Team Secret hit rock bottom at Manila Major, Empire thrive

Team Empire saw Team Secret eliminated, 1:0, in the very first round of the Manila Major Lower Brackets. After placing last in their group during the tournament’s groupstage, Team Secret have been sent home early, in the first day of the main event. The Shanghai Major champions will walk away with $30,000. The Manila Major action picks up again tomorrow, June 8th, at 04:00 CEST, with the Upper Bracket series between Newbee and Digital Chaos.

Team Secret’s current lineup has yet to fall into place, after playing together for over two months and a half, since March 22. Arteezy has been rather inconsistent, UNiVeRsE has been struggling to adapt, pieliedie, EternaLEnVy and Puppey have been lacking their usual spark. Their agonizing phase is reflected in their recent results: they lost nine out of ten official series they played so far and finished last in all the tournaments they took part in.

They started off on the wrong foot at ESL One Manila, in April, where they didn’t even make it out of the groupstage. They ended up placing last in their group in the EPICENTER Moscow groupstage and were eliminated from the main event in the first round of the Lower Brackets.

Things aren’t looking up for them yet. They placed at the bottom of their group at the Manila Major and got locked into the main event’s Lower Brackets once again, only to be knocked out contention on the very first day.

Team Empire’s well coordinated and beautifully executed rotations caught Secret off guard in the early game. Puppey&co. managed to get themselves back into the game around minute 13, when they took a good team fight on the back of UNiVeRsE’s great positioning, and punished Empire’s aggression to start tipping the scales a little bit.

Empire brought on a solid performance. They drafted and executed very well, showed good coordination and constantly kept Secret on the back foot, making it pretty much impossible for UNiVeRsE to hit the ravages Secret needed.

Team Secret started to completely fall apart around minute 25, when one of their initiations went badly and four of their heroes ended up being picked off. Minutes later, GG was called.

According to TrackDota, 1,167,514 spectators tuned in to watch the last elimination series of the day.

© TrackDota

© DotaBuff

Manila Major

The Manila Major – the third and final Major this season in advance of The International 2016 – is produced by PGL, with the main event scheduled to take place between June 7-12 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. Sixteen teams will compete over six days in a double elimination tournament. Europe has six teams at the Manila Major, followed by China with four teams, the Americas and Southeast Asia with three representatives each.

Twelve teams – Na’Vi, Team Liquid, MVP.Phoenix, OG, Wings Gaming, compLexity Gaming, Alliance, Mineski, Evil Geniuses, ViCi Gaming.Reborn, Team Secret and Team Empire – have played in the first day of the main event.

MVP.Phoenix and OG have pushed through the Upper Brackets, while Liquid and Na’Vi will now fight in the Lower Brackets. Wings Gaming, Mineski, Evil Geniuses and Team Secret have been eliminated.

The second day will start out with the four remaining teams – Newbee, Digital Chaos, LGD Gaming and Fnatic – before heading further into the Lower Bracket rounds.