At the end of the first playweek of the WPC-ACE League, Titan have played all but one of their matches, and return to Malaysia with qualification for the Playoffs mostly out of their control.
As of now, the standings see Titan in top position having played all but one of their games. However, their qualification to the LAN playoffs seems to be rather untenable right now, since they have dropped points to all but one of the top tier teams in China: NewBee, LGD, Vici Gaming, DK, as well as a draw with Orenda. The top 6 teams in the Chinese league will qualify for the playoffs, which means that Titan has to win their last game against Orange on 12 April, and hope that the other tier one teams slip up, to stand a good chance of qualifying.
Vici Gaming is second, having won all four of their best-of-2s. Notably, they 2-0ed both NewBee and Titan, teams arguably at a comparable level to them. Newbee is third, having played three matches and losing only to Vici Gaming so far. Some interesting upsets have seen CIS taking a game of LGD on Sunday, with Black^ playing a notable Puck in that game, as well as Orenda, a supposed pubstar team, taking a match off Titan.
On Sunday, DK and IG both had to play with standins for their first matches of the tournament, both against Titan. With DK having 3 stand-ins from SpeedGaming.cn, Titan were expected to roll over DK. However, the first match was a back-and-forth affair between Titan and DK, going the exhaustive distance of 85 minutes. DK emerged victorious in that match, and in game 2 faced yet another resurgent Titan. However mistakes from both sides led to exposed thrones, and an overfarmed BurNing on Faceless Void with Refresher Orb sealed the deal for DK after 70 minutes.
Titan next played IG, who were playing with SanSheng in place of ChuaN. The match was dragged to yet another 70 minute affair, but were able to defeat IG's extremely farmed Phantom Lancer and seal the first match. The second match was yet another long game, with Titan constantly outplaying IG but being unable to push the high ground. They finally broke through after a extended fight with YYF's Lifestealer dying after a buyback, allowing Titan to take the game.
The WPC-ACE League will now take a three day break until Thursday, 10 April, which will mark the beginning of the Western qualifiers. The Western qualifiers will run over a period of three days, with 10 best-of-2s to be played amongst the five teams. The Western qualifiers will end and the qualified teams will be known by 12 April.
The Chinese league will have its next match next Sunday, 13 April, with a couple of high-key matches: DK vs LGD, and IG vs NewBee.
Current Standings
