ESWC 2010: Day 1 Summary

The first day of ESWC 2010 Paris concluded with all games being played in expected time. To briefly describe the format of the tournament;

• 16 teams participated in the tournament, divived into 4 groups (4 teams per group)
• each team will play against each other in the group (ala World Cup). The top two team will advance to the next round and the bottom two eliminated.
  
• The 8 advanced team will be randomly divided into 2 group - meaning this is the 2nd group stage consisting of 2 group, 4 teams each.
• Just like the first group stage, each team will fight against each other and the top two of each group will advance to the playoff (semi-final) while the bottom two will be eliminated.

Matchday 1 (1st July, Thursday) includes all matches of Group Stage Phase 1. The final standing of Phase 1 Group Stage:

Based on the table, AEON and MYM advance from group 1, Nirvana.int and DTS from group 2, Online Kingdom and LOST from group 3 and EHOME/Nirvana.my advance from group 4. These 8 teams were then randomly drawn into 2 groups:


The top two of each group will advance to the semi final.

links and more:

• ESWC Official site
• ESWC Live update
• Coverage: Gosugamers
• Coverage: Playdota
• Zeyall's live update on Twitter
• stream on Waaaghtv
• livestream shoutcast by Madmordigan/Tobi
• replays on Gosugamers
  

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my comments and observation on the tournament so far:

• Holy crap 2nd stage Group 2. EHOME, AEON, DTS and LOST all in the same group. These games will certainly give some of the best entertainment for dota fans. The two tournament favorite EHOME and AEON will try to prove who's the best, while DTS will want to show that with their LAN experience, they can beat the tournament favorites. LOST (former DDT) will also want to prove that they're one of the best European teams.

• Group 1 of stage 2 is also interesting with both Nirvana team meeting each other, added with the old timer MYM, and Online Kingdom which was reinforced by Kuroky. Overall, it's a touch call for both of these groups. I'm predicting Nirvana.int and OK to advance from G1, and EHOME/AEON from G2.

• It seems like the "3 carry strat" is still prevalent. (In) famously used to perfection by LGD.SGTY back then in SMM 2009, this 3 carry+2 supporter strategy has somewhat become a bread and butter strategy for almost every team as one of the most efficient way to win games. DTS did went for 1 main carry strat against Nirvana.int but it clearly did not work, although that game was a hell of an epic game. Nevertheless, kudos to Bulgarian team for effectively pull a push strat to beat Aeon in the group stage. More of these two games down below.

• All seeded teams managed to advance to the 2nd group stage. Really no surprise. I was looking for underdog team to go through, but it never happened and the best thing they could do is beat AEON with a push strat, but overall they still failed to qualify. The "Challenger" seed kinda disappoint us, you could say.

• EHOME simply steamrolled every team, even against Malaysian team Nirvana.my. It took them less than 25 minutes to get Mega Creep against Nv.my and Tribal. Their game against TEG was a bit tougher, but they still ended the game within 40 minutes. Truly the quality of Chinese dota.
  

• The first and only surprise of the tournament so far is Team Bulgaria's victory over Aeon, with an unorthodox push strat. Admittedly, Aeon has already won the group while BG has already been eliminated when the two met, but it was still a great game This is kinda like the repeat of eswc 2008 when Zenith (the current Aeon team) won their group games, then lost their final game against a Brazillian team which saw the potm bought a divine raiper.

• Despite the reliance of 3 carry strat, we still see a variety, and a lot more heroes being used. Enigma, Visage, Undying and Alchemist occasionally being used along with the regulars core heroes like VS, Drow, SF, Lion, Medusa and WD.

• MYM vs Aeon, hyhy vs maelk rivalry ended in the Hyhy's victory : )

Some recommended games from Day 1:

1. DTS vs Nirvana.int, Group 2.

I'm cursing the eswc because wtv stream was unavailable for this game, and have to wait for the replay instead. But what a game it was. Dendi's pugna in mid lane really amazed me. A lot of kills, very tense with good teamfights. At first it looks like Nirvana had the upper hand when they manage to score a few kills and towers, but then Light's sniper started to grow fat and getting beyond godlike, the tide slowly turned into DTS's favor. But the turning point is probably the 2nd roshan fight when all DTS heroes were killed. DTS then tried to bounced back with the third Roshan attempt at 52nd minute (good teamfight outside of scourge's base), unfortunately it was not enough to stop Nirvana.int from claiming victory. A lengthy but good game if you seek great teamwork in team battle.

2. AEONsport vs Team Bulgaria, Group 1

Both team has nothing to lose as one already won the group and the other had already been eliminated. The Bulgarian team went for an unorthodox push strat. What makes their strat interesting is that you can never see push strat coming until that last pick Undying. AEON might see the push coming with by looking at the bans and Chen pick, but they didn't make much effort in picking an antipush hero. Anyway the team fights was a bit messy and cluttered that sometimes you lost track of where's this and that hero, but overall it was a nice execution of push strat. Sven with Vlads and Necrobook tells everything you need to know.


Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome of Playday 1, and definitely looking forward to playday 2, later this afternoon. The only thing I would complain is the lack of proper stream by Waaghtv, because many streams died after the heroes finished their picking phase, or halfway through the game. Hopefully the games will be streamed better in future matches.