A surprise in the minds of perhaps no one, @TeamLiquid and @virtuspro control their respective groups at the #Supermajor. pic.twitter.com/aUzJFcVL7M
— Perfect World_DOTA2 (@PWRD_DOTA2) June 2, 2018
Both teams faced minor stumbling blocks in their opening matches early this morning. Team Liquid started out against Team Spirit. The CIS squad showed their potential in the elimination of Evil Geniuses one week ago in Birmingham. They took the first game of the series against Liquid, but Liquid adjusted well and took them down with two straight wins afterward.
Virtus.pro's opening opponent was TNC Predator. The first game of the series was exactly what we've come to expect from Virtus.pro - an outright stomp, over in less than 30 minutes. However, TNC rallied for Game 2. They held of VP from taking too strong of an early lead and forced the game late, where TNC's draft shone. After a 22k gold swing, TNC tied up the series. Unfortunately for SEA fans, Game 3 was just another Virtus "plow" game.
The two western representatives met Chinese opponents in the next round. In yet another classic TI7 final rematch, Liquid faced Newbee with a nail-biter of a Game 1 but a series that ended up with Liquid the victors 2-0. Virtus.pro took on Vici Gaming, who had made short work of EG earlier this morning. Vici didn't go down as easily as some of VP's past stomps, but both games in this 2-0 series were still quite one-sided.
The wins put both VP and Liquid into the Supermajor playoff upper bracket, but none of the losers have been eliminated. Each group of four will see the top two teams start the playoffs in the upper bracket and two in the lower bracket. There aren't even any single-game series for anyone to worry about. Truly a stark contrast to last weekend's Major's format.
As the day continues, both Groups A and B will play out to determine each team's destination in the playoffs. Tomorrow, we'll do the same thing for Groups C and D.
Group A
Group B
Header Photo source: Perfect World on Twitter
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