WePlay AniMajor Group Stage. First day review

The first day of the WePlay AniMajor group stage is over. Below are the results and a summary of all the past matches.

In this series, EG have fully confirmed their status as a favorite. Taking very aggressive cores, Bloodseeker and TA, they completely outplayed TNC early on with their individual skill. Bristleback from Armel could not oppose anything to TA from Abed in the mid. In the mid game, he received rapture from BS and could not fully fight under its effect. Arteezy and Abed finished the first map with 0 deaths. Confident victory for EG on map 1.

In the second map, both teams decided to play through late-game cores: Spectre from TNC and Terroblade from EG. TNC had great fights, quickly defeating enemy supports with Haunt and Nightstalker. But Terrorblade with Dragon Knight ran out of resources and damage. Arteezy even managed to rempage on TB. After several excellent Sunders in the allied DK and the subsequent restoration of health with the help of Satanic, Tnc had to write GG. Great play from Arteezy and 2-0 in EG's favor.

Start picks in the first map was rather unusual. Liquid already in the first stage took the meta Templar Assassin, after which they got the standard pair Magnus + Phantom Assassin. Responding to this, Beastcoast took a non-standard Venomancer in the mid lane, Faceless Void in the easy lane and Leshrac in the offlane. Venomancer's task was to counter the TA, but SumaiL was able to defend the mid on equal and farm the necessary artifacts. Despite this, beastcoast still had 2 great fights in the mid-game at 14 and 18 minutes, after which fights began, the winners of which came out to beastcost after having spent an excellent fight at 33 minutes, as a result of which 1-0 for beastcoast.

Second map, and again TA in the first stage from Liquid and Bristleback as a carry. Beastcoast decided to repeat Venomancer's pick and took Abaddon as a carry, leaving their last pick for the Ancient Apparition's on pos 5. Equal play, up to 30 minutes. During which Skolfield, being in invisibility and an excellent position, was able to break down 2 teleports for TA and BB, which allowed his team to take the lane without any problems. But in the end, even that was not enough to win the game. A couple of successful fights from Liquid managed to bring them a draw in the 1-1 series.

On the first map, the Chinese machine malfunctioned and succumbed a little to the opponent in the early and mid game, but still managed to comeback and even the huge Juggernaut from K1 could not cope with Anti-Mage under the Magnus buff. The confident split push from the Ame helped LGD tighten the game, as a result of which they still managed to win on 1 map.

After strong resistance from the beastcoast on the first map, everyone expected an equal fight on the second. But the team from China managed to pull themselves together and with the help of a great game from AME on Morphling, they were able to pick up the second map in 28 minutes without any problems.

This is the first sensation of the tournament. Team Spirit, which has no experience of participating in such tournaments, in more than 20 minutes smashed the 2nd place of the previous Major to smithereens. Objectively, EG underestimated the opponent very much. Constant dives under the T1 tower on the bot lane, incomprehensible, inconsistent fights and a terrible fight on the Roshan. All this made EG write GG already at 22 minutes.

But on map 2, the story of Cinderella unfortunately ended. The American team showed both excellent personal skill and excellent macro play. And even the great game from Collapse on Mars could not help the Spirit.

At the beginning of the first map, neither team had an advantage. 23rd minute, Liquid sacrifices Enchantress on the bottom lane and kills Specter and Snapfire in the middle lane. But instead of pushing the T2 tower in mid, taking the enemy outpost, forest and pushing T2 on the top, Liquid decided to teleport to the bottom lane to defend their T2 tower. That failed and they died. As a result, VG seized the initiative and poyoyo on Specter with his team systematically brought the game to their victory.

The second map started with Liquid's domination. Taiga on Tiny helped SumaiL on Leshrac pick up the pace. But Vici Gaming, thanks to the excellent game of old eLeVeN on Mars for the second map in a row and a competent combination of skills, managed to catch opponents on a mistake several times and gradually turn the game in their favor.

The first map can be summed up in one sentence: a miracle Puck and a Dragon Knight stun. Miracle- is in great shape and has been showing phenomenal performance on Puck over the last 2 days. Amer with MinD_ContRoL were always at the right time and in the right place on the map, and GH's Winter Wyvern was a big hindrance to Ame on Faceless Void, resulting in a confident victory for Nigma.

The second map and again a great game from Miracle-, though this time it was not enough and the Chinese macro-machine was able to beat iLTW's Lifestealer on the bottom lane so much that Nigma simply had no core in the game. LGD constantly focused on Lifestealer, which resulted in the victory, and iLTW ended the game with 11 deaths.

TNC Predator prepared for such a strong opponent, and on the first map they dominated early game. However, TNC after several fights in the mid game lost their advantage and VG were able to turn the game in their favor. Over time, Vici Gaming heroes bought needs items and became extremely strong for TNC. Despite the tenacity of the team from Philippines, in the late game they couldn't do anything against Timbersaw and Medusa.

The beginning of the second map was similar, TNC Predator started the game with dominate. But this time they tried not to make mistakes. Bok on Magnus and Tims on Nyx Assassin were really good and few times turned the outcome of the fight, and did not even give Vici Gaming a chance to win.

And again Miracle- on Puck. True, the miracle did not happen and Puck lost 0-3 on mid, but thanks to the excellent play from MinD_ContRoL on Mars and iLTW on his signature Terrorblade, Nigma still managed to comeback the lost early stage and take the first map.

On the second map, although the early game was equal, but in the mid game Nigma perfectly realized the advantage of their heroes and played head and shoulders above the rival. Spirit tried to play in smoke in order to win back the advantage, but the excellent reaction from Miracle- and the timely pressed BKB buried Team Spirit's hope.