The first day in the European groups for the Manila Major regional qualifiers ended in a rather surprising fashion for Group A, with Team Empire ranking last.
Of the ten participating teams at the European qualifier rounds, seven are CIS representatives, and the race for the top two places in each group is still wide open. Team Empire came into the competition as the strong contenders to win it all, which is not surprising given their recent results and the impressive form they’ve shown at ESL One Manila and WePlay Season 3. However, after the first day of matches in Group A they came in last, with only one point gathered after their draw against Kaipi. Their only chance now for grabbing one of the top two spots needed to advance into the next stage is to grab two clear victories tomorrow.
Troels 'syndereN' Nielsen's team, No Diggity, has already played half of their matches and have yet to taste defeat, which puts them at the top of the group with four points, followed by Power Rangers with three points.
Polarity and Kaipi played six games and are in real danger of missing this Major edition. With only two points at the end of day one and only one best of two series left for them to play tomorrow, it’s nearly impossible for either of them to qualify for the next stage of the competition.
In Group B everything is still possible. All the teams have at least four games left to play on day two and for now, Vega Squadron and Ad Finem are the leaders, but are far from secure in the next stage.
The European qualifiers will resume on May 4th at 10:00 CEST with Team Empire vs Polarity, a decisive series for both teams.
