picture source: FHM Philippines
The Swiss format for the Kiev Major group stage already produced a few surprises with five out of the eight directly invited teams being in the losers half of round two.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest surprises after the first round of matches are the losses of Evil Geniuses and Newbee. Placed by many in the top contenders basket, both EG and Newbee kicked off the group stage on the wrong foot. EG insisted with two Treant Protector drafts and their game plan got heavily countered by TnC who went with pushing lineups. A totally unexpected Phantom Lancer last pick in game one, and a Terrorblade draft in game two from the Filipino team made the healing tree look underwhelming in his attempts to save his teammates or to keep the buildings standing.
Newbee, on the other hand lost their games with and against Monkey King, a hero who established his place in the meta a few weeks back, at Dota 2 Asia Championships. Newbee’s adversaries, the new Digital Chaos roster, secured MK for themselves in the first drafting phase of game one and developed their lineup around Abed Azel 'Abed' Yusop’s Shadow Fiend. Having three big ultimates to control the team fight, (Warlock, MK, Sand King) Abed finished game one with 23/3/9 personal K/D/A which was a good morale boost for the next game, where he got to show off with his Invoker skills. In the second game, DC let Newbee draft Monkey King and went with multiple counters for it and a pick off overall strategy. With Abed once again shining in his mid-lane role, DC took down Newbee 2-0 to move into the winners half of round two.
Kiev Major group stage round one results:
Continuing the group stage surprises topic, a special mention should go to the Brazilians from SG e-sports, who opened the day with a win over OG. However, they lost the next two games and dropped in the lower half of round two. Interestingly enough, OG’s loss registered with a mid-lane Arc Warden, a hero which already made more than just one appearance during this first day of the group stage. Team Liquid gave it a go as well, and also placed it in the mid-lane, but with the same unfortunate outcome. Liquid lost their series versus Thunderbirds and are also in the lower side of round two where they will meet in fact, SG e-sports.
The second round of the group stage is going to be fully played today, the matchups being as follows:
Round 2 winners half:
Round 2 losers half:
