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The first major Dota 2 event in India is now underway. Eight teams are competing in the ESL One Mumbai 2019 tournament, and the playoffs are coming up. We will bring you news on this event, as well as other top esports tournaments in our weekly roundup.
TEAM TEAM, Keen Gaming shine
Let’s start with the group stage in Mumbai.
In Group A, despite being alongside three better-known teams, North America’s TEAM TEAM came through as top seeds. They served notice in the very first game of the group, defeating Natus Vincere 2-0. Then, they showed that result was no fluke with a 2-0 victory over TNC Predator in the Winners’ Match.
Natus Vincere recovered well from their loss, beating compLexity Gaming 2-0 in the Losers’ Match to set up a decider against TNC Pro Team. Despite losing the first map, Natus Vincere bounced back to win the next two to claim a 2-1 win and a place in the Upper Bracket Round 1.
There they will face Keen Gaming, the Chinese qualifiers who topped Group B. They made light work of the home side Signify in the opening game, winning 2-0 and then produced a masterful display to beat Mineski 2-0 in the Winner’s Game. Pango defeated Signify in the Loser’s Match to move on to the Decider match against Mineski, which will be played later today.
Moving forward
The playoffs run April 19-21. This ESL One event is the last one before the qualifiers for the ESL One Birmingham 2019 at the end of May. From this field, only Keen Gaming and TNC Predator will be attending.
FaZe Clan finally puts dent in Astralis
Another major CS:GO tournament, another Astralis victory. That’s been the script over the past 12 months. The Danish superteam swept aside all contenders to their throne. However, at last week’s BLAST Pro Series Miami 2019, Astralis finally took a shot to the jaw.
The tournament started with a league format. Each of the six teams played each other once. The top two teams from the group stage then qualified for the Grand Final. The third-place team earned a place in the BLAST Pro Standoff game, where they could select which opponent to play in a showmatch, which pitted five individual team members against each other in 1 vs 1 duels. The winning team in the showmatch took home $20,000.
Somewhat predictably, things began well for Astralis. They racked up wins over Cloud9 (16-10) and then Natus Vincere (16-7) in their first two games. Then, the wheels fell off the wagon in spectacular fashion for the Danes. They were thumped 16-2 by a resurgent MiBR in their third game. Then, in a crucial fourth, Team Liquid edged them out 16-14 before FaZe Clan earned a 16-5 victory to ensure Astralis finished the tournament in fifth place.
Cloud9 were the wooden-spoon holders without a win in their five games, while Natus Vincere finished fourth. MiBR qualified for the BLAST Standoff in third, with FaZe Clan second and Team Liquid qualifying top of the table at 5-0.
After MiBR pocketed $20,000 for winning the Pro Standoff against their selected opponents Cloud9, the Grand Final saw Team Liquid start as favorites against FaZe Clan. But it was FaZe who produced the goods, winning the best of three final 2-0 (16-6, 16-12) to claim the top prize of $125,000 and 10 BLAST Pro Series Points.
There’s a little wait until the next BLAST Pro Series event in Madrid, which takes place on May 10 and May 11. The final regular season event is in Los Angeles in July.
Current standings in the Blast Pro Series
After two events in Sao Paulo and Miami, the current Blast Pro Series standings are as follows:
- Team Liquid – 16 points
- Astralis – 12
- FaZe Clan – 12
- MiBR – 6
- Natus Vincere – 4
- Ninjas in Pyjamas – 4
- Cloud 9 – 0
The top four teams will qualify for the Global Finals at the end of the year.
A number of second-tier teams from the CS:GO esports ranks will be competing in this week’s DreamHack Open in Rio de Janeiro at the Parque Olimpico. A prize pool of $100,000 is up for grabs in this famous tournament, which gets underway on April 19.
League of Legends spring champions confirmed
The majority of teams set to compete in the forthcoming Mid Season Invitational in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Taipei from May 1-19 have been confirmed.
The full list of teams confirmed as champions for their regions are as follows:
- OPL – Bombers
- LJL – DetonatioN FocusMe
- VCS – Phong Vu Buffalo
- TCL – 1907 Fenerbahce Esports
- CBLOL – INTZ eSports
- LCL – Vega Squadron
- LCS – Team Liquid
- LCK – SK Telecom T1
- LEC – G2 Esports
Still to be decided are the following four regions:
- LLA – Isurus or Rainbow7
- LST – Capital Esports or Liyab Esports or MEGA Esports or Team_Empire
- LMS – Flash_Wolves or MAD Team
- LPL – JD Gaming or Invictus Gaming
Of these teams, G2 Esports and SK Telecom T1 (along with the winning LPL Spring team) will earn byes through to the Group Stage of the tournament. The 10 remaining teams will battle it out for the three other places.
Image credit: David J. Becker / Contributor / Getty
