ESL One Frankfurt Group Stage: OG and Vega head to playoffs

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 group stage kicked off today with all eight team competing in the first day. Vega Squadron and OG have progressed to the playoffs. Alliance, Team Liquid , Fnatic, compLexity, Virtus.Pro, and Na’Vi will continue to battle it out in the best-of-three elimination series tomorrow. The final two teams to advance to the playoffs will be determined tomorrow. The action resumes tomorrow, June 18th at 10:30 CEST with the Group A elimination series between Team Liquid and Fnatic.

ESL One Frankfurt Group stage got underway offsite to kick off the highly anticipated festival event this weekend.

Some unexpected twists littered the first day as fans got to witness Team Liquid’s coach and ex-MVP.Phoenix player Lee “Heen” Seung Gon stepping in to play. Adrian “FATA-“ Trinks has been reported as being ill and it is unclear if he will make an appearance at the event at all.

Liquid wasn’t the only team with a guest appearance. With Virtus.Pro’s Ilya “ALOHADANCE” Korobkin’s delay in his visa, Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann from No Diggity stepped up to fill his shoes. ALOHADANCE did arrive in Germany and is expected to play with the team for the remaining matches.

Not surprising, was OG’s smooth and fantastic performance. The recent Manila Major champions had a flawless run in the event – not dropping a single match as they progressed directly to the playoffs. OG first took down Na’Vi 2:0 before wiping out compLexity Gaming in the late night.

The remainder of the group phase – the elimination series and decider matches – will take place on the main stage at Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt.

ESL One Frankfurt Group stage Upper Brackets and Winner Brackets

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage: Upper Brackets Group A -Team Liquid vs Vega Squadron

Vega courtesy of SL iLeague Invitational LAN

With Adrian “FATA-“ Trinks falling ill, ex-MVP player and current Team Liquid coach – Lee “Heen” Seung Gon stepped in to fill the role. The first game saw Vega take the first blood. The start of the match was back and forth exchanges, keeping the teams fairly even until about minute 14 when Vega took a crucial and favorable team fight to gain a significant lead and momentum. Vega Squadron had a great show of force and team work – paired with an incredible and flawless game by Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko on Tinker to take the first game of the series.

The second game of the match was relatively even throughout much of the game, with Team Liquid having a slight lead. It wouldn’t be until about minute 34 that the European squad would find an opening to pull away and full speed ahead to the clinch the victory. Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen’s slark was on point and the team tied up the series to force a deciding third game.

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The deciding game of the series saw Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi on Phantom Assassin midlane. Vega’s draft seemed to be easier to execute and the CIS team controlled the entire match from the beginning. No[o]ne had another outstanding game on Puck, while Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi had a fantastic game on Sven ending with 10:1:14 and leading the top of the charts in networth.

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ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage results: Vega Squadron 2:1 Team Liquid. Vega Squadron advance in the Upper Brackets, while Team Liquid drop to the elimination series in the Lower Brackets.

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage: Upper Brackets Group A -Alliance vs Fnatic

s4 at Manila Major

Fnatic drew first blood against Alliance in the first game. Despite their first blood, it was Alliance that had control and advantage of the game from the start and would further extend it through the early game. It would take over 60 minutes for the winner to be decided. Although Alliance had the lead, they had difficulty sealing the deal against Fnatic who held on tight. Alliance took the first victory with Jonathan “Loda” Berg’ s Terror Blade and a great game by Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg on Broodmother.

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In the second match Fnatic went with a Drow strategy and Zheng “Miduan” Yeik Nai had an amazing game on Invoker. Alliance had a Lifestealer-Batrider initiation combo but their supports seemed to be too weak to back it up effectively. The game was back and forth until about 34 minutes in when Fnatic gained the lead and cruised to their victory only minutes later. The Malaysian team’s win tied up the series 1:1.

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The third game of the series was another long one, going almost an hour to determine a winner. The game was back and forth with non stop action and at the end both teams had mega creeps. In attempt to secure the win, Miduan on Slark had purchased a divine raiper and went to end the game on his own. He was caught out and killed without buy-back and Alliance ended the game.

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage results: Alliance 2:1 Fnatic. Alliance advance in the Upper Brackets, while Fnatic drop to the elimination series in the Lower Brackets.

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage: Upper Brackets Group B -OG vs Na’Vi

Miracle- at Manila Major

Na’Vi went with a different lineup in the first game of the series picking up a Troll Warlord. OG picked up a Timbersaw for Amer “Miracle-“ al-Barqawi. The game was a bit one sided in favor of OG and while Na’Vi tried to hold their own with their secret strat, it wasn’t enough in the end to take the game.

The second game OG went with a really greedy lineup that Na’Vi didn’t seem to have an answer for. By the time that the CIS team’s Medusa came online, Terror Blade was much too farmed to contend with. OG had outdrafted and outplayed Na’Vi even though they had started out taking the lead after the laning phase. In 37 minutes OG was able to shut out Na’Vi and take the series in a clean sweep.

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ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage results: OG 2:0 Na’Vi. OG advance in the Upper Brackets, while Na’Vi drop to the elimination series in the Lower Brackets.

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage: Upper Brackets Group B – compLexity vs Virtus.Pro

The first game compLexity Gaming outdrafted the CIS team pretty heavily. VP had little to no way to really manage the Lycan-Timber combo. compLexity gave Linus “Limmp” Blomdin Timbersaw on midlane- a hero which he had a flawless game on with a 6:0:12 record by the end. In only 23 minutes, the North American team overpowered Virtus.Pro.

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The second match compLexity went with the Bristle Back -Io combo while Virtus.Pro picked up the Timbersaw. The laning stage was relatively even with compLexity going into the early game with a slight lead. Around minute 24 a team wipe on compLexity would give teh CIS team the opening to turn the tides and grab hold of the momentum. By 47 minutes VP tied up the series 1:1 and forced a third game.

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The last game of the series compLexity overwhelmingly took the game. Starting out with the lead early, they held on to it and easily closed the series with a win. Ilya “ALOHADANCE” Korobkin had secured his visa and arrived, being able to play all of the remaining matches tomrrow.

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ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage results: compLexity Gaming 2:1 Virtus.Pro. compLexity advance in the Upper Brackets, while Virtus.Pro drop to the elimination series in the Lower Brackets.

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage: Winner Brackets Group A – Vega Squadron vs Alliance

Vega at Frankfurt Major photo courtesy of ESL

Game one took almost one hour to secure despite Alliance having started out with the control and lead. It took until amost 53 minute before their lead was sizeable and they could claim the first victory. Jonathan “Loda” Berg’s Terrorblade was a force to be reckoned with, ending with a 7:3:11 and considerable lead in gold on the net-worth chart.

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The second game Alliance went back to a gyrocopter carry and Vega took Axe to deal with AdmiralBulldog’s BroodMother. Although Alliance was able to take a small lead and advantage away from Vega after the leaning stage until about minute 27 when Vega was able to reclaim their lead. Alexei “Solo” Berezin’s Axe ended up making big plays while Andrey “Mag” Chipenko ‘s Dark Seer was flawless. The CIS victory tied up the series 1:1.

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The third game was overpretty quickly for Alliance. In 32 minutes, the CIS team had overpowered the Swedes after taking control early. Loda’s Medusa was no match to out-farm the Alchemist. Even though Alliance’s draft looked good, the Alchemist carry caught them off guard and they had no way to stop it. Vega’s win gave them the series and a spot in the playoffs.

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ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage results: Alliance 1:2 Vega Squadron. Vega advance to the playoffs, while Alliance drop to the decider series in the Lower Brackets.

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage: Winner Brackets Group B – OG vs compLexity Gaming

Dreamleague season 5 Grand Finals winners

The first game was pretty one sided in favor of OG after the 14 minute mark. Miracle- had an outstanding game on Juggernaut, ending with a 28:4:12 and more than double the net-worth of the top compLexity hero.

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The second game the undying pick was unusual and unexpected but it didn’t work out as well as compLexity had hoped. After the even laning phase, OG pulled ahead and Johan “BigDaddy” Sundstein’s Terror Blade went 12:3:12. With an ultra kill for NoTail/BigDaddy, OG took the series in a clean sweep.

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ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Group stage results: OG 2:0 compLexity Gaming. OG advance to the playoffs, while compLexity drop to the decider series in the Lower Brackets.

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Groups

*Virtus.Pro have replaced LGD Gaming. The Chinese team was allegedly forced to withdraw from ESL One Frankfurt 2016 due to health reasons.

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 Schedule

ESL One Frankfurt 2016 – Saturday, June 18th

• 10:30 CEST – Group A elimination match – Team Liquid vs Fnatic
• 13:45 CEST – Group B elimination match -Na’Vi vs Virtus.Pro
• 17:00 CEST – Group A decider match – Winner Team Liquid/Fnatic vs Alliance
• 20:45 CEST – Group B decider match – Winner Virtus.Pro/Na’Vi vs compLexity