Kiev Major Group Stage Day 1 Recap
Boasting a prize pool of $3,000,000, the Kiev Major sure excites Dota 2 fans all over the world. Day 1 of the group stage is done and dusted but there is a lot of content to analyze and a lot of potential to uncover.
Round 1
Day 1 of the Kiev Major has provided fans with lots of entertainment as a sorry Evil Geniuses team lost 2-0 to all Filipino TNC Pro Team in the second set of the Round 1 matches. On the other hand, the BurNIng led Invictus Gaming romped against Mousesports in the Round 1 matchup and gained a thumping 2-0 win over fan favorites OG.
The first set of matches saw Team Secret gain a comfortable 2-0 win against Chinese team VG.J, thanks to a MidOne rampage on Shadow Fiend. Mousesports lost 2-0 to Invictus Gaming as their sub-par drafting couldn’t overcome BurNIng’s Weaver. Team Random(ex-Wings) overcame IG.V 2-1 in a closely fought battle. But fan favorites OG had to sweat it out against Brazilian underdogs SG e-sports as they lost their first game but eventually came back to win the remaining 2.
The second set of matches involved Evil Geniuses‘ 2-0 loss against TNC Pro Team where Raven’s Phantom Lancer ripped apart the whole team. In the second game, TNC’s offlaner Sam.H produced moments of brilliance with his plays on Axe. Virtus.Pro overcame Faceless 2-0 in what seemed to be a pretty straightforward series win. Digital Chaos(former Onyx) took the series against Chinese powerhouse Newbee who failed to register a single win. Thunderbirds(ex-Digital Chaos) took down a lackluster Team Liquid as Resolut1on’s Morphling proved too much for them.
Round 2
Since the Kiev Major is following the Swiss Format for the group stage, round 2 was divided into two groups called high and low. The teams with a 1-0 series victory were pooled into the high group whereas the teams with a 0-1 series loss were pooled into the other.
OG failed to capitalize on a fine opportunity to avenge their DAC loss as they were pitted against Invictus gaming. An overconfident OG gave away Anti Mage to BurNIng who traumatized them to their core. Virtus.Pro, yet again gained a comfortable 2-1 series win against Team Random. But, the real shock came when TNC defeated Boston Major 3-4th placed Thunderbirds 2-1, thus guaranteeing their place in the Round 3 high group. Team Secret outplayed Digital Chaos, as a young Abed fell to an experienced MidOne. As a result, Digital Chaos were sent down to the Round 3 middle group.
The round 2 low group began with Evil Geniuses winning 2-1 against Team Faceless. An inexperienced SG e-sports found it too hard against Team Liquid as they fell too quickly sending Team Liquid to the Round 3 Middle group. The Chinese battle between VG.J and IG.V resulted in VG.J taking the series 2-1 winning the third match in just 25 minutes. Newbee finally got the win that they desperately wanted by defeating Mousesports with final score of 2-1 which included an exhilarating 74 minute third match.
There are still a lot of games to be played on day 2 with all the top teams vying for a chance to be seeded top. Stay tuned for the Day 2 recap which is going to be covered shortly.