TI11 LCQ Day 1: European teams dominate as the Last Chance Qualifiers kick off
The Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQ) for Dota 2's The International 11 (TI11) finally kicked off on Saturday (8 October), with 12 teams set to battle for the final slots at this year's multimillion-dollar world championship tournament.
Split into two groups of six, the teams will be fighting for placement in the double-elimination Playoffs, where the last two teams will join the 18 already in the Group Stage.
The first day of the LCQ's Group Stage was dominated by teams from Western Europe and Eastern Europe.
Eastern Europe's Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) and Western Europe's Team Secret held the Top 2 spots in Group A. In Group B, Western Europe's Team Liquid and Eastern Europe's Virtus.pro (VP) ended the day in a three-way tie with China's Xtreme Gaming (XG) for the top spot of their group.
The LCQ's opening day was also full of surprising hero picks.
In the first match between Team Secret and Tempest, Alexis "sl4d1n-" Sitl showcased a roaming support Ember Spirit, while the battle between Na'Vi and Nouns Esports brought back the support Riki who can lockdown enemies with his Aghanim's Shard.
Southeast Asia's T1 is also well known for their experimental drafts and decided to make pubs unplayable thanks to Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen's mid Enchantress.
Here's a breakdown of all the action in the first day of the TI11 LCQ.
Na'Vi, Team Secret top Group A
Among all the teams in both groups, Na'Vi had the best performance of the day, winning five games while only dropping one map.
Na'Vi carry Alik "V-Tune" Vorobey was the star of the show, as he had the best KDA among all players in the first day of the LCQ. It's hard to pick between his 23/1/8 Sven performance versus Nouns or his 17/0/9 Drow Ranger against Polaris Esports as his best showing off the day.
Na'Vi still have to face Xtreme Gaming and Team Secret but they are looking like a lock for the upper bracket right now.
Speaking of Team Secret, they also had a great first day — though that's hardly surprising since their captain, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov, has made it to TI 10 times and has no intention of breaking that streak.
Despite a fantastic score of 4-2, Secret didn't look as polished as they usually do. The team is currently investing a lot of resources into enabling Michał "Nisha" Jankowski, at the cost of Remco "Crystallis" Arets, leaving them with an under farmed carry in the late-game. In the two games Secret lost, both matches went longer than 45 minutes, highlighting the weakness of Secret's drafting right now.
Polaris Esports and Vici Gaming (VG) are in the middle of the pack with a score of 3-1 each. Polaris was the only team to take a game off Na'Vi, an impressive feat by itself. Vici Gaming secured a draw against Secret while beating South American Tempest in the quickest 2-0 of the day. It's hard to judge how strong Polaris and Vici are right now as they played the fewest matches in the group on the first day.
In every tournament, someone has to be last, and right now Nouns and Tempest are significantly behind the rest of the pack.
Nouns managed to end the day by taking a game off Secret, which will hopefully boost their confidence tomorrow. No such good news is afforded to Tempest, as they went 0-6 on the first day and are almost guaranteed a lower bracket start in the Playoffs.
Team Liquid, Virtus.pro, Xtreme Gaming tied for top seed in Group B
Group B is slightly more competitive than Group A.
Three of the teams there are neck and neck for the top spot, while the bottom three competitors are still in the running for an upper bracket berth.
Team Liquid had a good showing on their first day, taking down T1 while drawing against XG and Infamous. The team look strong in late-game situations, but were seen to stumble early when facing a fast-paced opponent.
Infamous secured a draw by running an ultra mid-game draft, winning the game in 25 minutes, one of the shortest games of the day.
VP and XG tied against each other and both ended the day with a score of 4-2. Among the two teams, it was the Chinese squad that looked slightly stronger, as they also took a game off Liquid.
XG's focus on Io and Leshrac allows them to take down early structures while scaling well into the late-game.
Virtus.pro's draw against Wildcard Gaming came as a surprise, as they proved unable to handle Luke "YamSun" Wang's Troll Warlord.
The fourth place of the group is currently held tenuously by Infamous, as they went 2-4 in the first day. The day started badly for the South American squad as they lost to VP in 22 minutes, the fastest game of the tournament thus far.
Infamous bounced back later on as they drew against both Liquid and T1. The South Americans will have to at least defeat Wildcard tomorrow if they wish to hold on to the last upper bracket spot.
There was a lot of hype surrounding T1 due to two-time TI champs Anathan "ana" Pham and Topson joining the team for TI11.
Unfortunately, fans of the team won't have much to celebrate as T1 ended the day with only one victory and three losses.
The bad news looks to continue for the Southeast Asian team as they still have to face XG and VP tomorrow. However if there is one thing OG has taught all its players both current and former, it's how to come back after a loss, and the former OG duo won't go down without a fight.
Wildcard are tied with T1's score of 1-3. The team had arguably the strongest two matchups at the start of the day, facing XG and following that up with VP. To their credit, Wildcard put up a solid performance against both teams.
Wildcard held the advantage for the first 20 minutes against Xtreme and then proceeded to draw blood against the Russian squad.
Here are the results of each match for the first day of the T11 LCQ Group Stage.
Team Secret 2-0 Tempest
Natus Vincere 2-0 Nouns Esports
Xtreme Gaming 1-1 Team Liquid
Virtus.pro 2-0 Infamous
T1 0-2 Team Liquid
Natus Vincere 1-1 Polaris Esports
Xtreme Gaming 2-0 Wildcard Gaming
Vici Gaming 1-1 Team Secret
Polaris Esports 2-0 Nouns Esports
Vici Gaming 2-0 Tempest
Virtus.pro 1-1 Wildcard Gaming
T1 1-1 Infamous
Xtreme Gaming 1-1 Virtus.pro
Natus Vincere 2-0 Tempest
Team Liquid 1-1 Infamous
Team Secret 1-1 Nouns Esports
Here are the standings for both groups at the end of the first day of the T11 LCQ Group Stage.
Group A standings:
Natus Vincere - 6-1
Team Secret - 4-2
Polaris Esports - 3-1
Vici Gaming - 3-1
Nouns Esports - 1-5
Tempest - 0-6
Group B standings:
Team Liquid - 4-2
Virtus.pro - 4-2
Xtreme Gaming - 4-2
Infamous - 2-4
T1 - 1-3
Wildcard Gaming - 1-3
The TI11 LCQ will take place from 8 to 12 October and will feature the 12 runners-up from the regional qualifiers fighting for the last two spots in the Group Stage. The LCQ will begin with a single round-robin Group Stage from 8 to 9 October followed by a double-elimination Playoffs from 10 to 12 October.
TI11 will be hosted in Singapore from 8 to 30 October and features a revamped format with the new LCQ and a longer schedule. For everything you need to know about TI11, check here.
Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.
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