The first day of the Heroes of Newerth tournament at the Elmia in Jönköping, Sweden is officially in the books with a set of upsets bringing the first day to an exciting ending. MiTH.s2y is already out, stayGreen is already through, but the rest is still wide open.
Group A: stayGreen marching straight through
The first group kicked off with a massive showdown between Internet Gangsters and stayGreen, a match that was supposed to be the deciding factor in determining which team will get a bye in the first playoff round. Unfortunately that match was rather one-sided - as every stayGreen this day - and so the highly anticipated clash to kick off DreamHack with a bang was missing the intended effect. Still it set up the tone for the whole group stage and revealed some weaknesses inside of IG, while the reigning champion send a strong and loud message to everyone around. A clean record, flawless victories and the advantage of knowing how to win on LAN are definitely helping the guys from stayGreen, who can almost already plan for the semifinals.
That luxury has none of the other teams from that group, as Denial eSports, Internet Gangsters and the BYOC team featuring Heartskate as the most notable player from that team. Denial eSports is in the best spot though, as the team has already put an end to Internet Gangsters and found a victory against Made in Thailand.Sorry Sorry as well. Those two victories and the tiebreaker against Internet Gangsters makes it really unlikely, that the team around Zlapped will be kicked out of the tournament after all - the placement is still important though. Internet Gangsters needs to win against the BYOC team to secure their spot, but due to the mediocre Day 1, they will wind up with a rather tough opponent in the first playoff round. The frustration that creeped in the team was visible during the bout with Denial eSports, as the conversation and arguments during the match and after blown engagements and lost teamfights got harsher than before. The team needs to regroup and refocus in order to not end up like this year's QsQ or Gary Johnson 2012.
Out already and without any bright spots on the record thus far is the Thai team of MiTH.s2y, who made it fairly good against Denial eSports, but went down hard against iG and sG. Once again the Thailand champs are failing to bring in a good performance or reach a signature win. Back during the summer they only took maps off of KFG, iMpunity and iTS - while losing heartbreakers to sG and others. A loss is still a loss and the team will go back to their homeland with plenty of new experience, but once again without a really big win.
?Group B: Everyone still in the mix
Group B was projected to be much closer, but certainly not this close. It all started with the big splash that iG vs. sG failed to make, as Too Much Sugar took out the Swedish fan favorites of Lions in an insanely intense contest to start off their DreamHack Winter 2013 campaign. The debut of Tankafett was a full success, as well as the return of the champions sLiCKz and KheZu. The amount of returning power brought the hungry Lions down, who looked almost invincable online earlier. After an impressive twelve game winning streak, tmsR put a stop to them and therefore kicked the door wide open with that one.
Actually, it wasn't really this result that opened up the group, but rather tmsR laying an egg at the end of the groupstage with a loss to The Law. This did not only bring Lions eSports back into the conversation for the first seed, but also kept The Law alive for a playoff seed, while triggering some worried faces alongside Reason Gaming. For the ringers it doesn't really change much, as they need a victory against the BYOC team. They needed that before, they need it now - just that the scoreboard isn't as decisive anymore.
One other cause for concern for everyone in the group is the actual BYOC team that losely reminds people of the "ReadyForAMiracle" team that took the Diamond Division by storm for one cycle a couple of weeks ago. Mikeyman, Addrow and KurtSvensson were a part of that team or that roster at some points of their run, while CatLoMein and ImbaPingu are also known in the scene as capable players. Even the name "ShitHappens" rings a bell with some people, as ReadyForAMiracle renamed itself to exactly that during the last cycle. Names alone are no guarantee for actual performance, but the odds are looking pretty good, that the BYOC competition in Group B might actually be able to cause some serious trouble.
Every team still needs to go through them and with two victories against the right teams with the right setup, the BYOC team in Group B might come out of nowhere and slingshot straight to the playoffs. tmsR and Lions are still the favorites and Reason is in a comfortable spot - it's still not decided yet.
As a special treat at the end - Fusen compiled a video from the best match of the first day - tmsR against Lions eSports. Enough to hype the match and bring in extra excitement for the matches tomorrow.
