The penultimate major of the current DPC season, MDL Disneyland Paris Major, kicked off yesterday, May 4th at Disney’s Newport Bay Club, Disneyland, Paris.
The 16 teams were divided into 4 different groups.
With the group stage only lasting 2 days, a lot of games happened simultaneously. Two teams from each group played a game at the same time.
Opening set of games (Group A):
First game in group A saw DPC table toppers Virtus.Pro takes on the newly sponsored Beastcoast team lead by Eternal Envy. After a few bumps in the road, which involved VP dropping a game, Virtus.Pro managed to beat Beastcoast and take the opening series 2-1.
The second game of Group A involved TI7 winners Team Liquid taking on ESL One Mumbai champions Keen gaming. This series went the distance as well, with Team Liquid coming out on top with a 2-1 victory.
Opening set of games (Group B):
Coming into group B, we had Secret taking
on CIS stalwarts Team Empire, who are here with a new roster. The CIS team
proved to be no match for Team Secret who won the series 2-0 comfortably.
The second game of Group B was a more evenly contested affair, involving South American Squad Chaos Esports Club taking on recently crowned minor champions Ninjas in Pyjamas. The first game was a comfortable win for NIP led by PPD. But Choas stuck back in game 2 and 3 to take the series 2-1 in their favour. Coming into the major as MINOR CHAMPIONS, NIP were expected to win, but Chaos showed that they are no pushover themselves.
Opening set of games(Group C):
Moving on to Group C, we had Dreamleague Major champions Vici Gaming taking on paiN Gaming, the second team from the South American region. The series was a complete mismatch of epic proportion, with Vici Gaming strolling past paiN gaming with an easy 2-0 victory.
The second game of group C saw Chinese powerhouse and Ti8 finalists PSG.LGD take on SEA stalwarts Mineski. The home team of the event PSG.LGD (PSG standing for Paris St. Germain) brushed aside Mineski to claim a 2-0 victory.
Opening set of games (Group D):
Group D seems by far the most exciting group of the lot.
Game 1 of group D saw a domestic matchup between two North American organisations, Evil Geniuses and Team Complexity. Complexity who recently changed a player, were no match for Evil Geniuses who raced past them with a quick 2-0.
Game 2 of group D had SEA powerhouse Fnatic taking on TI8 champions OG. Although this match was expected to be an evenly contested affair, given fnatic’s recent form and Ana’s return from inactivity to OG, It was surprisingly one side with OG winning the series 2-0.
With the initial set of group stage games done and dusted, we had the teams set to play the winners bracket group stage,the winner of which advances directly to the playoffs in the upper bracket.
Winner’s Matches:
Group A’s winners match saw fan favourites Virtus.Pro and Team Liquid take on another in an epic contest. These two teams have produced some of the best games over the past 2 years. This series promised the same. Game 1 was an evenly contested affair, but VP edged Liquid at the end for the win. Game 2 was a more one-sided affair with VP winning it comfortably and taking the series 2-0.
Group B’s winners match pitted DPC’s number two team, Secret against Chaos Esports. The result was no surprise as Secret beat them for a 2-0 victory.
Group
C’s winners match was an all-Chinese affair,
with Vici Gaming taking on PSG.LGD. Although the two Chinese rosters were
supposed to evenly matched on paper, Vici Gaming demolished PSG.LGD in a
surprising manner, which saw them take the series 2-0.
Group D’s winners match was a battle between EG and OG, a spicy affair, given that EG players Fly,s4 and Crit all used to play for OG at some point. But again, just like Group C, EG walked over OG to take the series 2-0 comfortably, with the Ti8 champions standing no chance against the seasoned EG roster.
With these wins, Virtus Pro, Team Secret, Vici Gaming and EG secured the top spot in their respective groups and earned a direct spot in the upper bracket of the playoffs as top seed.
The groups after day one look like this:
The rest of the group stage matches will be played out today.
The second placed team in each group will join the upper bracket of the playoffs, while the bottom two teams of each group will find themselves in the lower bracket facing the prospect of elimination in a best of one series.
Schedule for DAY 2 (all times in GMT+2) :
