After four grueling days of competition the Group Stage for The International 2019 is finally over. The real challenge for the pro Dota 2 teams begin as this means the Playoffs are now coming. Teams do get a slight reprieve, if you could call it that, as they get a one day break before the Playoff matches start.
Let's look at the different matchups in the Playoffs and give a prediction as to who moves on to the next round.
ELIMINATED
Before we go the Playoffs Bracket, let's take a quick look at the two teams already eliminated. For Group A, Chaos Esports Club had to say goodbye to the tournament. We here at Player.One put Chaos as a dark horse for a possible Upper Bracket entry banking on the fact that they signed up Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen. It appears the pressure of being in TI may have been too high for the team.
Group B saw the elimination of Ninjas in Pyjamas. The team has a good performance during the DPC Season. However, it appears they may not have been ready for TI. One could also argue that maybe OG trouncing them with the carry Io could have had a bigger negative impact than expected.
LOWER BRACKET
The teams in the Lower Bracket are those who placed 5th to 8th in their group. These are:
- Group A
- Alliance
- Mineski
- Team Liquid
- Keen Gaming
- Group B
- Infamous
- Fnatic
- Natus Vincere
- Royal Never Give Up
The surprise for Group A is clearly Team Liquid. We had initially predicted they would finish with a higher placement. However, their performance so far in TI9 has not been what you would expect. For Group B, Infamous looks to be doing pretty well considering this is the first TI for its members. Fnatic being in the lower bracket is a surprise, although we did put OG as a dark horse and the three teams we picked to be in the upper placement were there.
With that, the matchups for the Lower Bracket are:
- Alliance vs Royal Never Give Up
- Fnatic vs Team Liquid
- Infamous vs Keen Gaming
- Mineski vs Natus Vincere
So who do we think is moving forward?
In the first match-up, we are going with Alliance, mainly considering that the performance of RNG has not been that consistent lately. In their group matches, Alliance was 2-0 against Keen Gaming and 0-2 versus Secret. In all other match ups Alliance managed to get a tie. RNG meanwhile got pretty beaten up, but its wins against Na'Vi and NiP helped the team to stay afloat.
The second match-up is rather difficult. Liquid hasn't been performing as well and one could argue that Fnatic had the luck of being in the "stronger" group. Given that, we'll have to say its Fnatic as they appear to have the drive to move to the next round.
We'll go with Infamous over Keen Gaming for the third match, given how the team has been performing in the Group Stage.
For the final match-up, we choose Mineski. Despite a rather rocky start, Mineski has shown to perform well when it counts.
UPPER BRACKET
The teams that placed in the top four are:
- Group A
- PSG.LGD
- Team Secret
- TNC Predator
- Newbee
- Group B
- OG
- Vici Gaming
- Evil Geniuses
- Virtus.pro
For Group A, our picks weren’t that far off. The only difference was that we chose Liquid, and they didn’t perform that well during the Group Stage. We also got most of Group B right. While we went for Fnatic to enter the top four, we had predicted that OG could be the dark horse for the group and they were indeed.
For the Upper Bracket, the matchups are:
- PSG.LGD vs Virtus.pro
- Vici Gaming vs TNC Predator
- OG vs Newbee
- Evil Geniuses vs Team Secret
Of the five Major tournaments, VP won in one and placed in the top four in three of them. PSG.LGD, meanwhile, has only reached the top four in two of the Major tournaments. Both teams have had consistent performances. For this match-up we're going with PSG.LGD, as they appear to have prepared well for TI.
TNC has been known to be an underdog with a tendency to surprise. This time around though we are choosing VG, as the team has been doing good so far.
OG is on a roll, so we choose OG for this match-up. Yes, Newbee, or should we say the former Forward Gaming, has been a surprise, but they need to find a way to deal with OG's surprise picks if they are to move forward in the Upper Bracket.
This last match-up is a bit difficult as both Secret and EG are truly strong teams. Considering what has been happening in this past season, our choice for this one is Secret. Secret has a tendency to "experiment" with their picks even in a tournament. Remember the Luna support pick? EG is typically known to follow the meta when it comes to picks. They need to be a bit more creative if they want to come out on top against Secret.
To sum it up, here are the matchups are our picks:
- Lower Bracket
- Alliance vs Royal Never Give Up: Alliance
- Fnatic vs Team Liquid: Fnatic
- Infamous vs Keen Gaming: Infamous
- Mineski vs Natus Vincere: Mineski
- Upper Bracket
- PSG.LGD vs Virtus.pro: PSG.LGD
- Vici Gaming vs TNC Predator: Vici Gaming
- OG vs Newbee: OG
- Evil Geniuses vs Team Secret: Team Secret
What about you? Who are your picks? Let us know in the comments section below.
