The first round of offline playoffs of WEC is now over, with four best-of-three matches being in total. NewBee, NaVi and Vici Gaming were able to overpower their opposition with a 2-0 score, while Cloud9 had a harder task against LGD. The day continues with two WB best-of-three matches for the second round of the double-elimination bracket.
The first major offline event of the post-TI4 season is upon us, and eight of the strongest teams in the world have arrived to Hangzhou, China to compete in the finals of World e-Sports Championship for the $168,000+ prizepool. The first round has just concluded, with four best-of-three matches being played to determine which teams remain in the Winners Bracket.
The day opened with two matches at 4:30 CEST : NewBee used two very aggressive strategies to dominate HGT with a 2-0 gamescore, while the LAN debut of VG's new line-up also had similar success against Evil Geniuses. The Ukrainian squad Na'Vi managed to impose their own game pace against LGD.CDEC (including a Pudge selection in the first game). The last match of the round between LGD and Cloud9 was the least one-sided of the four, with Cloud9 using their freshly introduced support Warlock strategy to confuse their opposition and take them down in the third match.
The second round has already started, with the first match between NewBee and VG starting before schedule (10:30 CEST instead of 11:30 CEST) to avoid unnecessary delays caused by the unusual duration of the LGD-C9 match. The second match is set to begin at 13:00 CEST, with C9 taking on Na'Vi. The winners of the two matches will secure a spot in the Winners Bracket final. It should be reminded that the tournament has a dual grand-final system which differs from the regular double-elimination brackets. You can read more on our coverage hub here.
The Lower Bracket matches will take place tomorrow, September 6th, starting at 4:30 CEST with two best-of-three matches featuring the teams that got eliminated from the first round : EG, HGT, LGD.CDEC and LGD.
Members of the GosuGamers crew have traveled to Hangzhou to provide live coverage from the event. You can find the first interview of the day with Evil Geniuses mid player Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev here.
Highlight clips are available on our YouTube channel.
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