The preliminaries are almost over and the teams have nearly claimed their final ranking spot before the playoffs. But there is room for changes.
All the teams play the other 7 teams of the group twice and they play both games of each bo2 right after one another. 96 games were played. Only 16 remain, unless there will be tiebreakers.
A lot happened today, some of the standings were completely thrown around. The most noticeable change lies probably in CLG who, yesterday had a flawless streak -winning 6-0 and MiSeRy becoming the most valuable player in the Fantasy League- but who actually today running 0-6, landing at a current score of 6-6. The team couldn't handle the match-ups versus LGD and DK, who both read CLG's play very well and remained in control. However, EG who had a tough run yesterday made it to 6-6 as well. Both these teams will be playing each other tomorrow and both teams need to win 2-0 to be certain to reach Winner Bracket without playing a tiebreaker.
Zenith and Na`Vi managed to pull big comebacks today, going from the bottom of their group to the upper half. Biggest comeback was from team Zenith's who went 6-0 today, beating CLG among others, while Na`Vi's today score was 4-2. Group B is at a stand-off right now with a tie between four teams; previously mentioned Na`Vi, Orange, TongFu and EHOME. Things might settle in last round where Na`Vi plays TongFu and Orange plays EHOME.
The most performing team of the Tournament so far is LGD with the indisputable and insanely crazy score of 12-0, closely followed by iG's 11-1. Both teams are topping their group as of now. European teams of east and west are both struggling the most in this competition as showed by mouz, M5, Darer and mTw being in the bottom of their groups.
To summarize Day 2
LGD, the machine. Everything works out for them. They manage to execute the game style they prefer, Sylar gets crazy fat and Yao has a huge presence.
iG, the jukebox. Unlike LGD, iG seems to play abit more versatile, showing different strategies. For instance the Prophet/Tinker/Luna combination supported by something like Venomancer, Enchantress or Sand King have appeared two times today and one time yesterday.
The Morphling pick wasn't quite as dominant today, although pretty well represented. Every team is still removing Naga Siren sooner rather than later and Lone Druid, Rubick, Invoker aswell as Venomancer remain popular picks.
Some games to mention were iG vs Darer - game 1, where the strategy mentioned above was seen, and CLG vs Zenith - game 2. Also a special mention to another Wisp+Tiny combo by EHOME (EHOME vs mTw, game 2). Be sure to look out for the VODs of these games.
Don't forget that you can check up all the drafts for the group games by just clicking them for Full Match Details at GosuGamers:
Group A
Group B
Last batch of matches kick off at 18.00 CEST (12pm EST) today. Find all the information at GosuGamers The International Coverage.
Links
GosuGamers - Day 1 standings
