The MDL Chengdu Dota 2 Major's group stage has reached its conclusion. The tournament now moves to the play-offs, all sixteen teams having been divided into the upper and lower brackets. The champions will be awarded the lion's share of the $1,000,000 prize pool and 4,850 DPC points, necessary to qualify for The International 2020.
Joining TNC Predator in the upper bracket from Group A is Fighting PandaS, who were placed in the losers’ match after falling 1-2 to EHOME in their opening game. Once in the losers’ match, Jonathan "bryle" Santos De Guia pushed the North American side to a 2-0 victory over Team Unknown. The team then met EHOME in the decider game, a rematch to gain an upper bracket berth. Fighting PandaS gained redemption over the Chinese side, besting them 2-0 to advance to the upper bracket.
Group B’s losers’ match saw Fnatic take on Team Spirit, two 42-minute games needed for Fnatic to take the victory. Fnatic then moved on to the decider match, where they faced European side Alliance in an opening game rematch. A 52-minute brawl saw Alliance take game one thanks to efforts from carry Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov. Game two brought more of the same as Linus “Limmp” Blomdin and Neta "33" Shapira aided Nikobaby in crushing Fnatic in under thirty minutes. With that victory, Alliance secured their upper bracket spot.
Team Liquid ended day one by claiming Group C's top spot after defeating Evil Geniuses in the winners’ match. While EG waited for round three, Team Aster took on Team Adroit in the losers' game. Aster took the victory 2-0, moving on to face EG for the remaining spot in the upper bracket. Game one went the way of Evil Geniuses, Abed “Abed” Yusop pushing his team to victory. Song “Sccc” Chun and co. answered back in game two, the carry putting up 25 of Team Aster’s 35 kills. The fight continued into game three, where Evil Geniuses secured the 2-1 series victory and a spot in the upper bracket.
Claiming the last upper bracket slot is Group D’s J.Storm, who were placed in the decider game after falling 0-2 to Invictus Gaming in the winners’ match on day one. Peruvian side beastcoast met them in the deciding match after defeating Gambit 2-1. Despite Leon "Nine" Kirilin and David "Moo" Hull’s best efforts, beastcoast took game one. A 56-minute brawl saw the carry duo push the North American side to a win in game two. J.Storm continued forward in game three, securing their upper bracket appearance after 45 minutes.
The MDL Chengdu play-offs will begin with two upper bracket matches, along with the lower bracket’s entire first round. The event will continue until November 24th, where the winning team will claim the $300,000 grand prize.