Dota 2 Elite League: BOOM, Entity, Tundra, OG lead the eight advancing teams out of Group Stage 1

The Dota 2 action this April is at the online-only Elite League tournament, where 24 teams from all across the world will be fighting across two Group Stages and a Playoffs until 14 April for a grand prize of US$300,000 out of a US$960,000 prize pool.

The Elite League concluded its Group Stage 1 on Friday (5 April), where BOOM Esports, Entity, Tundra Esports, OG, PSG Quest, Aurora, Blacklist International, and HEROIC emerged triumphant from a field of 16 teams to qualify for Group Stage 2.

Elite League's Group Stage 1 followed a Swiss-system format, where the teams needed to win three best-of-three matches in order to advance.

South America's BOOM Esports and Western Europe's Entity led the pack of advancing teams as both squads had a perfect 3-0 record to advance to Group Stage 2.

BOOM defeated PSG Quest and Talon Esports, 2-1, then swept Team Secret. Meanwhile, Entity looked dominant as they soundly swept all their matches against 9Pandas, HEROIC, and OG.

Tundra Esports and OG from Western Europe as well as PSG Quest from MENA were next to qualify with 3-1 records apiece.

While Tundra dropped their first match against HEROIC, they quickly bounced back and scored three-straight wins against 9Pandas, Nigma Galaxy, and Blacklist International to qualify for Group Stage 2. PSG Quest also lost their first match of the stage against BOOM before advancing with wins over KEV, Nouns, and Talon Esports.

Meanwhile, OG won their first two matches against Blacklist International and Nouns before being handed their first loss by Tundra. They then defeated HEROIC, 2-1, to punch their tickets to Group Stage 2.

Rounding out the eight advancing teams are Southeast Asia's Aurora and Blacklist International as well as South America's HEROIC, who all qualified for Group Stage 2 with 3-2 records.

Aurora lost to Nigma Galaxy and HEROIC but won against Virtus.pro, KEV, and Team Secret. As for Blacklist International, their two losses came at the hands of top teams in Tundra and OG but they took care of business by sweeping backmarkers in Team Secret, Virtus.pro, and Rest Farmers.

Finally, HEROIC lost to OG and Entity but earned their spot in Group Stage 2 with wins over Tundra, Aurora, and Talon Esports.

The eight teams who unfortunately failed to make it out of the Elite League's Group Stage 1 included Talon Esports (2-3), Team Secret (2-3), Virtus.pro (2-3), KEV (1-3), Nigma Galaxy (1-3), Nouns (1-3), 9Pandas (0-3), and Rest Farmers (0-3). Those eight squads will be taking home US$10,000 in consolation.

Elite League's Group Stage 2 will take place from 5 to 10 April and will follow a round-robin format with two groups of eight teams each. The eight teams who advanced from Group Stage 1 will be joining eight teams who received direct invites, these invited teams include Team Spirit, BetBoom Team, Team Liquid, Gaimin Gladiators, Team Falcons, Xtreme Gaming, Azure Ray, and G2.iG.

All matches in Group Stage 2 will be a best-of-two with the Top 4 teams of each group advancing to the double-elimination Playoffs. The Top 2 teams will also earn upper bracket berths while the third and fourth-placed teams will start in the lower bracket.

Meanwhile, the bottom four teams of each group will be eliminated and will take home US$20,000 for their efforts.

Here are the groups for Elite League's Group Stage 2:

Group A: Azure Ray, Entity, G2.iG, HEROIC, OG, PSG Quest, Team Falcons, Team Spirit

Group B: Aurora, BetBoom Team, Blacklist International, BOOM Esports, Gaimin Gladiators, Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, Xtreme Gaming

After Group Stage 2, Elite League will go on a one-day break before the Playoffs kick off from 12 to 14 April. All Playoff-qualified teams are guaranteed at least US$30,000 in winnings, though they will surely have their sights set on the US$300,000 grand prize.

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