ONE Esports Singapore Major Playoffs Preview

The Group Stage of ONE Esports Singapore Major is over and 7 of the 8 teams have qualified for the Playoffs. But before I take a close look at the 3^rd and final stage of the tournament, let’s see what happened so far.

Wild Card Results

The Wild Card Stage of ONE Esports Singapore Major was disputed between 6 strong teams. However, some of them had to play with stand-ins and that resulted in poor results. Both Nigma and T1 got crushed by the other competitors and were eliminated. In the end, the 3 teams that qualified for the Group Stage were PSG.LGD, Vici Gaming, and Team Liquid.

Group Stage Results

The Group Stage had some pretty spectacular matches, most of which ended in a draw. Just like in the previous stage, the Chinese teams played really well. Two of them (PSG.LGD and Vici Gaming) finished in the top 3 and will start the Playoffs in the Upper Bracket. The 3^rd, Team Aster, finished 6^th and will start in the Lower Bracket.

The big surprises of this stage were Thunder Predator and Alliance.

Thunder Predator is a South American team with a relatively unknown roster. But in spite of that, they had an amazing run: 5 wins, 2 draws, 0 losses. Quite clearly, this team has found a way to compete in this meta that their adversaries simply can’t figure out. Apart from Neon and Vici Gaming, everyone got crushed by TP’s playstyle.

The other big surprise was Alliance. But in a negative way. Even though 7 out of the 8 participants moved on, Alliance somehow managed to finish last with 0 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses.

The complete results for this stage are the following:

1^st place: Thunder Predator: 5 W – 2 D – 0 L
2^nd place: PSG.LGD: 3 W – 3 D – 1 L
3^rd place: Vici Gaming: 2 W – 4 D – 1 L
4^th place: Quincy Crew: 2 W – 3 D – 2 L
5^th place: Team Liquid: 1 W – 4 D – 2 L
6^th place: Team Aster: 1 W – 3 D – 3 L
7^th place: Neon: 1 W – 3 D – 3 L
8^th place: Alliance: 0 W – 4 D – 3 L

Playoffs Preview

The Playoffs Stage of ONE Esports Singapore Major is scheduled to take place between March 31^st – April 4^th. The Grand Final will be Bo5. Every other match is Bo3. The number of participants is 12. Eight of these teams start in the Upper Bracket while the other 4 start in the Lower Bracket. The full list of participants is the following:

Evil Geniuses
Fnatic
Invictus Gaming
Vici Gaming
Thunder Predator
Team Secret
pro
LGD
Quincy Crew
Team Aster
Team Liquid
Neon

The big favorites are Team Secret, Virtus.pro, and Thunder Predator. I know it may be shocking to see Thunder Predator on this list, but after the Group Stage it’s hard not to include them among the strongest competitors.

The First 4 Matches

These are the first 4 Upper Bracket matches:

Evil Geniuses vs. Fnatic

EG is the clear favorite here. Their roster is much stronger than Fnatic’s and Fly is a world-class captain who delivers excellent results on a consistent basis. In a Bo3, I don’t see how Fnatic could produce an upset.

Invictus Gaming vs. Vici Gaming

These two teams know each other quite well, because they always meet in the regional tournaments. In the last two of those encounters, Invictus Gaming won. This makes me see them as the favorites to win this match as well. It’s hard to regard Vici Gaming as iG’s equal given the inconsistent results we’ve seen from them in the DPC China Upper Division and at this event.

Thunder Predator vs. Team Secret

This will be Thunder Predator’s biggest test so far at ONE Esports Singapore Major and I don’t think they can win. Team Secret is probably the strongest team in the world right now and their lineup looks unbeatable. In Europe, Secret finished the tournament with 7 consecutive wins, clearly proving to be one step ahead of everybody else in this meta.

Thunder Predator did look impressive in the Group Stage and if they perform at the same level in this match, we might see Secret struggle a bit. But in the end, whether it’s 0 – 2 or 1 – 2, Secret should prevail.

Virtus.pro vs. PSG.LGD

Virtus.pro is much stronger than PSG.LGD at this moment in time. The Chinese squad is still struggling to a winning formula and be consistent with it, while VP is dominating the CIS region and proved they can beat all the European teams as well. Based on what we’ve seen them do prior to ONE Esports Singapore Major, this match is going to be very difficult for PSG.LGD.

Photo credit: Valve