Dota 2: ESL One Mumbai – Group Stage Recap
| Tags: Dota 2
| Author Eliana Bollati
The group stage at ESL One Mumbai is a wrap, and our teams have now been seeded into their brackets for the playoffs.
We saw some clear winners emerging throughout our series over the past two days. It will be interesting to see how some of the teams perform in the next rounds of competition.
If you missed out on catching the action from the group stages live, we’ve recapped the highlights to help bring you up to speed.
TEAM TEAM and Keen First to Upper Bracket
TEAM TEAM and Keen Gaming emerged as the strongest players on our first day of the event.
Both teams secured their position in the playoffs with a series of 2-0 victories.
In Group A, TEAM TEAM were looking in fine form, as they swept Natus Vincere in their first Bo3 series.
They followed up with another two, clean wins against their next opponent TNC.Predator.
Jacky ‘EternaLEnVy’ Mao seems to have settled in well with TEAM TEAM. He’s bounced around the rosters quite a bit over this Pro Circuit season. Playing at previous events for Infamous and Flying Penguins.
Over in Group B, Keen Gaming was experiencing a similar first day of competition.
The Chinese team started their first series strong, taking out India’s Signify in two quick stomps. They carried their winning momentum into their final series of the day against Mineski, smashing the competition from SEA and earning themselves a safe spot in the upper bracket of the playoffs.
Signify and CompLexity Gaming Lose Out
Signify have not been having a good time on their home soil. They lost their game two series against the Pango, 2-0. The Indian team left the group stages defeated, unable to secure a win under their belt.
CompLexity Gaming joined them with a day of disappointing performances, losing out to Natus Vincere, 1-2.
Na`vi and Mineski Still Looking Strong
The boys from Na`Vi delivered a truly standout performance on day two of the event. Riding the wave from their win against CoL to ultimately send TNC.Predator packing in an exciting three-game series.
If there was any doubt that Na`Vi are concentrating on improving themselves, and not worrying about their competition, Mihail “Misha” Agatov dispelled it during the winner’s interview with SirActionSlacks post game.
“I don’t even know which teams are playing in the tournament.” He told Slacks.
'I don't even know which teams are playing in the tournament' – @MishaDota 😂
We caught up with the Pos 5 player Misha to hear about his success over @TNCPredator! #ESLOne
🇮🇳 https://t.co/RUTJQiyOsP pic.twitter.com/B7OKf0aSrz
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) April 17, 2019
Our final series of day two saw Mineski meet The Pango to battle it out for the final upper bracket spot.
It was the third time we saw a Bo3 go to the full three games in the group stages. Both teams threw themselves in with a no-holds-bar approach, fighting tooth and nail to secure any lead possible.
There was some brutal back-and-forth Dota 2 to be seen in this final series of the day, and although Pango fought admirably, it was Mineski who inevitably came out on top.
Febby and NinjaBoogie’s return seems to have given Mineski a new lease of life. They’re looking like a much stronger team again at this event, after some shaky performances earlier in the season.
Our playoffs begin today, with round one of the upper brackets. TEAM TEAM will face-off against Mineski, and Keen Gaming will meet Natus Vincere. Tune in to ESL Dota2 on Twitch to catch all the action live. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for all the latest Dota 2 and esports news and highlights.
Eliana is a freelance editor & journalist from Australia with a passion for esports and video games. An avid player of video games for the better part of three decades, she began following professional esports circuits during the 2010s. She brings both a player and longtime fan perspective into her commentary on the professional scenes.