Singapore Major
Group Stage
Vici Gaming, PSG.LGD, and Team Liquid have managed to make it out of the Wild Card qualifiers for the Singapore Major after two intense days of LAN competition. The three will move on to the group stage, beginning tomorrow. This means that Gambit, T1, and Team Nigma will have to leave the event prematurely.
None of the eliminated teams should, in hindsight, feel particularly bad about their performance. Both T1 and Team Nigma were missing key pieces in their lineups, and it showed. We are sure they'll be back at the next Major, at 100% strength. Gambit is probably the team most unhappy with missing out on the group stage. They came tantalizingly close to qualifying after beating Liquid early on in the day. In the end they were force into a tiebreaker where Liquid simply outmaneuvered them.
The three qualified teams all have areas to improve but also reasons to celebrate. PSG.LGD ended up topping the group, only losing to Team Liquid. However, one has to ask if they would've beaten VG so handedly if their opponent weren't already qualified for the next stage.
For VG the reason for concern is their, somewhat, surprising loss to Nigma. Nigma, without MC, only managed to win a single game during the Wild Card stage and didn't look great in any of their matches, understandably. However, VG took care of business in all their other series and qualified for the group stage while looking good.
Liquid... oh Liquid. The European team had an amazing first day of the Wild Card only to almost throw it all away on the last day. In both their regular series on day 2 the team looked lost. They came into the first match against Gambit, almost a bit cocky, and were crushed. And they didn't stand much more of a chance against VG. Insania and co. managed to rally though and their win against Gambit in the tiebreaker match was decisive, to say the least.
The group stage of the Singapore Major will commence tomorrow, Monday, Mar 29 2:00am GMT (GMT+00:00).