The International 2022 (TI11) Last Chance Qualifiers kicked off this Saturday in Singapore with 12 teams from across 6 regions fighting for the last two slots for the most important tournament of the year.
Those who made the trip to Singapore for the final pit stop to TI11 are the second and third placed teams in each of the regional qualifiers. For the next four days, they will be playing a round-robin, two-game series group stage into a double elimination bracket at the end of which plenty of dreams will shatter.
Although the group stage is not eliminatory, early sweeps can make the difference between a start into the upper or lower bracket of the LCQ playoffs, and given how stacked this portion of the competition is, surprises are bound to happen.
T11 Last Chance Qualifiers Groups
Group A
While the majority of the Dota 2 community thought that Group A will be an easy ride for Team Secret, the teams regarded as underdogs came prepared to prove otherwise. Of all the six participants seeded in Group A, NAVI have been by far the strongest team on Day 1, finishing with a 5-1 game record and thus, topping the group. Â
NAVI drew only one series on the first day, against Polaris Esports. The SEA representative managed to even the series in the second game on the back of an offlane Primal Beast and a flawless laning stage for their carry Terrorblade. TB was able to join the fights early with an Eye of the Skadi completed around the 20-minute mark, followed by BkB and MKb before the timer reached 30 minutes. His presence in the team fights along with Primal Beast never allowed NAVI to take the lead in the game and tarnished their nearly perfect run on Day 1.
However, the bigger surprises in Group A came from nouns and Team Secret. The former started with two series lost in a row, one to NAVI and one to Polaris, but closed the day with a draw against Team Secret, which might not be enough for them to secure an upper bracket seed, but it can endanger Secret’s upper bracket start.
Team Secret had three series scheduled on Day 1, but they tied two of those and won just against South American team Tempest, who are at the very bottom of the group with a 0-6 game record.
Besides nouns, Vici Gaming have also taken a game from Secret to keep themselves in the run for an upper bracket seed.
Group B
Group B of the LCQ is fully staked with teams that have equal chances at the two slots into TI11 and that is perfectly reflected in the results after the first day of matches. Three teams finished perfectly tied, 4-2 while the bottom of the group has also two teams tied, 1-3.
Team Liquid, Xtreme Gaming and Virtus.pro are at the top of the group,with two draws and a clean victory. Infamous managed to keep themselves in the middle of the pack with two draws and one defeat.
The unexpected surprise for the SEA fans came from T1 who finished with a negative 1-3 game score, tied with Wildcard Gaming in the bottom two of the group.
However, nothing is completely lost for T1, as they had only two series scheduled on Day 1. A good run on Sunday, October 9, can push them to the playoffs’ Upper Bracket.
Day 2 of the LCQ group stage is scheduled to start at 10:00 SGT with four streams running simultaneously as follows:
October 9, 10:00 SGT/04:00 CEST
Polaris Esports
vs
Team Secret
Vici Gaming
vs
nouns
Wildcard Gaming
vs
Team Liquid
Xtreme Gaming
vs
T1
