The preview of The Kiev Major 2017 playoff stage

The first gaming day of The Kiev Major 2017 playoff stage starts tomorrow. The group stage was finished on April 25 and we can shortly analyze it and talk about the upcoming playoff stage.

The group stage has been carried out in a new-fashioned Swiss system. This system is usually used in CS:GO tournaments but the organizers of The Kiev Major 2017 have been creative enough in the process of organizing and decided to use this system in the championship too. Unlike CS:GO tournaments, where 8 teams are selected from 16 teams with a help of a group stage in best-of-one (bo1) matches, no one leaves the tournament here, despite the performance of one team or another. Also, matches have been played in a best-of-three (bo3) format in this tournament. Many representatives of the Dota 2 community have not liked the Swiss format in the tournament and a few of them have even called such way of carrying out the group stage the worst in a history of the eSports. Considering results of the group stage have influenced only on the seeding of teams in the playoff stage, it is not so difficult to understand authors of such statements.

Pairs, which will face each other in the first matches of the playoff stage, are known at this moment. Invictus Gaming will play against mousesports, Team Liquid — against Newbee, Digital Chaos — against Team VG.J, Virtus.pro — against Invictus Gaming.Vitality, TnC Pro Gaming — against Team Faceless, OG — against Team Random, Thunderbirds — against Evil Geniuses and Team Secret — against SG e-Sports.

Such participants as Invictus Gaming, Virtus.pro and Team Secret will have to become steady winners in the first round. This will be able to happen due to the weak opponents of the abovementioned teams. The recently created roster of mousesports, which has not become stable at the professional scene yet, will play against Invictus Gaming. Virtus.pro, in its turn, will have to win Invictus Gaming.Vitality without any problems because iG.V will unlikely be able to show an appropriate play against the strongest CIS team. Team Secret will be able to get to the quarterfinal without effort due to the weak opponent — the Brazilian team SG e-Sports.

Having done an analytic work, I have made a conclusion about the following teams to be able to get to the quarterfinal: Invictus Gaming, Team Liquid, Digital Chaos, Virtus.pro, TnC Pro Gaming, OG and Team Secret. The most questionable pair of the first round for me is Thunderbirds and Evil Geniuses. On the one hand Thunderbirds — is the reigning vice-champion of the world having played previously under the tag Digital Chaos, which has created its own organization and now play under the tag Thunderbirds. On the other hand Evil Geniuses — the team, which rose over itself the cup of the world champion in 2015 and is one of the strongest American teams. I personally tend towards that Thunderbirds have more chances for victory in the first round but whatever team becomes the winner in this match, it will have fewer chances to pass to the semi-final than the best participant of the group stage, which it will face in the quarterfinal — Team Secret.

In my opinion, such teams as Invictus Gaming, Virtus.pro, OG and Team Secret will pass to the semi-final and such teams as Virtus.pro and Team Secret — to the final. However, this tournament can make interesting surprises in the form of unexpectable turn of events: teams, which have participated bad in the group stage, suddenly will be able to become strong and show an interesting play and strong teams of the group stage, in their turn, will make a branch of mistakes due to them will leave without a right to continue the participation in the tournament.

Such teams as OG, Virtus.pro, Team Secret, and Invictus Gaming are obvious favorites. Only Invictus Gaming of 4 mentioned teams has shown a good performance recently having won Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017. Team Secret, Virtus.pro and Invictus Gaming have held top 3 places of the tournament’s table in the group stage and OG has held the 5th place. Such participation in the group stage can tell about the level of preparation.

It is only left to watch matches and receive answers to questions, which have been previously asked.