major was plagued by a seemingly infinite amount of technical issues.
What was supposed to be an exciting first day in a packed arena at the Lima Major started with a two-hour delay hype killer. While everything went smoothly on the Spanish stream provided by 4D Esports, who started their live broadcast with an opening ceremony concert an hour before the games were set to begin, the English stream provided by the major organizers’ partners, Epulze, had just a “Soon” static image for two hours.
Those at home who waited on the Epulze official English stream for the broadcast to begin missed the entrance into the arena of the first two teams, Gaimin Gladiators and Aster, who were welcomed at Arena 1 by an incredible crowd.
Unfortunately, once the game started, the technical issues continued to pour in. From lags, pc crashes, sound issues, and cables falling down in the team booths, the first day of the playoffs was a technical nightmare.
Those who have been following the Dota 2 pro scene long enough can argue that no other LAN tournament got close to matching the Shanghai Major disaster. Back in 2016, the playoffs of the Shanghai Major started with two hours delay, a cancelled opening ceremony, sound issues, team boots problems, and the English stream going offline more than staying up. Much like on the first day at the Shanghai Major, the last matches in Lima were played in an empty arena due to the games going way too late in the night.
In the first six hours of the playoffs at the Lima Major, there was just one series played, Gaimin Gladiators delivering a surgical execution to land a 2-0 victory and send Team Aster to the lower bracket.
Off to an already awful start, the first day continued with a heartbreaking defeat of the hometown team, Evil Geniuses. The SA fans in the arena went deafening loud at EG’s entrance and did their best to help their hometown heroes through the games, getting inventive and using extremely loud whistles when the enemy team would use a smoke, for instance.
In-game pauses and the delays between the series piled up so many hours of delays that in the end the first day of the Lima Major playoffs actually catered for fans at home from all time zones.
While for the teams competing in Peru, the last series of the day almost saw the sun rising, the Southeast Asia fans at home were happy to be able to watch Talon Esports live at a more than decent hour. The last series of Day 1, Talon Esports versus Team Liquid finished past 2 am local time in an empty arena.
With hopes that everything that could go wrong for a LAN tournament has already happened on the first day, the Lima Major playoffs should resume later today, at 10:00 in the morning, local time, 17:00 CET with Talon Esports and Hellraisers fighting for their tournament lives.
Day 2 has a total of four best-of-three series scheduled, and this time around, they are all with elimination on the line. So, stay tuned and check our tournament HUB for more updates from the first-ever SA Major.
