posted by Smyke,
Just a best-of-one and it's over - two teams got already eliminated on day one of The Kuala Lumpur Major's main stage. Of all teams it's the Minor champion who won't compete for more DPC points. The first match in the Lower Bracket was between paiN Gaming* and TNC Predator. They had a tough group and didn't make it into the top two. The sad part about this match: both teams have upset potential in Kuala Lumpur, but one of them had to go home after day one.



The Lower Bracket starts with a bo1 - no adapting, no comeback. If you fuck up the early game or the draft, everything can be over and you need to pack your stuff. TNC trusted a SEA typical draft to snowball the enemy during the early game. The key to success was TNC's last pick Huskar on Armel Paul 'Armel' Tabios.

The Southeast Asian team took paiN's captain Rasmus 'rASmus' Fillipsen off guard with this decision. Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi's Kunkka was ineffective in the mid lane against Huskar.



TNC had the momentum with this draft and took the advantage of it: paiN was completely desperate. The game ended after 23 minutes and only four kills on the board for paiN. The Brazilians will travel home and TNC will play against Alliance in the next round of the Lower Bracket - this time in a bo3 series.

paiN X keeps the Brazilian flag up



Meanwhile, test 123 battled against Tigers in the second Lower Bracket match of the day - again, SA vs. SEA.

Tigers had a tough timetable over the last weeks. They didn't qualify for the Major directly, but won the DreamLeague Season 10 Minor in Stockholm. They had only four days to regenerate.



pain X demonstrated that they're not just the number two of South America, but can compete with good teams. Terrorblade is one of the most picked heroes. In the late phase of 7.19 it's important for teams to have a player who can handle this hero good enough - and Ravi 'ritsu' Kodippili does!

The American player had a good start on the carry hero. Tigers made the mistake to give him enough space to farm. A reason for that is paiN X's mid laner Quinn 'CCnC' Callahan: the US citizen played a strong game on Venomancer and outfarmed Muhammad 'inYourdreaM' Rizky easily.




The South American squad took the revenge for paiN Gaming and beat Tigers in the bo1. This means paiN X will play against Vici Gaming in the next round, while the Minor champion will travel back home.

Tigers will not go home with 75 points like every other team that got kicked out in round one, but with 120 points they won at the Minor.



Photo credit: DreamHack - Jennika Ojala

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