EPIC League Division 1 Playoffs Upper Bracket

EPIC League Division 1 has entered its Playoffs Stage and the first Upper Bracket matches are scheduled to take place today. In this article, I’ll take a look at what happened so far and what we can expect from the first two Upper Bracket disputes.

EPIC League Division 1 Results

The Group Stage of EPIC League Division 1 ended with very surprising results. After the tiebreakers, the rankings table looked like this:

• 1^st place: Virtus.pro: 7 W – 2 L
• 2^nd place: Vikin.gg: 6 W – 3 L
• 3^rd place: Natus Vincere: 6 W – 3 L
• 4^th place: Team Secret: 5 W – 4 L
• 5^th place: Team Nigma: 5 W – 4 L
• 6^th place: Team Liquid: 5 W – 4 L
• 7^th place: OG: 5 W – 4 L
• 8^th place: Just Error: 2 W – 7 L
• 9^th place: Alliance: 2 W – 7 L
• 10^th place: mudgolems: 2 W – 7 L

The bottom two teams were eliminated. The 5^th – 8^th place teams had to go through the Play-In Stage, in which the top 4 teams from EPIC League Division 2 played against them. Nothing sophisticated, just one match to decide who goes to the Playoffs in each case. Apart from Just Error, every Division 1 team passed the test.

Playoffs Stage Results

So far, the Playoffs of EPIC League Division 1 had only two matches.

Team Nigma – Team Liquid

Liquid started this match with a victory in game 1 thanks to a perfectly executed Drow + Weaver strategy. Then, in game 2, Nigma hit back and managed to win in just 24 minutes with a rare pick: Medusa. Unfortunately for KuroKy and his squad, they went for the same Medusa pick in game 3 and Liquid punished it heavily with Monkey King, Tiny, IO, Bristleback, and Snapfire. In other words, a heavy-aggression lineup that peaks early and just crushes everything in its path. The final score was 1 – 2 in favor of Liquid.

OG – Yellow Submarine

OG had a very easy match against Yellow Submarine and this was partly expected, given that YS should not have been here in the first place. The tier 2 squad managed to beat Just Error but OG was much better prepared against its playstyle. The match ended in two quick games. In both cases, OG used Sven as their carry, which proved to be a very good choice.

Upcoming Upper Bracket Matches

EPIC League Division 1 will have two matches today:

Virtus.pro – Team Secret

This match will most likely go Secret’s way. Puppey may have lost against Virtus.pro in the Group Stage, but he’s famous for being able to analyze an opponent’s playstyle and come up with a counter-playstyle. The break he had at his disposal to think and analyze replays will probably pay off. Of course, Virtus.pro is a very strong team, but they’re not as experienced as Secret. And at this stage of the tournament, experience and results-based confidence plays a huge role in determining a team’s success.

Vikin.gg – Natus Vincere

Vikin.gg lost against Na’Vi in the round-robin, which may be an indication that they will lose again. But I actually think that they’ll win this match, simply because they have a very unique playstyle that proved successful against a lot of tough opponents such as Team Secret and OG. The most likely score here is 2 – 1 in their favor.

 

Photo credit: Valve