Photo courtesy of BTS by Todd Gutierrez
The group stage of BTS Summit 9 has come to a close and the trajectory for the last LAN title before TI8 has been set for the six competing teams.
Its been three days of action as some of the best teams have faced off in Sunny Los Angeles at Summit Summer Camp. Arts and crafts, outdoor activities and couch casting have been on the agenda, but the competition behind the PC screens has been the highlight of the program.
Evil Geniuses and VGJ.Storm have taken the lead, tying up for the first two slots in the group, each with a 7:3 record. VGJ.Storm fell to EG 2:0 in their first matchup and will now have to face each other again in the upper bracket finals thanks to their seeding. In both of the matches of their series against each other EG heavily overpowered VGJ.Storm.
The one-sided matches gave viewers the impression that VGJ.Storm was not in the best shape just before TI, but the rest of their run through the group stage proved to be much different as they dominated the rest of the games, dropping only their last match of the stage to Let's Do It.
The Polish squad had been dropped by their sponsor after the Pro Circuit 2017-2018 season and the team had announced they were not sure of their future together. Despite indications there would be changes, they did agree to play together for the BTS qualifier and clinched their place at the LAN event after taking down Wind and Rain 3:2. Their run at the Summit 9 was less than spectacular. They finished the groups in last with a 3:7 record —not all that surprising as the team has already voiced some internal conflicts and is the only one at BTS to not be heading north to Vancouver for TI8 next.
paiN Gaming has brought much hype with them. Armed with some fantastic plays and exciting game, the South American team looks to be shaping up to be an entertaining, if not viable, contender for TI8.
Fnatic's performance seems to be shaky. Sub-par performances mixed with sensational plays continue to leave fans scratching their heads at what to expect from the SEA team at The International.
BTS Summit 9 Playoffs Format:
- Double Elimination
- All games except Grand Finals are Bo3.
- Grand Finals is Bo5
