00:22 by HolyMaster

No Tidehunter beats Absolute Legends in the last quarterfinals. All of them ended 2:0. With Na'Vi being out, we have four teams left who all seem to be capable of going all the way. The semifinals are EG vs fnatic (16:30) and Empire vs NoTide (13:00). Good night.



00:12 by HolyMaster

EG. defeats. Na'Vi.



21:46 by HolyMaster

The first two quarterfinals went as expected. Both Empire (against Dignitas) and fnatic (against WhA) stay undefeated with convincing 2:0 victories. They will return tomorrow with the semifinals. The last matches of the day start in 15 minutes.



18:32 by HolyMaster

fnatic wins Group D, while SH ends it with 0 points. The quarterfinals just got drawn and will be starting in half an hour. EG has to go up against Na'Vi. The other matches are Empire vs Dignitas, NoTide vs aL, and fnatic vs WhA.



17:22 by HolyMaster

Pulse lost again. Dignitas and fnatic are in the quarterfinals, and only play for the seeds now.


16:10 by HolyMaster

Group D has started, and Pulse has suffered a loss against fnatic. The Swedes are under a lot of pressure now, they have to beat Dignitas. I wonder why the second and third seed of each group alway face each other first (aL vs 3DM, NTH vs 4FC, Mouz vs WhA, fnatic vs Pulse). This kills a lot of excitement early on, since these are basically the most important matches to decide the top two. At least now we have three almost equal teams, so maybe Pulse can bring down Dignitas and give us an interesting situation.



15:31 by HolyMaster

Well, I got up an hour ago and realized I missed another group. Great! And this time we have a REAL surprise in it. The only Asian player remains in the competition, while Mousesports is out. Having joined that clan just a few days ago, former Zero experienced a big disappointment. The first place goes to Empire, currently NaVi's main competitor. SnC from the BYOC qualifier lost everything as expected. No ties in any group so far.



15:23 by HolyMaster

Okay that wasn't funny and I sincerely apologize. My analysis of group B comes along with a gigantic bottle of seriousness. I am not sure what's most remarkable here: No Tidehunter's triumph over EG, or them not bannig Tidehunter in their final match versus Rigg3d. Whatever it was, NTH is the big winner here and therefore avoids Na'Vi and Empire in the quarterfinals. EG might have it harder inspite of still reaching the next round. The American's performance was a little disappointing. Not only did they lose to NoTide, they also hat a lot of troubles against 4FC in the second place decider (at least that's what I heard).



15:05 by HolyMaster

Group A has been full of surprises. The foreigners called "Natus Vincere" managed to overcome all of their enemies and march into the playoffs without a loss. Swedish superpower Out Of Tangos however lost all of their games and has to go home. aL vs 3DMax, the first match of the day, turned out to be the deciding one for the second place. Did 3DM realize how important their meeting with the Romanians would turn out to be, when they supposedly kept their best strategies hidden for their later games? In the end even their victory against OOT wasn't enough.



14:50 by HolyMaster

I have a feeling that this "live" blog didn't live up to its name so far. Apparently Toby was planning to write some words here in between casting matches and cuddling with players, but that plan lasted as long as the average viewer's new year's resolution to studdy more and play less Dota. So let's bring some life (and live) into this and have a look back on what happened so far. The groupstage is almost finished. Na'Vi, aL, NTH, EG, Empire, and WhA made it to the quarterfinals so far. More details about the groups soon.

11:11 by TobiWan

So we will be traveling by tomorrow from Berlin going by car to Dreamhack. If all goes according to plan we should arrive in late wednesday night giving us a chance to sleep before the first day of play.