It’s been a long run with eighteen best-of-one games played in the first day of Starladder|i-League in Minsk, Belarus and because six teams will leave the competition at the end of the group stage it was crucial for everyone to have a good start.
The thirteenth edition of Starladder|i-League is not only the first big LAN event of the year but also the first attempt of the two leagues joining forces to produce a high end event. Nine out of the twelve participating teams are also qualified or invited to the upcoming Shanghai Major, which makes the tournament even more interesting.
The format is simple: all twelve squads are split in two groups of six where the top three from each group advance to the double elimination playoffs bracket. The top team from each group will go directly into the semifinals of the main event while the second and third place finishers will advance into the quarterfinals.
With these being said let’s take a look at each group individually.
Group A
Although many would have expected Evil Geniuses to finish the first day on top of their group it was in fact LGD who won all their games, including the match-up versus EG, and finished the day with a total of nine points, which pretty much guarantees them a spot into the playoffs. An interesting result if we think that LGD was not invited to Shanghai Major and had to win the regional qualifiers to ensure their spot there.
Group A also scheduled the old times “El Classico”. You guess it; Alliance faced Natus Vincere with the Ukrainians managing to take down the reunited Alliance.
It wasn’t a great day for the Swedes and with good reasons as they arrived in Minsk after a very long trip full of obstacles and a bit of drama regarding their own participation in the tournament.
But for all the teams placed third to sixth in the group all hopes are still alive for tomorrow. Everyone has two more games to play, meaning a total of six points up for grabs.
Group B
The surprise is a bit bigger in group B, where the favorites from Team Secret have accomplished only one win and that happened in one of the most exciting comebacks of the day, versus Virtus.Pro. Even though Secret is not the leader of the group at this moment they for sure produced the highlights of the day with their games versus the CIS teams.
Towards the evening, Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao had a special appearance as Ember Spirit - versus Vega Squadron. If you missed it we strongly recommend you to watch the replay. It features all the Jacky Mao plays possible, four Divine Rapiers bought by him, a 70 minute fight with mega creeps and an extraordinary resilient Vega Squadron.
For now the only team in group B that can rest peacefully at the end of the day one is Team Liquid who dominated in all their games and finished first with nine points. Virtus.Pro are close behind them with only one game lost and six points accumulated.
Starladder|i-League day two schedule:
Group A:
09:00 CET Fnatic vs Team Spirit
09:00 CET Na’Vi vs LGD
10:40 CET Fnatic vs Evil Geniuses
10:40 CET Alliance vs LGD
12:00 CET Team Spirit vs Na`Vi
12:00 CET Evil Geniuses vs Alliance
Group B
13:20 CET Wings Gaming vs Team Liquid
13:20 CET compLexity Gaming vs Vega Squadron
14:40 CET Virtus.Pro vs Team Liquid
14:40 CET compLexity vs Team Secret
16:00 CET Vega Squadron vs Virtus.Pro
16:00 CET Team Secret vs Wings Gaming
headline image from Sheever's facebook
