Day one of the 2022 Dota Pro Circuit’s Spring Tour Major originally looked like it might be a chance for teams from Western Europe to dominate the competition. From the third match until the end of the first day, however, teams with very little experience at LAN events stepped up to take some impressive wins.
Among those teams is Gaimin Gladiators, the former Team Tickles roster that took WEU by storm during the early stages of the DPC season. During their first appearance at an offline event, the team not only took a game off of TSM but also swept the defending International Champions, Team Spirit.
Even with three wins on the day, GG isn’t the top seed in Group B. That honor currently sits with Thunder Awaken—partially due to a technicality as Mind Games was forced to forfeit their first game due to travel delays caused by unforeseen visa issues.
TA’s current roster has dominated the South American regional leagues during each of the previous DPC Tours this season, however, only captain Farith “Matthew” Puente has any real offline experience, having appeared at The International 2017 with Infamous. This lack of experience did not affect the team at all, however, as they held true to their aggressive and well-time SA playstyle, sweeping Team Liquid and pulling off some impressive maneuvers, including dragging MATUMBAMAN back into their fountain.
OG was the only other team to win at least three games, sweeping beastcoast and splitting the match with BOOM Esports to take the top seed of Group A.
At the end of the group stage, the last-placed team in each group will be eliminated from the Major. And, while Liquid is off to a rough start after an 0-2 loss to GG, Evil Geniuses is facing some real trouble after getting swept twice.
EG dropped lost all four games it played against Tundra Esports and T1, leaving them in last place with matches against BOOM and OG still on their calendar. This means they will either need to win against both beastcoast and BetBoom Team to ensure a better record, or risk being eliminated outside of the top three for the first time at Major since 2019—though this is the current roster’s first Major together.
Heading into day two, OG and T1 will kick off the action in a matchup that could prove important for the final seeding in Group A. Additionally, an explosive clash between Spirit and TA should give fans a good show to round out the day’s schedule.
