Fans around the world are shocked at the Dota 2 Manila Major group stage results, as several big-name teams find themselves facing elimination after less-than-stellar performances.
Team Secret, Evil Geniuses, and Alliance now need to fight for their tournament lives as they are all one loss away from being eliminated from the $3.1 million event. In their stead, less favored teams like LGD, Fnatic, and Digital Chaos have managed to secure spots in the tournament’s upper bracket.
Digital Chaos in particular appeared to have the most to gain, as their support player Rasmus “MiSeRy” Berth Filipsen expressed his desire to “knock [Secret] out entirely” from the running. This is likely due to the fact that MiSeRy and current Digital Chaos midlaner Omar “w33” Aliwi were removed from Team Secret, despite having won the most recent major in Shanghai.
The results puts Team Secret in a particularly dire situation. Heralded as one of the most individually-talented teams in the world, the roster has failed to live up to their reputation. A situation few could have imagined, following their signing of Evil Geniuses superstars Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora in March.
One of the biggest surprises of the group stage is LGD. Despite being regarded as one of the most accomplished organizations in China, their results up until the Manila Major have been anything but impressive. In Manila however, they managed to win their series against both Evil Geniuses and recent WePlay Season 3 champions MVP.Phoenix. LGD’s presence at the event was, at first, met with tremendous amounts of criticism, but now it would appear that Valve made the right decision in extending them a direct invitation to the Manila Major.
Following the conclusion of the final group stage game, Valve released the brackets for the tournament playoffs. Whilst each series is sure to satisfy spectators, LGD’s series against Fnatic is looking like one of the most interesting confrontations. Aside from both teams showing a consistent improvement in their gameplay in the past months, this will also be their first match against each other in an international LAN setting.
The playoffs of the Manila Major will be taking place between June 7-12.
