Tundra Esports, OG and PSG Quest clinched spots in the Dota Elite League’s round-robin stage with victories on Wednesday in the opening Swiss stage.
In matches involving teams that entered with 2-1 records, all three winners advanced with 2-1 victories: Tundra over Blacklist International, OG over Heroic and PSG Quest over Talon Esports.
Sixteen teams began the Elite League’s Swiss stage (Group Stage 1), using a modified Swiss system. Nine came from closed qualifier seeds, and seven others were invited. All matches are best-of-three.
The top eight teams will move on to the round-robin stage (Group Stage 2), joining eight other teams that were seeded by invitation. That stage begins Friday, with two single round-robin groups of eight teams apiece. Those matches are also best-of-three.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the upper bracket of the playoffs, while the third- and fourth-place teams will go to the lower bracket. The playoffs begin April 12, and matches stay best-of-three until a best-of-five grand final.
The winner takes home $300,000 from the $960,000 prize pool.
Blacklist opened with a 61-minute victory on red before Tundra rallied for two wins on red, in 20 and 34 minutes.
Finland’s Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen led Tundra with an average 8.7/3.7/13.0 kill-death-assist ratio. The Philippines’ Abed “Abed” Yusop topped Blacklist at 6.0/4.7/8.7.
OG began with a 73-minute win on green before Heroic extended the match with a 46-minute victory on red. OG took the decisive map in 35 minutes on red.
Bolivia’s Adrian “Wisper” Dobles produced a 11/4/16 K-D-A ratio for OG. Joao “4nalog” Giannini wound up at 8/4/16 for Heroic.
PSG Quest also won the first and last maps — 39 minutes on green and 36 minutes on green — sandwiching a 40-minute Talon victory on green.
Lebanon’s Tony “No!ob” Assaf logged an 8.7/2.7/12.3 K-D-A ratio for PSG Quest. Malaysia’s Ng “ChYuaN” Kee Chyuan ended up at 5.3/4.7/10.3 for Talon.
In Wednesday matches between teams with 1-2 records, Aurora swept KEV 2-0, Virtus.pro ousted nouns 2-0, and Team Secret got past Nigma Galaxy 2-0.
The last three round-robin places will be decided Thursday in matches between the teams that are now 2-2:
–Virtus.pro vs. Blacklist International
–Team Secret vs. Aurora
–Talon Esports vs. HEROIC
Elite League Swiss stage standings
T1. BOOM Esports 3-0
T1. Entity, 3-0
T3. OG, 3-1
T3. PSG Quest, 3-1
T3. Tundra Esports, 3-1
T6. Aurora, 2-2
T6. Blacklist International, 2-2
T6. HEROIC, 2-2
T6. Talon Esports, 2-2
T6. Team Secret, 2-2
T6. Virtus.pro, 2-2
T12. KEV, 1-3
T12. Nigma Galaxy, 1-3
T12. nouns, 1-3
T15. 9Pandas, 0-3
T15. Rest Farmers, 0-3
Elite League prize pool ($960,000)
1. $300,000
2. $150,000
3. $80,000
4. $50,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $30,000
9-10. $20,000
11-12. $20,000
13-14. $20,000
15-16. $20,000
17-19. $10,000
20-22. $10,000
23-24. $10,000 — 9Pandas, Rest Farmers
–Field Level Media