The MLG Pro League Season 2 LAN playoffs and finals will begin later today in Austin, Texas as part of the X-Games 2015 event. The event will feature eight top teams from North-America, Europe and Southeast Asia, competing for the $165,000 prize pool.
Evil Geniuses – runners-up at the MLG Columbus championship, will attempt to secure the title this time around, battling against Virtus.Pro, “Mushi” Chai Yee Fung’s newly sponsored Fnatic, Mousesports, Alliance, Summer’s Rift, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and London Conspiracy.
MLG Pro League LAN finals format and schedule
The eight teams – Evil Geniuses, Alliance, Summer’s Rift, London Conspiracy, Fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Mousesports and Virtus.Pro, have been separated into two groups that will each compete in best-of-three double elimination brackets. The top two teams from each group will advance into the playoffs. The playoffs will be played in a single elimination best-of-three format.
MLG Pro League LAN streams
English broadcast will be provided by MLG.
MLG Pro League tickets and prize pool
The $75,000 base prize pool for Season 2 has already been brought to a total of $165,220, through community contributions. In-game tickets are available for $9.99. The bundle grants the Devilish Conjurer Witch Doctor item set, the Devilish Conjurer loading screen, and the Grimsneer courier. 20% of the proceeds of each sale goes towards the MLG Pro League Season 2 prize pool, while 5% of the proceeds adds up to the World Championship prize pool at the end of 2015.
Prize pool distribution
- 1st place: 40% ($30,000+)
- 2nd place: 25% ($18,750+)
- 3rd place: 15% ($11,250+)
- 4th place: 10% ($7,500+)
- 5th place: 5% ($3,750+) each
- 6th place: 5% ($3,750+) each
X-Games 2015
X-Games 2015 will take place in Austin, Texas, from June 4 to 7. Visitors should be prepared for a jam-packed few days of Skateboarding, BMX, Moto X, Rally Racing, eSports, and music. This year’s event will feature Grammy-nominated hip hop superstar Nicki Minaj as one of the headliners performing on the new Super Stage. Tickets for the X-Games 2015 are available for purchase on Ticketmaster.com, for prices ranging from $59 to $1,300. Fans will be able to watch the games on MLG.tv or through various MLG apps on smartphones and Xbox consoles. The event will also feature Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Difficulties leading up to the event
Vega Squadron
Vega Squadron were left with too little time to secure their US visas and were therefore forced to withdraw from the competition, on May 22. London Conspiracy – qualifier finals runners-up, have taken Vega’s place in the LAN finals.
Team Empire
Team Empire’s recent success as MLG Columbus Pro League Champions had earned them a direct invite to the MLG Pro League. They announced their withdrawal from the X-Games MLG Pro League LAN finals, due to visa issues.
Empire were forced to enlist the help of Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov to stand in at the MLG Pro League Championships, when Maxim “Yoky” Kim had his US visa denied for the second time.
Team Empire, who are currently competing in the MarsTV Dota 2 League in Shanghai China this week, also had problems while bootcamping in Kiev, Ukraine, when Maxim “Yoky” Kim was turned back at the Ukrainian border.
Mousesports
Max “qojqva” Broecker has decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from professional Dota. As a consequence, Mousesports have announced that ROOT Gaming’s Tyler “TC” Cook will stand-in for the team during the event
Participating teams
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses received the second invite, as the runner-up team from Columbus.
During the previous MLG LAN, EG had struggled more than was expected, falling to both MVP.Phoenix and NiP in the group stages, thus being seeded as the fourth and final place into the playoff brackets. The North American favorites had a chance to redeem themselves and take revenge on the two teams, as they powered through both MVP.Phoenix and NiP in the brackets, with their sights set on the grand finals. They were defeated by Team Empire in the Grand Finals, 1:2.
Clinton “Fear” Loomis, Syed Sumail “Suma1L” Hassan, Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora, Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling, Peter “ppd” Dager
Fnatic (formerly Team Malaysia)
Fnatic were the first to qualify for the MLG Pro League X-Games main event, on May 2.
It was with little difficulty that they advanced towards the qualifier finals, defeating both Arcanys Gaming and Team Invasion without suffering a single loss. As MVP.Hot6ix fought Signature.Trust, 2:1, and MVP.Phoenix, 2:0, they entered the best-of-three finals ready to put up a fight against Fnatic, the tournament favorites. MVP.Hot6ix managed to take the second game away from the Malaysians but eventually lost, 2:1.
“kYxY” Lee Kang Yang, “Kecik Imba” Fadil bin Mohd Raziff, “Ohaiyo” Chong Xin Khoo, “JoHnNy” Siong Tait, “Mushi” Chai Yee Fung
Alliance
Alliance secured their spot after knocking down Balkan Bears Corleone, 2:0, in the qualifiers.
Alliance attended the i-League finals in China, at the end of May, and were eliminated by Fnatic (then known as Team Malaysia), 2:1, in the Lower Brackets.
Alliance were recently eliminated from the TI5 European Qualifiers, coming up tied with Burden United forthe last place in their group phase.
Per Anders “Pajkatt” Olsson, Jonathan “Loda” Berg, Joakim “Akke” Akterhall, Sébastien “7ckingMad” Debs, Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg
Virtus.Pro
Virtus.Pro qualified for the MLG Pro League LAN finals after their triumph over Ninjas in Pyjamas, 2:0.
Virtus.Pro received a direct invite to The International 5, they swept through Alliance in the ASUS Play it Cool event in May, was the second team to grab a spot for the upcoming DreamLeague LAN playoffs.
Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev, Sergey “God” Bragin, Alexander “DkPhobos” Kucheria, Artem “fng” Barshak, Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk
Mousesports
Mousesports have qualified for the MLG Pro League tournament when they defeated the reformed Summer’s Rift, 2:1.
Despite being the TI5 Americas Qualifiers utmost favorites, Mousesports failed to qualify for The International. They were eliminated, after losing 1:2 to North American Rejects.
Before that, Mousesports had created a stir for competing in the Americas region despite consisting of two North-American players and three European ones.
Dominik “Black^” Reitmeier, Sam “BuLba” Sosale, Peter “Waytosexy” Nguyen, Johan “pieliedie” Åström, Tyler “TC” Cook *standing in
Summer’s Rift
Summer’s Rift has claimed the final qualifier spot for the MLG Pro League LAN finals, after defeating North American Rejects, 2:1.
After Mousesports defeated Summer’s Rift, 2:1, for the first NA spot, on May 16th, Summer’s Rift was given a second opportunity to attend in the Lower Bracket finals versus NAR.
Summer’s Rift was dropped from The International 5 direct qualifiers following a roster change shortly after they had been invited. The team then had to compete in the TI5 Open Qualifiers but lost to the Peruvian team Unknown, 1:2, in the semifinals.
After the Open Qualifiers, Brian “BananaSlamJamma” Canavan and stand-in player “Dragonfist” were removed from the team. It is unknown whether their latest lineup – including Niclas “Niqua” Westergård and Mark “Tralf” Seidl, is a permanent one.
Braxton “Brax” Paulson, Jimmy “DeMoN” Ho, Bryant “whiteBeard” Lehwald, Niclas “Niqua” Westergård (stand-in), Mark “Tralf” Seidl (stand-in)
London Conspiracy
London Conspiracy replaced Vega Squadron at the MLG Pro League LAN finals, after the Russians were left with too little time to secure their US visas and were therefore forced to withdraw from the competition. London Conspiracy were the qualifier finals runners-ups. As it happens, the five players from British based organization London Conspiracy are Greek citizens and benefit from a 10-minute long simplified visa process, due to the Visa Waiver Program.
London Conspiracy had a great run in the TI5 European Qualifiers. London Conspiracy and Vega Squadron were tied for the second place position until their last match that would determine which team would progress to the playoffs to face NiP in the Lower Bracket. Vega Squadron defeated the Greek squad, 2:0, eliminating the from the qualifiers.
The team finished seventh-eighth at StarLadder Season XII, their first major LAN tournament.
Greg “Keyser Soze” Kallianiotis, Omar “Madara” Dabasas, Xaris “SkyLark” Zafiriou, Giannis “SKANKS224” Theodoridis, Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannokopoulos
Ninjas in Pyjamas
MLG had announced that Ninjas in Pyjamas will replace Team Empire at the MLG Pro League LAN finals only days ago. Ninjas in Pyjamas did not have any issues traveling to the US, as Sweden benefits the Visa Waiver Program.
NiP did well in the TI5 European Qualifiers, finishing second in their group and advancing into the Lower Brackets of the playoffs. Vega eliminated NiP, 2:1, in the Lower Brackets.
Adrian “Era” Kryeziu, Linus “Limmp” Blomdin, Jonas “joanssomfan” Lindholm, Simon “Handsken” Haag, Elias “Sealkid” Merta
Ninjas in Pyjamas
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