The group stages have been completed and four teams have made it through to compete in the China qualifier playoffs, looking ever more closer for a chance to compete in Kiev in the LAN finals.
The Chinese bracket has been completed without hiccups and four teams are set to compete in the qualifier bracket to be able to win a ticket to compete in Cyberarena, Kiev. Vici Gaming are in stellar form lately with their new ensemble of players and only suffered one loss at the hands of HyperGlory Team. Finishing in first place with a 6/1 record out of the strong Chinese division they must be considered one of the top picks to win the tournament. Newbee are not showing the dominance they administered during TI4 and prior, but they were solid enough to come out in second place and have secured a ticket to the regional playoffs.
The story of the entire qualifiers must be LAI Gaming, a relatively unknown team that performed exceptionally well to finish narrowly ahead of Chinese stalwart Invictus Gaming. While they were even on points, LAI finished ahead as they defeated iG in their head-to-head encounter. Notably, LAI also won their encounter against a fellow qualifier in HGT. LGD is another top flight Chinese team to surprisingly not make the cut.
The playoffs will commence on the 22nd of September, whereby the winner of the Winners bracket, as well as the winner of the Losers bracket will earn a ticket to Kiev. The two teams that made it through last year were DK and iG, whereby DK went on to win the entire event against Team Empire in the grand finals.
The four teams who qualified for the CN playoffs are:
Vici Gaming
Newbee
HyperGlory Team
LAI Gaming
The SEA qualifiers will be completed on September 30th and the European and CIS qualifiers will come to a close on October 5th. Starladder X is beginning to take shape and the excitement is building for some mouth watering matches coming soon in Kiev.
Headline image by SLTV
