As another day of the
Singapore Major passes, we must say goodbye to two more teams as the top six teams are locked in place. These are the first two teams to finally win some prize money and precious DPC points, as with the new Major format only the top eight teams earn them. The 7th and 8th place teams will receive $12,500 and 200 DPC points. However, these may be two teams you were expecting to go much farther.
After their domination in the CIS Upper Division, only dropping a single game the entire season, Virtus.pro were considered a favorite for this tournament. This was the young team’s first LAN together as this is the first LAN since their formation. Unfortunately, they did not live up to expectations.
Seeded directly into the playoffs, they were immediately taken down by PSG.LGD and quickly found themselves in the lower bracket. Following a close series versus
Quincy Crew, VP was up against a team that had been full of surprises this Major:
Thunder Predator. With a nearly flawless group stage, Thunder Predator unluckily played Team Secret in the first round of playoffs. As we saw them do with
Team Aster, Thunder Predator steam rolled both games, limiting VP to only 10 kills each game. With VP’s elimination, CIS is the first region that has been fully eliminated from the major.
Having originally been seeded into the tournament’s Wild Card, Vici Gaming played a series every day of the tournament thus far without a break. After solid performances in both the Wild Card and the Group Stage, they earned a spot in the upper bracket where they fell to rival Chinese team
Invictus Gaming.
In the lower bracket they defeated
Team Liquid to be matched up against
OB Esports x Neon. Neon’s team had to replace their stand-in half way through the group stage and shuffled their player’s positions around. Vici was considered the favorite going into this series but fell to Neon 2-1. Neon continues to surprise and has rightfully earned a top six spot and continues to keep the SEA dream alive.
Vici at least was able to secure some winnings and DPC points after the many, many games they played in the past week.
On the opposite side of the bracket, Evil Geniuses and PSG.LGD have both secured themselves a spot in the upper bracket finals and the journey here could not be more different. EG qualified directly to the playoffs after finishing first in the North American DPC . They’ve played a total of four games, having only played
Fnatic and Invictus Gaming.
On the other hand, PSG.LGD qualified for the Wild Card and since then has played a total of 29 games against 12 different teams. They were able to take down VP and even knocked down Team Secret in a three-game series. Both teams have secured a minimum of $75,000 and 400 DPC points.