DreamLeague Season 19 has completed its first group stage and half of the 16 invited teams are already out.
DreamLeague is back, but starting with the current season, the online tournament is a part of the newly introduced ESL Pro Tour. Besides boasting a hefty $1000,000 prize pool, DreamLeague S19 is also a step towards a secured spot at the $15,000,000 Riyadh Masters.
Only the winners of DreamLeague Season 19 will get a ticket to the generous event from Saudi Arabia’s capital, but that dream is over for eight participants.
At the end of a 4-day marathon of Dota 2 in Group Stage 1, both groups went into tiebreaker series to decide who would stay in the tournament and who goes back to the drawing board. For 14 out of the 16 teams participating, DreamLeague S19 represents a dressed rehearsal for the upcoming Berlin Major. The majority of the teams were able to gather their full line-ups in bootcamps around Europe and make the most of this opportunity.
Six of the eight teams eliminated at the end of Group Stage 1 will also be present at the ESL One Berlin Major which is set to begin in two weeks, on the 26th of April.
In Group A, all 4 teams eliminated will need to figure out fast what went wrong and how it can be fixed before the Major begins. Execration, Team Aster, ex-HellRaisers and Entity are the four with a lot of homework to do in the little time left before Berlin.
In Group B, Talon Esports and Team Spirit are the two who made an early exit but will return for the Berlin Major. The other two teams eliminated are nouns and Nigma Galaxy, neither qualified for the Major.
Group Stage 1 concluded with Team Liquid as the uncontested leaders in Group B followed by Tundra. OG and beastcoast advanced further in the tournament after tiebreaker matches. Group A had three teams tied for first place, namely Evil Geniuses, Gaimin Gladiators and Shopify Rebellion. TSM joined the top 4 by winning the tiebreaker rounds.
DreamLeague Season 19 will resume tomorrow, April 14 with Group Stage 2.
The eight teams will play against each other for the next week in a single round-robin format, best of three games for a spot in the playoffs. Four teams will get eliminated in Group Stage 2 and four will reach the final stage of the tournament which is set to conclude on the 23rd of the month.
