The Group Stage of the MDL Macau 2019 is over and Team Liquid takes the top spot as the Dota 2 tournament moves to the Playoffs. The tournament started Wednesday with eight team battling it out it a best-of one round robin.
Team Liquid had a good start, beating out Invictus Gaming and EHOME during the first day before succumbing to Royal Never Give Up. On Day Two, Liquid only dropped one game against Vici Gaming while winning its three others.
It is all over! We move to 5-1 in the group and lock up our spot in the #MDLMacau playoffs upper bracket!
— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) February 21, 2019
We will close out the group stage shortly against Vici Gaming on the main stream.#LetsGoLiquid
?https://t.co/E5nqCMgbBo pic.twitter.com/xzQDmQpDWc
Joining Team Liquid in the upper bracket is Vici Gaming, Royal Never Up, and Evil Geniuses. All three teams have a 4-3 win-loss record. Newbee also had a 4-3 score but has been relegated to the lower bracket. Joining Newbee is Invictus Gaming and Virtus.pro.
The final team in the lower bracket is EHOME, which is seen as a surprise considering the team has been seen as a top contender for this tournament. Fans of the team would likely argue it could be because Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida had to step out of the tournament as he experienced an injury while filming a recent team video. Standing in for Faith_bian is Zhao "XinQ" Zixing.
The playoffs begin February 21 at 9 p.m. EST with Team Liquid taking on Royal Never Give Up in a best-of three game. Closing out the upper bracket matches will be Evil Geniuses against Vici Gaming. Lower bracket matches begin with Newbee versus EHOME followed by Virtus.pro against Invictus Gaming.
You can watch the MDL Macau 2019 through the Twitch Channel of Beyond the Summit.
