ESL One Birmingham Continues with Surprising Eliminations
The action at ESL One Birmingham continues to shock fans as day two sees more favorite teams exiting the tournament early. Both Vici Gaming and The International 7 champions, Team Liquid, were unable to make it past the early stages of the competition.
On the other hand, teams that are in need of a boost in Pro Circuit points have successfully advanced to the playoff bracket. Fnatic managed to survive their decider match against Team Spirit, making an impressive comeback in the third game after losing the second in just under 21 minutes. Abed “Abed” Yusop and Djardel Jicko “DJ” were the key performers for Fnatic, especially DJ who dominated Team Spirit with Sand King in the third game.
Fnatic’s next challenge will be facing OG in the quarterfinals, where they will compete for a top four finish in the tournament.
Group B witnessed Brazilian team, paiN Gaming, emerge victorious in the decider match against Team Liquid. Despite a strong start from the TI7 champions, paiN Gaming displayed incredible strength in the next two games. They utilized Morphling effectively in the second game, enabling William “hFn” Medeiros to dominate their opponents.
The third game went even more smoothly for paiN Gaming, as they closed out the series in just 24 minutes. This impressive win secures their spot in the quarterfinals, where they will face off against Mineski, the DAC 2018 champions, who triumphed over LGD Forever Young in the group C decider match.
As for the first place decider group, it came as no surprise that three-time Major winners, Virtus Pro, emerged as the victors. With their exceptional level of performance, Virtus Pro appears to be the frontrunners in the tournament and even have the potential to win TI8 if they maintain their consistency in Vancouver.
OpTic Gaming secured the other semifinal berth with their second place result in the decider group. If they manage to defeat the winner of the OG vs. Fnatic match, OpTic Gaming will gain significant momentum heading into the Supermajor next month. Captain Peter “ppd” Dager and his team still have a chance to secure a TI8 invite.
The first set of playoff games is scheduled to kick off at 8am CT, starting with paiN Gaming vs. Mineski, followed by OG vs. Fnatic.
Keywords: ESL One Birmingham, esports tournament, Fnatic, OG, Team Liquid, Vici Gaming, Team Spirit, paiN Gaming, Mineski, Virtus Pro, OpTic Gaming, Supermajor, TI8
