Title image courtesy of Mars Media
After the first day of playoffs, the first four teams have been eliminated from the MDL Chengdu Major.
After TNC Predator continued to demonstrate their new season's superpowers and J.Storm triumphed, both advancing further along in the upper brackets the intensity ratcheted up a notch for four unforgiving best-of-one elimination series.
China conquered CIS and SEA almost took out South America. But almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
EHOME were able to prevail against Team Spirit after an even start. The CIS team looked shaky with a few mistakes and missed spells allowing the Chinese team to pull ahead and gain the advantage.
Team Aster dismantled Gambit pushing them hard and giving them no room to breathe. With nearly a 30k gold lead, Team Aster was able to secure another day in the playoffs, sending home Gambit much earlier than was expected.
Fnatic overpowered Team Unknown nearly from the start. Though the South American team tried to put up the good fight, Fnatic was able to just continue to gain the lead and advantage. Team Unknown became no match for the SEA team and about 50 minutes in were out of contention.
It looked as if Team Adroit was also going to send a South American team home when they took on beastcoast with a very heavily one-sided start. Thirty-three minutes in and 22k gold lead, Adroit was pushing in beastcoast's base, threatening the team's Major dreams. However, beastcoast is carving a niche out in the landscape as the comeback kids and after weathering the SEA storm, they turned the tides in their favor and pushed back hard until claiming the surprise victory in the end.
All four eliminated teams walk away with $12,500 and 100 DPC points to start the season. The four remaining teams will continue their MDL Chengdu Major journey in the lower brackets, hoping to claw their way back to the top before it's all over.
The action resumes tomorrow, November 19th at 03:00 CET with the second two sets of upper brackets series, followed by two best-of-three lower bracket elimination series.
MDL Chengdu Major Teams
Alliance
Team Liquid
Vici Gaming
Team Aster
EHOME
Gambit
Team Spirit
Fnatic
TNC Predator
Team Adroit
Evil Geniuses
Fighting Pandas
J.Storm
beastcoast
Team Unknown
Invictus Gaming
MDL Chengdu Major Main Event Format
16 team Double Elimination with 8 starting in Lower Bracket
Bo1 matches for 1st round of the lower bracket
Bo5 finals
Bo3 every other game
MDL Chengdu Major prize pool and point distribution
| Place | Prize pool | Points |
| 1 | $300,000 | 4850 |
| 2 | $160,000 | 3000 |
| 3 | $110,000 | 2100 |
| 4 | $80,000 | 1350 |
| 5-6 | $60,000 | 900 |
| 5-6 | $60,000 | 900 |
| 7-8 | $40,000 | 450 |
| 7-8 | $40,000 | 450 |
| 9-12 | $20,000 | 150 |
| 9-12 | $20,000 | 150 |
| 9-12 | $20,000 | 150 |
| 9-12 | $20,000 | 150 |
| 13-16 Gambit | $12,500 | 100 |
| 13-16 Team Spirit | $12,500 | 100 |
| 13-16 Team Adroit | $12,500 | 100 |
| 13-16 Team Unknown | $12,500 | 100 |
MDL Chengdu Major
MDL is holding it's 10th iteration of events in Chengdu, Sichuan on November 16-24th. This is the first Major of the season for teams on the road to TI2020. Sixteen teams —15 teams determined via qualifiers and the lucky winner of the BTS Dota Summit Minor —are batteling it out for the lion's share of the $1,000,00,000 prize pool and 15,000 DPC points.
