TI 2023 Group Stage Day 2: SMG, Thunder Awaken, Beastcoast, PSG.Quest first to be eliminated

The second day of Dota 2's The International (TI) 2023 on Saturday (14 October) saw the conclusion of phase one of the preliminary Road to The International Group Stage and the first set of teams to be eliminated.

Southeast Asia's Team SMG, South America's Thunder Awaken and Beastcoast, as well as Western Europe's PSG.Quest all had their quest for the Aegis of Champions come to an early end.

The 16 remaining teams now move on to the second phase of the Group Stage, where they will be fighting for seeding in the Road to The International Playoffs.

Here's how all the action went down in day two of TI 2023's Group Stage:

Group A

TI 2021 champions Team Spirit already locked in a spot in phase two in day one, but they didn't take their feet off the pedal as they soundly swept Evil Geniuses (EG) to kick off day two action for Group A. With this victory, Spirit complete phase one with a perfect 8-0 record, the only team to do so in the tournament.

Meanwhile, EG and SMG managed draw 1-1 against 9Pandas and Entity, respectively, to set up a best-of-three tiebreaker to determine which team will be eliminated from phase one. Unfortunately for SMG, EG cruised through them in two games to advance to phase two and knock them out of TI 2023.

Group B

After locking up the top seed of Group B in day one, Western European juggernauts Team Liquid advanced to phase two by sweeping Thunder Awaken to finish phase one with a 7-1 record.

This result also eliminated the South American squad from contention with a 1-7 record, the worst performance of all teams in phase one.

BetBoom Team then scored sweeps over North America's Shopify Rebellion and China's Azure Ray to take second place in the group with a 6-2 record. With Thunder Awaken already eliminated, Azure Ray and Shopify Rebellion advanced to the second phase with a 4-4 and 2-6 record, respectively.

Group C

China's LGD Gaming maintained its hold over the top seed of Group C by sweeping Beastcoast and drawing with Eastern Europe's Virtus.pro (VP).

VP then drew their next match against North America's Nouns Esports, meaning both teams finish the group with a 3-5 record. This potentially set up a three-way tiebreaker scenario if Beastcoast managed to score a win against three-time Major champions Gaimin Gladiators in the last match of the group.

Fortunately for Nouns and VP, Gaimin Gladiators soundly swept Beastcoast. With that result, Gaimin Gladiators took second place in Group C with a 5-3 record, both Nouns and VP survived to phase two, while Beastcoast was knocked out of TI 2023.

Group D

TI 2022 champions Tundra Esports cemented their hold over the top spot in Group D by sweeping PSG.Quest in the craziest match of the Group Stage, which totaled 155 minutes and featured the longest game of the tournament so far at 87 minutes.

Meanwhile, Southeast Asia's Talon Esports came back from a winless day one and secured a spot in phase two by sweeping South America's Vivo Keyd Stars and PSG.Quest. With Keyd Stars also managing a 1-1 draw with North America's TSM, PSG.Quest unfortunately had their stay at TI 2023 cut short as they only managed a 2-6 record.

Group A:

• Team Spirit 2-0 Evil Geniuses

• Entity 1-1 Team SMG

• 9Pandas 1-1 Evil Geniuses

• Tiebreaker: Evil Geniuses 2-0 Team SMG

Group B:

• BetBoom Team 2-0 Shopify Rebellion

• Team Liquid 2-0 Thunder Awaken

• Azure Ray 1-1 Shopify Rebellion

• BetBoom Team 2-0 Azure Ray

Group C:

• LGD Gaming 2-0 Beastcoast

• LGD Gaming 1-1 Virtus.pro

• Nouns Esports 1-1 Virtus.pro

• Gaimin Gladiators 2-0 Beastcoast

Group D:

• Talon Esports 2-0 Vivo Keyd Stars

• Tundra Esports 2-0 PSG.Quest

• TSM 1-1 Vivo Keyd Stars

• Talon Esports 2-0 PSG.Quest

Here are the final standings for phase one of TI 2023's Group Stage:

Group A:

1. Team Spirit: 8-0

2. Entity: 4-4

3. 9Pandas: 4-4

4. Evil Geniuses: 2-6

5. Team SMG: 2-6 (eliminated)

Group B:

1. Team Liquid: 7-1

2. BetBoom Team: 6-2

3. Azure Ray: 4-4

4. Shopify Rebellion: 2-6

5. Thunder Awaken: 1-7 (eliminated)

Group C:

1. LGD Gaming: 7-1

2. Gaimin Gladiators: 5-3

3. Nouns Esports: 3-5

4. Virtus.pro: 3-5

5. Beastcoast: 2-6 (eliminated)

Group D:

1. Tundra Esports: 7-1

2. TSM: 4-4

3. Talon Esports: 4-4

4. Vivo Keyd Stars: 3-5

5. PSG.Quest: 2-6 (eliminated)

The Road to The International Group Stage phase two will be held from 14 to 15 October and will have the remaining teams play in eight head-to-head, best-of-three matches to determine placement in the The Road to The International Playoffs.

In this phase, the Top 2 teams from each group in phase one will get matched with either the third or fourth-placed teams from the opposite group. The winners of the eight head-to-head matches will then earn upper bracket berths in the Playoffs while the losers will have to start from the lower bracket.

Here are the matchups for The Road to The International Group Stage phase two:

15 October:

• Team Spirit vs Shopify Rebellion

• Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses

• LGD Gaming vs Vivo Keyd Stars

• Tundra Esports vs Nouns Esports

16 October:

• Entity vs Azure Ray

• BetBoom Team vs 9Pandas

• Gaimin Gladiators vs Talon Esports

• TSM vs Virtus.pro

TI 2023 will be hosted from 12 to 29 October in Seattle, the United States and will see 20 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world fighting to claim the coveted Aegis of Champions and the lion's share of a growing prize pool.

For everything you need to know about TI 2023, check here.

For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page and Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube.