The final day awaits and things are still unclear at the bottom of the group with Virtus Pro and Alliance needing results to remain in the competition.
It has been a dramatic day in Sweden as Evil Geniuses asserted their dominance on their opponents. With only two losses out of ten games they are looking like a sure bet to finish on top at the end of the studio matches. The American team, along with Team Tinker and 4 Anchors are confirmed through for the Playoff stage on November 27th, but Evil Geniuses will be looking to stay inside the top two to go directly to the semi-finals at Dreamhack Winter.
Matches Completed: 24/28
Teams Confirmed: EG, TT, 4ASC
Teams Eliminated: -
In second place, Team Tinker are hoping to hold off the advances of Cloud 9 following their match tonight. Cloud 9 are the only team that can challenge Evil Geniuses and Team Tinker for the top two places as they enter a busy final day with three best-of-two matches scheduled for Jacky "EternalEnVy" Mao and his team.
All eyes will be on Alliance and Virtus Pro tomorrow as they enter their final matches, both against Cloud 9. If both teams fail to take any points from their matches it will see them both exit the tournament and MVP Phoenix will proceed into the playoffs. The Korean team have been waiting to see their fate after finishing their games on November 21st and a tiebreaker with Virtus Pro would see them force the Russian team out of the competition following their earlier win.
So let's take a look at the four games that took place today in the penultimate day of the Phase 2.
Virtus Pro Polar vs Cloud 9
The opening match of the day placed middle of the table Virtus Pro Polar against Cloud 9 and both games ended up going to Cloud 9 just after the forty minute mark. The two games featured Jacky "EternalEnVy" Mao on the Faceless Void with a stand out performance in the first game. Virtus Pro Polar showed more resistance in the second game, but a double team wipe dramatically ended the game for them and allowed Cloud 9 to move further up the group table.
Evil Geniuses vs Alliance
Trailing the rest of the teams Alliance knew they would need a big result against Evil Geniuses and they came out fighting in the opening game, taking a convincing lead in the early game with stand-in Kai "Hann1" Hanbückers putting in an aggressive performance with Slark. In what was possibly the game of the day, Evil Geniuses fought back and after a 57 minute epic, finally broke into Alliance's base to take the first game. The second game saw a very different result, with Alliance only able to take a single tower as Artour "Arteezy" Babaev dominated on Terrorblade, destroying most of the towers and forcing the game to end before thirty minutes.
Virtus Pro Polar vs Team Tinker
Things were looking uncertain for Virtus Pro Polar going into this game drifting just above the MVP Phoenix and Virtus Pro, but their concerns were quickly put to rest after Team Tinker's draft didn't pay off including a first appearance for Wehsing "SingSing" Yuen's Phoenix. Virtus Pro Polar were never behind on the experience graphs after five minutes and it ended in an easy first win. But with four draws already for Team Tinker, they were able to add another to the list in the second game with Pelle "Pajkatt" Lille and Sam "Bulba" Sosale having a dominant game with Drow Ranger and Visage, picking up eighteen kills between them.
Team Tinker vs Cloud 9
Team Tinker were in action again for the final game of the night against Cloud 9 knowing that a point would confirm a top six finish. A dominating performance from Max "qojqva" Broecker on Storm Spirit made sure they would take the first game in under forty minutes, with Cloud 9 only able to take a lone tower. The second game ended up almost as a repeat, as Cloud 9 were unable to contain a fourth pick Anti-Mage on Pelle "Pajkatt" Lille. The Swedish player ended up with twelve kills and no deaths as Team Tinker were able to force Cloud 9's first loss of the group stages within thirty five minutes.
The studio matches end on 23rd November with the top six teams heading into the main event playoffs taking place at Dreamhack Winter in Sweden on the 27th November.
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