The round-robin stage of XMG Dotacinema Captain's Draft invitational is over, with Na'Vi, Alliance, Sigma and Fnatic advancing to the next round. RoX.KIS and Liquid were unable to acquire enough points and are utterly eliminated.
It has been a long month for the participants of the XMG Invitational, the teams were forced out of their comfort zone with the Captain's Draft mode being used in the Bo3 matches. In the end, we were able to witness quite entertaining matches and interesting team compositions, all leading to the upcoming playoffs.
The Ukrainians Natus Vincere were able to win all of their matches except the one against Fnatic, but they will have the chance to get their revenge during the first round of the playoffs as they will be facing Fnatic once again. The other match will be between Alliance and Sigma, with Alliance finishing second in the group after their loss against Na'Vi. RoX.KIS and Team Liquid are eliminated, with RoX.KIS winning only one match against Liquid, and the Americans losing all their matches.
The playoffs will have a single-elimination format, with two best-of-five matches leading to the best-of-five grand final. The winner earns 50% of the total prize pool, while 25% goes to the team that finishes second. There will be no third-place match, as the third and fourth places have the same reward, 12.5% of total prize pool. Currently the prize pool is just short of $40,000, half of that coming from the base pool and the other growing half from the community fundings.
UPDATE: Na`Vi will face up against Sigma instead of Fnatic as they got to pick whom to face instead of going with pairings based on seeding. The date for the playoffs is yet to be decided but it is confirmed not to occur on the tentative date, March 29.
Live broadcasting of the matches will be provided by SUNSfan and SyndereN. Matches can be watched through the in game client, MLG.tv and DotaCinema.
