Singapore Major Day 2 recap: PSG.LGD, VG, Liquid advance to Group Stage

The Wildcard Stage of the ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major has concluded, with Chinese teams PSG.LGD and Vici Gaming (VG) as well as Team Liquid from Europe advancing into the tournament's Group Stage. Meanwhile, AS Monaco Gambit from the CIS, Team Nigma from Europe, and T1 from Southeast Asia have been eliminated.

While Liquid and VG ended day one of the Wildcard atop the standings, with Liquid finishing with a 6-0 record and VG having a 2-0 start, it was PSG.LGD that ended up having the best record at the end of the stage.

PSG.LGD split their matches in day one, as they got swept by Liquid before sweeping Nigma themselves. The Chinese squad then ran roughshod over Gambit, T1, and VG in day two to finish the Wildcard with an 8-2 record and advance to the Group Stage.

While they lost to PSG.LGD and were forced to a draw by Nigma, VG was still able to secure their spot in the Group Stage with a huge 2-0 win over Liquid. Gambit was also able to sweep Liquid, who seemingly lost all momentum from their undefeated run in day one.

Both Liquid and Gambit finished the initial slate of Wildcard matches with a 6-4 record, which forced them to play one last tiebreaker game for the third and final spot in the Group Stage. Despite struggling all day, Liquid bounced back when it mattered most and dominated Gambit to the tune of a 27-6 kill lead in the 38-minute tiebreaker to keep their tournament hopes alive.

Here are the standings at the end of the Wildcard Stage:

PSG.LGD, VG, and Liquid will now be joining Alliance from Europe, Team Aster from China, Neon Esports from Southeast Asia, Quincy Crew from North America, and Thunder Predator from South America in the Group Stage. Only two teams were originally supposed to come out of the Wildcard, but an extra spot in the Group Stage was made available after CIS team Natus Vincere withdrew from the Singapore Major.

Seven out of the eight teams in the Group Stage will advance to the Playoffs. Only six teams were supposed to come out from this stage of the tournament, with the top two teams meeting the directly-seeded Playoff teams in the upper bracket. However, a spot in the Playoffs opened up after South American team Beastcoast withdrew from the Major.

Since Beastcoast were one of the teams that were slated to start in the upper bracket, the third-placed team of the Group Stage will take their spot. The number of teams that will advance to lower bracket of the Playoffs remains at four, though they are now the fourth to seventh-placed teams of the Group Stage.

Meanwhile, Nigma, T1, and Gambit had their trip to Singapore cut very short as teams that have been eliminated from the Major are required to leave immediately in order to minimise the risk of exposure to the coronavirus to them and the remaining teams in the tournament.

Both Nigma and T1 were notably not at full strength here in.the Major, with their offlaners sitting out the tournament due to health issues.

Nigma's Ivan "MinD_ControL" Ivanov was ruled out of the Major after he tested positive for the coronavirus, with team coach Roman "rmN-" Paley joining the active roster as his substitute. Meanwhile, T1's Carlo "Kuku" Palad sat out the event due to an undisclosed health problem, with Lee "Forev" Sang-don taking his place.

The Singapore Major is scheduled to run until 4 April. The event features 16 teams from the DPC's six regional leagues competing for the lion's share of a US$500,000 prize pool and 2,700 DPC point pool.

For everything you need to know about the ONE Esports Singapore Major, check here.

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