WESG Day 1 in a nutshell: What you need to know ahead of Day 2 « News

A round-up of the main talking points of Day 1. We've also highlighted what to look forward to tomorrow, and which matches you should definitely watch!

The WESG Regional Finals started today and all 20 teams in the Dota 2 competition played at least one game in the groupstages. The two teams expected to excel in the competition are

Fantastic.Five and

Danish Bears*.

However, surprises by Alternate Attax in group D, not to mention a tightly contested Group C between Dendi,7ckngMad and Bone7's teams, gave the opening day a nice twist. If you missed the first day this should help you catch up, as well as know which matches are worth tuning in for tomorrow.

Team Horde's captain Kefka and Pablo after victory over Maelk's Team Denmark

Group A
Match to watch tomorrow:

Horde* vs

Fantastic.Five(Match page)

Day 1: Group A went as expected on Day One with Horde and Fantastic5 both going 2-0. The only unknown was just how well Team Denmark could do, especially after not competing with their initial roster.

Team Denmark was supposed to include Maelk's former Dota 1 MYM team-mates

Brian 'MaNia' Strandby and

Mikkel 'miGGel' Berg. A win against

Rozbíječi however, kept hopes of survival alive.

What to expect Day 2: The match to watch is definitely the final match of group A, Horde versus F5. Horde is

Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall's mix team, which also houses former Fnatic Meepo wizard

Steve 'Xcalibur' Ye.Meanwhile F5 boasts ex-VP carry

Ilya 'Illidan Stormrage' Pivtsaev.

The winner of that match will most likely get 1st place, which ensures a spot at the Global Finals. The other talking point will be whether Team Denmark can somehow muster together a win against Norway's

Zeta*. If they do, it means Maelk's team will progress to the final 12.

Serbians lvlUP will most likely have to fight Comanche and Wombat for a top 12 spot

Group B
Match to watch tomorrow:

Wombat Gaming* vs

LevelUP (Match page)

Day 1: Group B is the weakest of the groups at the Regional Finals, and Ukranianes

X-Bet.co* have seized their chance on home soil.

Ne Rus includes 3 players from the former

Yellow Submarine roster, and 2 wins out of 2 on Day 1 against their two hard opponents means they are likely to win group A.

What to expect Day 2:

Wombat Gaming* lost their only game of day 1 but it was an extremely even game against Comanche.

Their group match against

LevelUP is the biggest on group B's schedule tomorrow, a critical one for both teams if they hope to reach the final 12. Expect Ne Rus to take 1st place and Comanche, Wombat Gaming and lvlUp to fight for 2nd and 3rd place.

Que La Famille reunites former Team Sigma team-matesSockshka and OG coach 7ckngMad

Group C
Match to watch tomorrow:

Que la Famille* vs

Team Romania (Match page)

Day 1: Group C is the highest profile group and also the most contested. OG's coach

Sebastien 'Ceb' Debs is playing alongside

Titouan 'Sockshka' Merloz in Que le Famille, while ex-Cloud9's Bone7 is on Team Romania alongside

Alex. 'ComeWithMe' Craciunescu.

Dendi, General and Artstyle aligned themselves with

Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok and

Andrey 'alwayswannafly' Bondarenko in Team Ukraine.

The three high profile teams brushed aside the

Zero Hoots Given* and

Paragon*, with Team Ukraine disposing of Zero Hoots Given in just 16 minutes in their game courtesy of Artstyle Chen creep pushes.

What to expect Day 2: Group C is a three horse race and with Team Ukraine, Team Romania and Que la Famille all undefeated thus far, it is the most interesting contest of the four groups. Any of the matches between the 3 teams will be worth tuning in for tomorrow, but if I had to pick one it would be Que le Famille against Team Romania.

Digital Chaos' Resolut1on was happy to model Team Ukraine's custom made shirts

Group D
Match to watch tomorrow:

Danish Bears* vs

Team Kinguin* (Match page)
OR

Alliance vs

dog* (Match Page)

Day 1: Although

Danish Bears* were expected to be the talk of group D after their relentless grind over the last 2 months,

Team Kinguin* stepped in and stole their thunder.

Alternate's second game victory against Alliance was a late one, not starting until 1:45am local time in Ukraine. However, it ensured a 2-0 record and almost certainly a place in the top 3.

Elsewhere

Wehsing 'SingSing' Yuen and

Alaan 'Bamboe' Faraj's Woof/Dog dropped vital points by losing to Imperial in their first game. Overall a very topsy turvy group.

What to expect Day 2: Alternate and Imperial look threatening and both took a game off a strong competitor. Assuming Imperial beat the Spanish