OG cruised to a pair of 2-0 sweeps on Sunday in Group Stage 1 action at DreamLeague Season 19.
Playing in Group B, OG won in 54 minutes on red before securing a 30-minute victory on green to tackle Nigma Galaxy, then conquered nouns courtesy of wins in 47 and 33 minutes, both of which came on red.
Bulgarian Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov carried OG in both victories, posting a 15.5-3.0-11.0 kills-deaths-assists ratio in the win over Nigma Galaxy before recording a 14.5-5.0-14.0 K-D-A against nouns.
Sixteen teams are competing in the $1 million Dota 2 event, which runs from April 9-23. The winner will receive $300,000 and qualification to the Riyadh Masters.
Two groups consisting of eight teams will battle in Group Stage 1, where all matches are best-of-two in a single round-robin format. The top four teams from each group move on to Group Stage 2, while the bottom four teams are eliminated.
Group Stage 2 merges all eight teams into one group and features best-of-three matches. Four teams advance to the playoffs, with the top two teams moving into the upper bracket and the third- and fourth-place finishers competing in the lower bracket.
Those four teams will duke it out in a double-elimination bracket. All playoff matches are best-of-three, besides the April 23 grand final, which is best-of-five. Whoever wins that match earns the $300,000 and qualifies for the Riyadh Masters.
In other Group B action Sunday, Team Liquid swept Tundra Esports before settling for a 1-1 draw with Talon Esports. beastcoast also tallied a sweep and a tie, downing Nigma Galaxy after splitting a pair of games with Talon Esports. Team Spirit clipped nouns 2-0, but quickly got a taste of its own medicine in a 2-0 loss to Tundra.
Evil Geniuses and Shopify Rebellion were the only two teams to pick up victories in Group A. EG beat Team Aster 2-0, winning games on red in 25 and 24 minutes. Shopify swept Entity by prevailing twice on green, opening with a 56-minute victory before clinching the match in 39 minutes.
Sunday’s other six Group A matches were all 1-1 ties.
DreamLeague Season 19 action continues Monday with 16 matches:
Group A
–Gaimin Gladiators vs. Evil Geniuses
–Team Aster vs. Shopify Rebellion
–TSM vs. Entity
–ex-HellRaisers vs. Execration
–Shopify Rebellion vs. TSM
–Gaimin Gladiators vs. Entity
–Execration vs. Team Aster
–Evil Geniuses vs. ex-HellRaisers
Group B
–Team Spirit vs. Talon Esports
–Team Liquid vs. OG
–Tundra Esports vs. beastcoast
–Nigma Galaxy vs. nouns
–Talon Esports vs. Nigma Galaxy
–beastcoast vs. Team Spirit
–Tundra Esports vs. OG
–nouns vs. Team Liquid
DreamLeague Season 19 Group Stage 1 standings (wins-losses-ties):
Group A
T1. Evil Geniuses, 1-0-1
T1. Shopify Rebellion, 1-0-1
T3. ex-HellRaisers, 0-0-2
T3. Execration, 0-0-2
T3. Gaimin Gladiators, 0-0-2
T3. TSM, 0-0-2
T7. Entity, 0-1-1
T7. Team Aster, 0-1-1
Group B
1. OG, 2-0-0
T2. beastcoast, 1-0-1
T2. Team Liquid, 1-0-1
T4. Talon Esports, 0-0-2
T4. Team Spirit, 1-1-0
T4. Tundra Esports, 1-1-0
T7. Nigma Galaxy, 0-2-0
T7. nouns, 0-2-0
–Field Level Media
