Dreamleague Season 19 Group Stage 1 Day 1 Recap: OG Dominates, Nigma Galaxy and nouns Struggle

DreamLeague Season 19 has started with a bang, and the first day of the group stage has already provided viewers with plenty of exciting matches. While all the teams from both Groups played multiple series throughout the day, it was Shopify Rebellion’s series against Team Aster in Group A and Beastcoast’s series against Nigma Galaxy that stood out.

The tournament, which features some of the best Dota 2 teams from around the world has an impressive prize pool of $1 Million USD with the winner qualifying for Riyadh Masters 2023 to play for an astounding $15 Million USD.

While the two mentioned series above were considered to be the main highlights of Day 1, there were many other exciting matches to keep up with on the first day of Group Stage 1. Here is a full recap of what went down on Day One of the tournament.

Dreamleague Season 19 Group Stage 1: Day One Recap

Group A

Evil Geniuses, Execration, and Shopify Rebellion top the group with impressive performances

In Group A, Evil Geniuses, Execration, and Shopify Rebellion all got off to a great start, winning one match and drawing two each to sit at the top of the standings. Out of these three teams, Evil Geniuses (EG) performed the best, putting forth dominant performances in its games. The team drew its series with Lima Major 2023 Champion Gamin Gladiators and TSM, the top team from the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) North America (NA) 2023 Tour 2: Division I. EG also won its series 2-0 against Entity.

Ex-Hellraisers struggle in their first few series

Many fans have high expectations from ex-Hellraisers and place the team as a top contender to win the tournament, but the team seemed to have struggled in a few of its games. The team drew its series with Gaimin Gladiators and Team Aster and lost its series against Execration. Placing in the bottom half of the standings in the Group Stage 1 of Dreamleague Season 19 is very risky as only the Top 4 of each group will move onto Group Stage 2. This will require ex-Hellraisers to bring its best strategies and performances for its upcoming games.

Execration surpasses expectations in its group, tied for 1st place

While most of the Dota 2 community did not have high expectations from Execration, the South East Asian (SEA) team managed to perform very well on the first day of the group stage, having no series losses, and showing the rest of the group that the team is a contender for the top spot in the Group A standings.

Group B

OG dominate their first two series against nouns and Nigma Galaxy

OG ended day one of the group stages at the top of the group as the only team with 2 series wins. The team recently qualified for the Berlin Major by surpassing expectations and won its tiebreakers. OG is showing a similar performance at Dreamleague Season 19, having dominant wins over its opponents. 

Team Liquid defeated TI11 champion Tundra in impressive fashion

The team that is currently on the top of the DPC rankings globally, Team Liquid, played two series against teams that are considered to be very skilled in their group. One of them was Tundra Esports, where Liquid showed a dominant performance winning the series 2-0. The team drew its series against Talon Esports, another team that is considered as one of the best in the group.

Nigma Galaxy and nouns struggle to keep up on day one 

At the end of day one, Nigma Galaxy and nouns were at the bottom of Group B, with both teams having disappointing performances. Nigma Galaxy lost 2-0 against both OG and beastcoast, while nouns lost 2-0 against TI10 Champion Team Spirit and OG. Fans were eagerly anticipating Nigma Galaxy’s matches with the return of Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi to the main roster. However, the team has failed to have some impressive performances. 

Nigma Galaxy’s first game against beastcoast was one to watch, with 52 minutes of action-packed gameplay. Nigma Galaxy almost mounted a comeback while having a 23K gold deficit against beastcoast.

Day one of the Group Stages in the Dreamleage Season 19 showcased many interesting and exciting Dota 2 games, along with some teams surpassing expectations and performing very well. There are more games to be played in the next few days, where teams will compete to secure their slots in the Group Stage 2 phase of the tournament.