Bali Major day 1 group A results

The first competitive day of the Bali Major is over, and the results are a bit surprising. In group A, the competitors with the greatest amount of LAN experience had a good start.

Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian underdogs lost their initial matches. This was fully expected because neither Execration nor Blacklist International has a strong enough roster to compete against the world’s best teams.

BI’s players do have plenty of international experience, but this is their first Major in 2023. The fact that they missed the first two Majors and only accumulated 380 points this season clearly indicates that they don’t synergize very well with each other.

Group A results

Seven of the nine teams in Bali Major’s group A played two matches on day 1 of the tournament. Nobody got a perfect score. The best results were obtained by Team Aster (1 W – 1 D – 0 L) and Team Liquid (1 W – 1 D – 1 L).

Four of the other five teams that played two matches obtained two draws. Invictus Gaming won against Execration but lost against Team Aster. Sumail “Sumail” Hassan felt really good in this match, playing his Templar Assassin to perfection.

Despite IG’s best efforts, their drafts were not designed to deal with the early to mid-game aggression from Aster. Game 1 ended in 54 minutes. Game 2 lasted just 30. In both cases, Aster played with a set of heroes that can deal a lot of damage. It seems that they learned from their DreamLeague S20 mistakes.

AND THAT’S A WRAP FOR DAY 1 😮😮

Here’s how things currently stand in the groups#WhereLandMeetsSea 🌊 pic.twitter.com/sXvZOHNZPd

— IO Esports @ Bali Major (@ioesportsgg) June 29, 2023

Team Liquid was the only other team that did really well on day 1 of the Bali Major. Their draw against Rebellion was less than ideal but still valuable. During this game, they picked Ember Spirit twice and did well against the NA squad, despite having to play against Morphling and Techies twice.

In their second match of the day, Liquid crushed Blacklist with two drafts that heavily relied on physical damage and early-game aggression. Heroes like Enchantress, Drow Ranger, Visage, Medusa, and Lone Druid were used.

The SEA team picked Morphling and Anti-Mage, which proved to be a poor decision. There was simply not enough time for these heroes to develop and do what they do best. BI’s best chance was to win game 1, in which they had a substantial advantage. But they ultimately failed to accomplish this and ended up losing the series.

The teams that drew twice were beastcoast, Rebellion, Team Spirit, and Tundra Esports.

Header: IO Esports, Epulze