Only one team was actually eliminated during the Group Stage of the Dota Pro Circuit Stockholm Major, but in the span of just one day of playoff action, three teams were sent packing without any reward—including the reigning International Champions.
Team Spirit came into Stockholm as one of the early favorites, but after losing a clash with the top-seeded Tundra Esports in round one, the TI10 champs were quickly dispatched by beastcoast in the first elimination game.
Even with Spirit playing to some of their strengths from earlier in the event, beastcoast didn’t have many problems countering them consistently across both drafts. Game one was largely dominated by K1 Hector’s Bloodseeker, once it came online, but game two was a split effort from the entire squad as they completely controlled Spirit and sent them home early.
With that win, beastcoast and Thunder Awaken have both made it into the top eight, marking the first time in the modern DPC era that two South American teams have managed that.
Southeast Asia isn’t experiencing that type of success, with all three teams out of the region on the chopping block after round one. And, in the first of those deciding games, OG kicked their feet up during drafts, picked heroes they were comfortable with, and put on a show to eliminate BOOM Esports.
BOOM’s dynamic style of play led to multiple runs where they nearly stole game one, but OG staved them off every time and then cleaned them up on the back of ATF’s continued excellent Timbersaw play and Ceb backing him up with his classic Windranger.
One Eastern European team did manage to keep their tournament live’s alive; BetBoom Team shipped Team Liquid out with the only 2–1 win of the day, despite dropping game one in just over 26 minutes.
BB put that disappointing start behind them and was able to handle a late push from Liquid in game two to even the series. That spiraled into a big game three from both Daxak and Larl at those core spots, leaving Liquid in the dust after two clean teamfights at the 29 and 36-minute marks.
Tomorrow’s matches will feature a matchup between the disciplined Tundra and chaotic TA, along with TSM taking on Gaimin Gladiators to decide which two teams will make their way to the upper bracket finals.
T1 and Fnatic will also battle to see which SEA team is joining BOOM on the flight home to start the day at 5am CT. And don’t forget all the memes that will come along the way too.
