The dust has settled on the Dota 2 MDL Macau 2019 tournament and standing tall is Team Liquid. The TI7 champion defeated seven other teams to take home a $135,000 chunk of the prize pool.
? MDL MACAU CHAMPIONS! ?#LetsGoLiquid pic.twitter.com/1E8w6BuJ31
— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) February 24, 2019
The tournament followed a best-of one round robin format for the Group Stage. At the end of the opening stage, Team Liquid secured a sport at the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs with a 5-2 win-loss record. Team Liquid's first loss would be against Royal Never Give Up in a match that had a 30-30 kill score. That game was close before RNG would claim victory. Liquid's second loss would be against Vici Gaming in a 43 minute match. VG controled most of the match and while it appeared that Liquid would make a comeback, VG made sure to close the deal.
In the Upper Bracket game, Team Liquid would again face RNG. This time Liquid would dominate the matches and sweep RNG 2-0. Next up for Team Liquid was Evil Geniuses, which saw Team Liquid continue its dominance and secure a slot at the Grand Finals.
Evil Geniuses finished third in the Group Stage and dropped to the Lower Bracket Finals to take on Virtus.Pro. VP took the first game but EG would not let itself be denied the championship match. EG ultimately won the next two games. During the Grand Finals, Team Liquid won the first two games and was only one win shy of the championship. EG stretched the series with a convincing win on Game Three thanks to Arteezy's Phantom Assassin. Liquid only earned a total of three kills during this match. Team Liquid ended up winning Game Four and claiming the championship.
As first runner-up, EG earns $60,000 for their performance while Virtus.pro receives $37,500.
VP's win against Newbee on Round Three of the Lower Bracket signaled the end of the line for the Chinese Dota 2 teams in the tournament. VP had to start at the Lower Bracket, beating out Invictus Gaming then Vici Gaming and Newbee before falling against EG.
Though expected to be one of the top contenders, EHOME did not perform as well at the tournament. The team sat at last place once the Group Stage came to an end. The team ended up being eliminated by Newbee. EHOME's bad luck began even before the Group Stage as ASD was not able to play in the initial matches due to issues with his Macau pass. Faith_bian also had to drop out of the tournament after sustaining an injury while filming for a team video.
