The ultimate Dota 2 competition has officially begun. Eighteen of the world's best teams have gathered in Seattle, Washington to compete for their share of a record-setting $23.5 million dollar (and growing) prize pool. The dust has now settled after the first day -- here's what you may have missed.
*Records reflect the end of Day 1
The only two teams to remain undefeated so far are LGD Gaming in Group A and LGD.Forever Young in Group B, but there are still a lot of games to be played and both of these teams had a relatively easy first day. The true test will come in the remaining days of Group stage competition, where each team faces a gauntlet of the top competition in its respective groups -- including Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid for LGD Gaming and Virtus.pro, Newbee and OG for LGD.Forever Young in Group B.
Speaking of Team Liquid, it sits comfortably behind LGD in Group with two wins and a tie while TNC Pro Team earned one win and a tie. In a bit of disappointing fashion, Evil Geniuses managed to put together three tied series on Day 1. Below those teams are Infamous, Empire and Secret all with two ties and a loss, and iG.Vitality with a tie and a loss. Infamous' performance so far has come as a pleasant surprise, managing to take a game off both Empire and Secret. At the bottom of Group A rests Fnatic, which lost all three series and now faces an extremely tough challenge to qualify for the main event.
*Records reflect the end of Day 1
The competition in Group B is much closer so far, but a total of eight fewer matches were played on Day 1. We already know LGD.FY sits in a prime spot with two wins. Below it are Virtus.pro, OG, and Newbee each with one win and one tie. In the bottom half of the bracket, Invictus Gaming, Execration and Digital Chaos are all tied with one tie and one loss. And to round out the group is HellRaisers with one loss and Cloud9 with two losses. There will be many more Group B matches played on the second day of competition, but so far Cloud9 has a difficult road ahead, much like Fnatic. In addition to needing to win the majority of its remaining series, both Cloud9 and Fnatic are counting on other teams to lose in order to avoid being eliminated from the group stages. Realistically, the best these two teams can hope for at this point is a spot in the best-of-one elimination round on the first day of the main event.