EG, Newbee, and Vici Gaming Die on Day One of ESL One Birmingham

The first day of ESL One Birmingham knocked out three of the 12 participating teams. Of the three teams, one of them is Evil Geniuses (EG). Yup, surprisingly EG fell out of this tournament, making their chances of advancing to the top eight of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit even smaller.

EG started their group phase with best of one against Fnatic. In the inaugural match of the tournament, the DJ surprised everyone with build IO focused on damage. Apart from taking talent oriented to damage, he also bought items such as BKB and Desolator. Paired with Morphling, the two heroes are able to break through base EG very easily. Fnatic ended the game with Morphling single-handedly destroying EG’s base through Backdoor Protection.

Go down to lower bracket group A, EG had to face Team Spirit. Considering that Team Spirit is the one who just entered to replace Na’Vi who withdrew from the tournament due to changes roster, EG should be able to win easily. But reality says otherwise.

Two games successively EG chooses to use hypercarry. Unfortunately in both games Team Spirit can answer this strategy. In games first, Specter answered directly with Slark as well burst damage of Skywrath Mage and Visage. On games secondly, Medusa who was assisted by Gyrocopter was also helpless against lineup Team Spirit that focuses on damage physically with Slardar, Luna, and Windranger. EG had to admit defeat to Team Spirit 2-0 and fall to ESL One Birmingham.

Together with EG, Newbee and the third-ranked MDL Changsha Major team also fell on the first day.

Newbee lost at games Group C opener against OpTic Gaming. Play in lower bracket group against LFY, they had the upper hand in games first. But after that they lost in two games quite spectacular length.

While in group C, Vici Gaming lost in games opener against OG. Unfortunately, in lower bracket they had to face Team Liquid who previously lost to Pain Gaming. Losing class, Vici Gaming lost quite easily in the hands of Team Liquid with a score of 2-0.

Virtus.Pro, OG, and OpTic came out as winners in their respective groups. They will face each other in best of one round robin to find the two best teams that will directly advance to the semifinals. While the second and third place in each group will fight for the right to advance to the round playoffs.

Image source: Twitter ESL Dota 2