Group A
At the end of the day, surprisingly, Optic Gaming was the only team left standing tall with a flawless 2-0 record. Even more surprising is the fact that Newbee was left languishing at the bottom of the table with a 0-2 record.
The rest of the teams were quite hit or miss, with many of the teams including Team Liquid losing games they weren’t expected to lose and teams like OG winning games they weren’t supposed to win. All in all, it looks like all the teams in Group A are quite evenly matched and look like no team should be underestimated.
SEA Watch: TNC Predators
TNC Pro Team or TNC Predators (Their new moniker) started the day off with a loss to ppd’s Optic Gaming. Some unorthodox laning from the American team left CCnC playing on the offlane while 33 played on the midlane Visage. The strategy paid off massive dividends as 33 absolutely destroyed Armel in the midlane, crippling his farm and subsequent impact which caused the NA team to roll over TNC Predators in the mid game stage.
The Filipino team tapped out in under 25 minutes as Pajkatt’s double damage Luna ripped through the TNC base.
Group B
Unlike Group A, Group B had relatively few upsets. All the teams who were expected to win their matches won. Team Secret, Mineski, Virtus.Pro all ended up with 2-0 records. While the perceived underdogs: paiN Gaming, Effect, and Invictus Gaming were all left at the bottom with 0-2 records.
Only Evil Geniuses and VGJ.Thunder split their matches with a 1-1 record. The match between these two teams was easily the best match of the tournament so far with some spectacular plays and moments.
SEA Watch: Mineski
It’s true that Mineski got to play today against two teams that are not regarded exactly as top contenders in the event, namely Invictus Gaming and paiN Gaming. However, their games showed a reinvigorated team, ready to approach forgotten heroes like Anti Mage and tricky drafts like the one with iceiceice on a jungle Chen and Jabz on an offlane Beastmaster.
However, from what we saw, Team Secret looked a cut above the rest and it would take a mammoth effort from Virtus.Pro / Evil Geniuses to knock them out of the 1st place slot.
Nothing is completely lost for any of the 16 teams competing. Day two will bring another batch of 16 BO1 games, eight in each of the groups. The first two games are scheduled to commence at 06:00 AM CEST | 12:00 PM SGT | 09:30 PM IST. OpTic Gaming vs OG in group A and VGJ.Thunder vs paiN Gaming in group B are the opening match-ups of Day 2.
Here’s the schedule for tomorrow:
| Match | CEST | SGT | IST | Format |
| OG vs Optic Gaming | 6:00 | 12:00 | 09:30 | Bo1 |
| VGJ.Thunder vs Pain Gaming | 6:00 | 12:00 | 09:30 | Bo1 |
| TNC vs Keen Gaming | 7:15 | 13:15 | 10:45 | Bo1 |
| Mineski vs Effect | 7:15 | 13:15 | 10:45 | Bo1 |
| Newbee vs LGD Gaming | 8:30 | 14:30 | 12:00 | Bo1 |
| Virtus.Pro vs Invictus Gaming | 8:30 | 14:30 | 12:00 | Bo1 |
| Team Liquid vs OG | 9:45 | 15:45 | 13:15 | Bo1 |
| Team Secret vs VGJ.Thunder | 9:45 | 15:45 | 13:15 | Bo1 |
| LGD Gaming vs Keen Gaming | 11:00 | 17:00 | 14:30 | Bo1 |
| Invictus Gaming vs Effect | 11:00 | 17:00 | 14:30 | Bo1 |
| Vici Gaming vs Optic Gaming | 12:15 | 18:15 | 15:45 | Bo1 |
| Evil Geniuses vs paiN Gaming | 12:15 | 18:15 | 15:45 | Bo1 |
| Newbee vs TNC Pro Team | 13:30 | 19:30 | 17:00 | Bo1 |
| Virtus.Pro vs Mineski | 13:30 | 19:30 | 17:00 | Bo1 |
| Team Liquid vs Vici Gaming | 14:45 | 20:45 | 18:15 | Bo1 |
| Team Secret vs Evil Geniuses | 14:45 | 20:45 | 18:15 | Bo1 |
Table sourced from Liquipedia
