The 16 teams participating at Manila Major have been split into four groups, with games played in a GSL format starting on 3rd and 4th of June to decide the seedings for the main event double elimination bracket.
Although each group will be extremely interesting to watch, one of the four looks particularly thrilling with Digital Chaos and Team Secret drawn together, which will force the first official confrontation between the two teams. Ever since the Spring Shuffle, when Secret’s captain Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov released both Omar 'w33' Aliwi and Rasmus 'MiSeRy' Fillipsen from their duties, Secret has struggled to find the balance between the new players and old. On the other hand, Digital Chaos started to rule the NA region in that period, qualifying for no less than four LANs and outshining the likes of compLexity Gaming and even Evil Geniuses.
Natus Vincere and the ESL One Manila Champions, Wings Gaming are also in the same Group B, which will make the fight for the top two places extremely tough.
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Team Liquid, currently ranked number one worldwide on the GosuGamers rankings, were drawn in Group C with Alliance, Fnatic and the StarLadder Dota 2 Invitational Champions, Vici Gaming Reborn, and should not have too many problems to secure an upper bracket seed for the main vent.
As for the other two groups, A and D, the race is quite open. OG and Evil Geniuses are regarded as the stronger teams in their respective groups, but will have to prove themselves against the other teams that have recently displayed great form.
