Shanghai Major Group D: TI5 champions place in Upper Brackets along with Team Liquid

The Shanghai Major Group D continued with the group stages of the event early this morning. Just like Groups A, B and C – Group D was played out in its entirety today. Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid were seeded into the Upper Brackets for the main event, while compLexity Gaming and Virtus.Pro will start in the Lower Brackets. The action will resume on Wednesday, March 2nd, with the Shanghai Major main event, live from the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. The Upper Bracket quarterfinals will begin at 03:00 CET.

Unsurprising that everyone in group D showed strength in some series.

— Capitalist (@DotACapitalist) February 28, 2016

The Shanghai Major Group D was considered to be the group of death by many players and personalities. Looking to be the strongest and closest matched of all the groups, the Group D series did not fail to deliver.

The matches in this group were filled with many deciding games in the series, as well as some incredible plays, combos and dramatic endings.

As expected, Evil Geniuses were able to cruise into the Upper Brackets, despite losing their opening match against compLexity Gaming. After some incredible plays and much resiliency, Team Liquid grabbed the second Upper Brackets seed.

compLexity Gaming showed impressive performances, as did Virtus.Pro, but valiant fights from both teams were not enough to gain access to the Upper Brackets for the main event. Both coL and VP will start the main event in the Lower Brackets, facing two brutal best-of-one elimination rounds.

The drawing for the Shanghai Major main event brackets is expected to be released later today.

Shanghai Major group stage final results

Shanghai Major Group final results courtesy of Wykrhm Reddy

Virtus.Pro vs. Team Liquid

The first game of the series highlighted Team Liquid’s perfect execution and coordination. The European team was able to crush Virtus.Pro in only 24 minutes with a substantial lead. Adrian “FATA-“ Trinks’s Invoker mid was point on and Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen on Gyrocopter was too much for the CIS team to handle.

The second match started out more evenly between both teams. With several kills right at the start, the game kicked off much more aggressively, in the style of Virtus.Pro. The Chaos Knight – Io combo and Sergey Alexandrovich “G” Bragin’s excellent, well farmed Templar Assassin paved the road for their victory and tied up the series.

The deciding third game was heavily one-sided after the laning phase, with Airat “Silent” Gaziev having an incredible performance on Sven and yet another fantastic performance by G.

Shanghai Major Group D: Virtus.Pro 2:1 Team Liquid. Virtus.Pro advance in the group’s Upper Brackets, while Team Liquid plays Losers’ Match.

Evil Geniuses vs. compLexity Gaming

The first game in this North American series was witness to high energy and well coordinated plays by compLexity Gaming. Linus “Limmp” Blomdin had an amazing game on Tiny. He went 16:3:12 and was involved in almost all 28 kills for compLexity. The Tiny-Io combo and Phantom Lancer gave the team the push they needed to rocket into the victory.

Evil Geniuses quickly adjusted to their opponents and didn’t waste any time to claim the second victory. In only 22 minutes, EG destroyed compLexity’s momentum. A team wipe at 20 minutes into the game was more than enough to secure their lead and win to tie up the series.

The deciding game was again, as equally one-sided as the second game. Evil Geniuses were able to crush compLexity Gaming in 34 minutes, having had the lead, the advantage and the control the entire game. A perfect game by Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora with Void and a terrific game by Syed Sumail “Suma1L” Hassan gave EG their easy triumph.

Shanghai Major Group D: Evil Geniuses 2:1 compLexity Gaming. Evil Geniuses advance in the Upper Brackets of the group stage. compLexity Gaming plays the Losers’ Match.

Team Liquid vs. compLexity Gaming – Losers’ Match

The series started out with compLexity Gaming taking the lead in the first game. Team Liquid looked to be struggling a bit, as the NA team was overpowering and controlling the pace at the start. However, about 34 minutes into the game, after a disastrous team fight for compLexity, Team Liquid took Roshan and were able to turn the tides and take the first victory.

The second game featured a Treant-OD draft with much support to the Faceless Void pickup for Team Liquid. The game was decided in 27 minutes, after an overwhelmingly decisive game for Team Liquid. compLexity Gaming barely had a chance after the laning phase, with another perfect game for FATA- on OD and spectacular coordination by Team Liquid.

Shanghai Major Group D: Team Liquid 2:0 compLexity. Team Liquid will continue in the Upper Brackets of the group stage. compLexity starts the main event in the Lower Brackets.

Virtus.Pro vs. Evil Geniuses – Winners’ Match

The series to determine the first Upper Brackets seed started with first blood for VP on Universe on the bottom lane. VP has showcased some incredible team fights with some great clutch swaps and an Aegis steal from Artsiom “fng” Barshack, but it would be EG that would outplay and eventually defeat the CIS team, despite a disastrous Roshan attempt.

The second game was equally exciting and intense. With Mega Creeps attacking Virtus.Pro, the CIS team was able to hold them off a bit and continued to engage and push on Evil Geniuses. VP gave an incredible series and performance overall, despite dropping the series.

VP makes us work for every win. Gg's, tough games.

— Clinton Loomis (@FearDotA) February 28, 2016

Shanghai Major Group D: Evil Geniuses 2:0 Virtus.Pro. Evil Geniuses advances grabs the first Upper Bracket seed for the main event in Group D. Virtus.Pro will continue to compete in the group stage for their bracket placement.

Team Liquid vs Virtus.Pro – Decider Match

Team Liquid had a solid draft and executed their strategy really well, as they started out very aggressively in the first game ofthe series. Five minutes into the game, the European team was leading 4:0. They continued to run rampant all over the CIS team, destroying their chances of being able to turn the game. Some really fantastic combo plays by VP weren’t enough to help them find an opening or grab a foothold on the game. Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka’s snowballs were on point and Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi’s Enchantress was fantastic. In 28 minutes, Team Liquid took the game with a crushing 27:8 score. VP seemed to have trouble controlling the map, game and fights.

In the second game of the series, Team Liquid grabbed the first blood, but VP started out aggressively, seeking to take the lead. Team Liquid were able to once again outplay the CIS team. Virtus.Pro seemed to struggle a bit more in the game, looking to have difficulty executing their lineup and strategy.

Shanghai Major Group D: Team Liquid 2:0 Virtus.Pro. Team Liquid advances to the maine event Upper Brackets. Virtus.Pro will start the main event in the Lower Brackets.

Shanghai Dota Major main event

The Shanghai Dota Major main event will take place between March 2nd-6th, at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, in Shanghai, China. Viewers and visitors are in for dawn to dusk action. The Grand Finals will take place on Sunday, March 6th.

Format

Sixteen teams will play a double-elimination bracket.

Eight teams (top two teams of each of the four groups) will start the main event in the Upper Bracket. Eight teams (bottom two teams of each of the four groups) will start the main event in the Lower Bracket.

All the Upper Bracket match-ups will be best-of-three series.

The first two rounds of the Lower Bracket matches will be best-of-one elimination series. The following rounds will be best-of-three elimination series.

The Shanghai Dota Major Grand Finals will be best-of-five series, with no winners’ advantage.

Schedule Day 1

Shanghai Dota Major streams

• DotaMajor 1 (EN)
• DotaMajor 2 (EN)
• DotaMajor 3 (EN)
• DotaMajor 4 (EN)
• DotaMajor 1 (RU)
• DotaMajor 2 (RU)
• DotaMajor 3 (RU)
• DotaMajor 4 (RU)