SGNDT'10 - Groupstage Summary

The second day of SMM is over and as expected, close to all teams were delivering at their peak. Some shocked their opponents by utilizing surprising strategies, others went with the conservative style, but regardless of what philosophy the contestants followed, only the deserving teams managed to move their way up to the Playoffs. What follows is a short summary of the groupstage for those who missed out on the action!

As we can figure, group A had to produce matches, which can be counted to the best of this tournament. The "Group of Doom" featured three top tier teams from China, the country with the best competitve environment for DotA around the globe. LGD.sGty, the defending champion of SGNDT managed to perfect what can be called a very aggressive style, involving a lot of nuke and disable power. Next to them, Deity moved on due to solid performances and strong drafts featuring sovereign plays on established heroes such as Enigma, Rogue Knight, Batrider and Moprhling. The only real loser of the group is Dream, who cought an unfortunate drawing this time. Although they showed their strength several times before, their fellow countrymen had the upper hand this time.


LGD.sGty performing convincingly

The roles in group B were clearly distributed, compared to the lastly mentioned group A, which contained three favourites for the championship. DK, a team that always struggled to prove itself against a strong national competition, was finally able to show what they are capable of. Their domination over the rest earned them a lot of new fans and recognition. The other expected playoffs-attender were our Indonesian Friends from RitteR aka MK, who were and are never afraid to try out new strategies and mix their style up. From the local teams only ADN.Amz, was able to satisfy their fans.


Group C got owned by the best national attender Nirvana.my, giving it all out for an easy score of 4 wins against mid-tier teams. The newly formed SG.Gigabyte managed to follow Hyhy and co into the playoffs. One was easily able to spot the skill of the players itself, but teamwork takes time to be established. What they can achieve in the playoffs remains to be seen.

can he lead his new team to the championship?


With IG.Inc.Ice, another Malaysian team dominated the competition in the 4th Group, featuring several lesser known teams. Thailands Axis.Gigabye pulled off an attendance in the playoffs as well and showed the world that theyre participation wasnt unjustified. The team furthermore manged to beat the Singaporean powerhouse XtC, later on in the first round of the playoffs, turning this years SMM into a very successful tournament for them.


Group E didnt fail to surprise in its results. AEON.MuFc, currently ranked 4th in the Alienware ADC tournament, disappointed all the way with a series of bad performances. What appeared as a hard group for the flown in XtC and AlienwareDG turned into a clear role distribution favouring the foreign attenders. Both teams showed how to successfully use some of version 6.69c's buffed heroes, Shadow Priest and Lone Druid.



The only Vietnamese flag reigns upon group F with a series of wins, destroying all Malaysian teams with ease. As expected, Starsboba never failed to deliver a good show. Px-Ftz reappeared in the competitive scene after a long period of oblivion. They shared place two with Cybertime 1 after 4 matches and had go through an additional tiebraker-match to move on.


A happy family


The second "Group of Doom" in a different realization. Once again brutal for DotA fans to see one Chinese team leaving after 4 played games. The unfortunate was Mushi's new team CCM who had to face the overpowered EHOME and Nirvana.cn, who made the Malaysians attenders suffer as well. In the direct encounter, Nirvana.cn had the upper hand, taking the lead in the group.




Surprisingly, the Bottle-Crow strategists from the Philippines convinced in the last group with a flawless 4-0. The Grounds delegation of Mineski Gaming showed the world some tricks, which surprised most of the teams in Group H, while the favourites LGD.au and Roccat.Trust, who managed to scratch the record of Nirvana Cherry at WDC, had a hard time. The results of the only Australian attenders were unsufficient this time and made them leave the competition after phase 1. Their drafts, which contained a lot of new heroes as well, didnt lead them to victory this time.


MG.AirAsia posing

No doubt that DotA players and fans around the world enjoyed this groupstage of SMM, featuring our well known Asian teams. China reigns in Malaysia as of now, but the its not over yet, as we have a lot of teams who showed remarkable performances. Positive appearances and big winners of the tournament in terms of public relations, came from DK, Axis.Gigabyte and MG.AirAsia. Lesser success had AEON.MuFc and LGD.au.


And as a small bouncer:
*This hero showed domination on most of the games group stage.*
TobiWanKenobi: "nomnomnom"