MDL Winter 2015 Groupstage: Team Spirit, Mineski make an early exit

January 27th, 2016 Cristy "Pandora" Ramadani Tournaments 0 comments

The MDL Winter 2015 Groupstage is almost completed. In an incredibly long and bustling day, the ten teams – Evil Geniuses, ViCi Gaming, Newbee, OG, Team Spirit, compLexity, EHOME, LGD Gaming, Team Secret and Mineski – competed in the groupstage portion of the event, almost through its entirety. Team Spirit and Mineski have been eliminated. Two teams from each group will begin the playoffs in the Upper Brackets and the remaining two teams will start off in the Lower Brackets. The eight remaining teams will continue to compete for the $270,000 prize pool. Action resumes on Thursday, January 28th, at 04:00 CET with the four remaining groupstage games before heading into the playoffs.

Some changes to the MDL schedule, please inform your buddies!!! pic.twitter.com/PaPJQ3Wwwf

— Helen Xu (@XiiTuzi) January 27, 2016

MDL Winter 2015 was originally announced back in July 2015 and will take place between January 27th-31st. The organizers were determined to avoid scheduling conflicts with other events and provide teams with ample time to prepare.

Four teams, one from each of the four regions – Newbee, Mineski, Team Spirit and compLexity Gaming – qualified for the event. The teams were then set to compete against six directly invited teams – Evil Geniuses, ViCi Gaming, OG, EHOME, LGD Gaming and Team Secret – in the LAN playoffs in China.

The MDL Winter 2015 Groupstage started out with some delays in the schedule for an already jam-packed 12 hours of competition. The groups were expected to be played out in their entirety today, however, four series have been delayed until tomorrow, at 04:00 CET. The remaining matches will solidify the group placements and the seeding into the playoffs. Both teams that were at the bottom of the groups – Team Spirit and Mineski – have already been eliminated with the games for tomorrow having no bearing on their future status.

MDL Winter 2015 Groupstage results

Upper Brackets: TBD
Lower Brackets: TBD
Eliminated: Team Spirit, Mineski

MDL Winter 2015 Groupstage recap

Group A

OG got off to a rough start this morning, starting out with 0:2 loss against ViCi Gaming. The team was primed to bounce back, upsetting NA giants Evil Geniuses 2:0 and knocking out Team Spirit in a clean sweep after.

ViCi Gaming looked to be in top form during their series against OG. After sweeping through the Europeans, they split the series with their Chinese rivals, Newbee, and took the 2:0 victory over Team Spirit. They have been showing exciting performances in the last few months and have taken the top position in their group. They also have taken the least amount of losses in the groupstage overall between both groups.

The North American giants, Evil Geniuses, easily took the first two wins of the group, clearing through Team Spirit. Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora came out with a fantastic Vacuum into Wall of Replica during a crucial team fight, eventually leading his team to victory over Team Spirit. EG’s momentum came to an abrupt stop as they were upset by OG, suffering a surprising 0:2 sweep.

The only Chinese team in attendance through qualifying, Newbeesplit their series against Team Spirit, EG and ViCi Gaming. An incredible aegis steal gave Newbee the win against ViCi Gaming. They were able to secure enough wins to keep themselves around to compete in the playoffs tomorrow and knocked Team Spirit into the elimination spot of the groups.

Team Spirit struggled in their matches today. Their first series was against Evil Geniuses and they were quickly wiped out, being left without a win. Whatever hope they gained when they split the series against Newbee, 1:1, was quickly wiped away when they took another devastating 0:2 loss against OG. Once they lost the first game versus ViCi Gaming, they had already slipped into the last place position of the group, and were eliminated from the event.

Group B

Team Secret started the day going head to head with LGD Gaming, who have been looking in top shape. The two teams drew a tie in the series, 1:1, and Team Secret followed up with a second draw against EHOME and ended the day with a sweep through of Mineski. Their performances in the last weeks have left fans to question their status and future expectations leading into the Shanghai Major.

LGD Gaming has continued to impress. While taking the draw to start the day against Team Secret, they also took the same route as Team Secret, following up with a draw against EHOME. They however were able to seize the series against Mineski. They split their series with compLexity, 1:1, to the end day. Despite the lack of series wins, they are so far sitting at the top of their group – a trend that seems to be their course in recent events.

EHOME has been stepping up in the Chinese and international scene. However, an emergency room visit for their famed carry player Chen “Cty” Tianyu left them to rely on a substitute: Fan “Fan” Yixuan. The team took ties in their series against Team Secret, LGD Gaming and compLexity Gaming.

compLexity Gaming started with the split series against EHOME, 1:1, but swept through Mineski, 2:0, to advance themselves in the group. compLexity’s split series with LGD leaves them tied with Team Secret for second place so far.

Mineski suffered losses all around. The Malaysian team seems to have been struggling in their performances lately, slipping from the hype and promise shown late last year. Without taking a single victory, the team placed last in their group and thereby have been eliminated.