Europe dominates upper brackets of Bali Major

The first day of the Bali Major playoffs has ended, highlighting European (Western and Eastern) dominance. 

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UPDATE:

As of July 6th, the brackets have been adjusted. Betboom will drop to lower brackets as a penalty and Tundra advance in the upper brackets.

• Read BetBoom penalized with default loss; Drop to lower brackets at Bali Major

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Western Europe region keeps on dominating the pro scene. All four teams from WEU placed in the top 4 of their respective group in Bali.

Eastern Europe didn't do too shabby themselves in groups. The region had two teams head to the lower brackets and one to the upper brackets. 

The first day of the playoffs was dedicated entirely to the upper brackets and Europe continued to reign supreme. 

The day kicked off with a back-and-forth, 55-minute game between Team Liquid and PSG.LGD. 

Team Liquid overpowered PSG.LGD, Gaimin Gladiators triumphed over beastcoast, despite a surprise meepo pick for Parker in Game 1, and Quest bested Team Aster 2:1, even though SumaiL led Aster to a 29 minute Game 2 victory.  

In four series, only one was a 2:0 sweep which saw BetBoom overwhelm Tundra. The first game of the series was heavily one-sided, but the second game was a hard-fought slugfest lasting more than 104 minutes. Don't forget, that Tundra has been playing with coach Aui in place of Saksa. 

• Read Saksa takes a break; Aui steps in at Bali Major

Team Liquid, BetBoom, Gaimin Gladiators all have their TI invites secured.

During the Bali Major Press Conference, when asked if the pressure was removed after they qualified for TI12, Boxi said: "We took it a little chill after we secured our TI slot around DreamLeague and we didn't almost qualify for this major as well, which would have been pretty sad. But, now that we are here, we really want to win the major.”

• Read Team Liquid press conference highlights from Bali Major

With Quest's advancement to the semi-finals, their TI ticket is still within reach. Quest most recently took the championship title at DreamLeague Season 20 and are no doubt playing their hearts out to land an invite to The International. Quest is currently sitting at rank 14 with 632 DPC points, but will need to face Gaimin Gladiators —double Major champions—next. 

Schedule for Thursday, July 5th

Lower Brackets (best-of-three) Elimination Series

• PSG.LGDvsTeam Spirit 04:00 CEST
• BetBoom TeamvsAzure Ray 07:45 CEST
• beastcoastvsShopify Rebellion 11:30 CEST
• Team Astervs9Pandas 15:15 CEST

PSG.LGD, beastcoast, and Team Aster are still holding on for their TI invites. They will need to avoid elimination. 

Bali Major Format

Playoffs

• Double-elimination bracket
• All matches except Grand Final are Bo3
• Grand Final is Bo5

Bali Major Prize Pool and DPC points 

The points distribution and prize pool for Bali Major will be split between the top eight finishers as follows:

1st place: $200,000 & 600 DPC points
2nd place: $100,000 & 550 DPC points
3rd place: $75,000 & 500 DPC points     
4th place: $50,000 & 450 DPC points  
5th/6th place: $25,000 & 400 DPC points
7th/8th place: $12,500 & 300 DPC points

TI 2023 will feature 20 teams from which 12 will come via DPC points. The top 12 teams in the DPC rankings will be known at the end of the Bali Major. After that, come regional qualifiers with eight slots up for grabs distributed as follows:

• North America: 1 slot
• China: 1 Slot
• Southeast Asia: 1 slot
• Eastern Europe: 1 slot
• Western Europe: 2 slots
• South America: 2 slots

Read Valve announces TI 2023 regional qualifiers dates and slot allocation