posted by Olucaron,
What a long day. With so many ups and downs, what was your most memorable moment? Thanks for watching and we'll see you tomorrow for Day 3 at the same time -- 8:45AM PDT!
— Beyond the Summit (@BeyondTheSummit) July 27, 2018
For more #DotaSummit 9 photos: https://t.co/oIGCVVC0tp pic.twitter.com/Dk6DnBiyVf
VGJ sitting pretty atop the pile
In what looks to be a straight shootout for first place, Forward Gaming currently lead with a 6-2 record. All of their games have ended 2-0, but is their loss to Evil Geniuses on the first day going to cost them top spot?
Either way, they look good for a top-two finish, putting them straight into the Winners’ Finals. Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok is having a fantastic tournament so far, and we don’t see that stopping in their final match against Let’s Do It.
EG battling for NA supremacy
EG, however, have the advantage in that they have played a match less. With Sumail 'SumaiL' Syed Hassan leading the way to a 5-1, we’re seeing the North American side show up amid questions on their consistency. Can they carry on and seal the victory, and more importantly gain momentum going into The International 2018?
Today they go up against OpTic Gaming and Fnatic in the final two matches of the day. We couldn’t possibly say which EG is going to show up, especially as the other teams are just as inconsistent, but we wouldn’t count against them securing their spot in the winners finals.
Green Wall not standing strong
The other North American side, OpTic Gaming, are not having the best of tournaments so far. A 2-0 win, a 2-0 loss and a 1-1 draw simply doesn’t tell us enough about their form to be able to say where they’ll finish.
Against Fnatic on Day 1, they looked shaky, losing the first game rather quickly before winning the second just as quick. They turned over Let's Do It in a couple of longer matches, before being dispatched pretty comfortably by VGJ.
Which version of OpTic will show up today? They play paiN Gaming*, which could go either way, and then face EG. On current form, you’d probably put your money on EG to take the win.
Tale of the underdogs
Both paiN Gaming and Let’s Do It have performed about where most would have expected, with both sitting on 2-4 records.
The South Americans have lost both games against the top two, VGJ and EG, but picked up two wins versus Fnatic, including that marathon Game 2 yesterday. However, in being turned over so quickly by EG, could they have just run out of steam?
Let’s Do It, however, managed to hold Fnatic to a 1-1 draw in the opening match, before then also holding EG to the same scoreline. A 2-0 loss to OpTic took the shine off things, but led by some outstanding midlane play from Michał 'Nisha' Jankowski the Polish side are capable of pulling off some more big results on Day 3 versus VGJ and paiN.
Fnatic looking below par
Finally, we come to Fnatic. The Southeast Asia side weren’t expected to be propping up the table at this point in the Group Stage, but despite some big plays from Abed 'Abed' Yusop that’s where they find themselves.
Opening day promise in 1-1 ties with both OpTic and LDI offered some promise, but consecutive Day 2 losses against VGJ and paiN mean it is likely they will need a big Lower Bracket run to come out of the tournament with something.
How do you think the Group Stage will end?
Header image © @TGphoto_ / Beyond the Summit
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