EPICENTER XL group stage ends, Natus Vincere and Newbee eliminated

After six days of group stage, two worst-performing teams in each of the two groups can no longer continue their journey in EPICENTER XL.

Thanks to the heroes balance change in patch 7.14, a lot of heroes that weren’t picked in previous patches were picked in this event. The rare occurrence of best-of-three round robin for a group stage also makes it less risky for teams to try out new stuff and draft outside of their comfort zone, including picking Techies in the first pick phase.

Eliminated: compLexity Gaming, Team Empire, Newbee, Natus Vincere.

Main stage
The eight remaining teams will be divided into the upper bracket and the lower bracket. The grand finals will be best-of-five, the first two rounds of the lower bracket will be best-of-one, the rest will be best-of-three.

Upper bracket: Team Liquid vs OG; Virtus.pro vs PSG.LGD

Lower bracket: FlyToMoon vs paiN Gaming; Team Secret vs Mineski

The most unexpected results are from OG and FlyToMoon. OG, still without a new player after releasing Resolut1on, continued playing with their coach. Unlike in other events however, OG seem to have finally stood straight after crawling around since the start of the season.

FlyToMoon is a three-months-old CIS team comprising experienced players Silent, Iceberg, nongrata, NoFear and ALWAYSWANNAFLY. They got to play in the group stage after winning the Madness Qualifier, where teams from all regions compete for one remaining spot. Notable participants of the Madness Qualifier includes Evil Geniuses and Team Kinguin.

We will also get to see more panelists for the last three days. The group stage was dominated by less-known casters, but ODPixel and AdmiralBulldog will be joining us tomorrow.

Are you excited for tomorrow? Scroll down and join the discussion!