An East versus West upper bracket final is assured at TI12 after the first day of playoffs

At TI11, it was all about Western Europe. TI12 has many more regions in contention, and the upper bracket final will definitely be Europe taking on China.

After a four day break at the end of the group stage, TI12 returned in front of a crowd with the soundproof booths we have come to love over the years. On the first day of the playoffs weekend, it was the eight teams in the upper bracket who went head to head against each other to see who could secure top 6 placement at The International 2023 (TI12). Three teams from Eastern Europe, two from China and one each from Western Europe, North America and Southeast Asia started in the upper bracket of the playoffs. At the end of the first day, two teams from Europe advanced (one from Eastern Europe, one from Western Europe) along with two from China, which has set us up for a juicy upper bracket tussle during finals weekend.

Team SpiritvsVirtus.pro

The day began with a bit of a surprise with underdogs Virtus.pro taking the first game off tournament favorites Team Spirit. But the TI10 champions came back strong in the next two games to show everyone why they are considered the favorites.

The next three series all finished 2-0.

Team LiquidvsTalon Esports

The second series of the day was a straightforward win for Team Liquid against Talon Esports. Talon, who have had some impressive wins this season, have not been able to defeat Team Liquid at all, and that did not change today.

LGD Gamingvs9Pandas

The third series saw LGD send 9Pandas to the lower bracket. Even though it was a 2-0 win, LGD had a position 1 Dark Willow in game 1 which nearly backfired. After dominating the early game, they allowed 9Pandas to come back into the game and nearly snatch the game from them. But in the end, the tradition of Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev and Alexey “Solo” Berezin taking on LGD in the upper bracket ended up in the favor of the Chinese team.

nounsvsAzure Ray

In the final series of the day, Azure Ray absolutely schooled nouns. There was a lot of North American hope riding on the shoulders of nouns, especially after their amazing performance against Tundra Esports. But there’s a reason Yao “Somnus” Lu and Xu “fy” Linsen are considered two of the best players to have not won a TI, and it showed. They brought their years of experience to the series and dominated both games to advance to the upper bracket semifinals.

This is how the bracket looks like now.

After all is said and done, there were no upsets and the teams that were expected to win in each series did take the win. With Team Spirit taking on Team Liquid and LGD going up against Azure Ray (who are basically the old LGD), a Europe versus China upper bracket final is guaranteed, and that always makes for an amazing storyline!

On the second day of the TI12 playoffs, the eight teams that started in the lower bracket will fight for survival in their elimination best-of-3s. They should thank their lucky stars, as till last year, the first elimination series in the lower bracket of The International used to be a best-of-1. At the end of this weekend, eight teams will be eliminated and the last eight will move on to the finals weekend of TI12.