The first day of ESL One Mumbai began with an impressive start for some teams in the group stage matches.
Despite being rocked by withdrawals from various teams due to scheduling conflicts, the teams at the event played great Dota to give viewers a fantastic first day. The teams were divided into two groups, with Group A featuring TEAM TEAM, TNC Predator, compLexity Gaming, and Natus Vincere; while Group B had Keen Gaming, Mineski, Signify, and The Pango.
The first two matches alone, between a newly regrouped Natus Vincere (Navi) against TEAM TEAM representing North America, featured hour-long games with multiple buybacks and fully stacked items. Navi went down 0-2 despite trying their best.
Meanwhile, the Philippine team TNC Predator beat compLexity Gaming in a tight 2-1 victory.
Chinese team Keen Gaming went on to beat local Indian team Signify 2-0, while The Pango lost to Mineski 0-2, and will have to slug it out with Signify in the lower bracket. The last two games of the opening rounds saw TEAM TEAM securing a 2-0 victory over TNC Predator’s confused drafts, and Keen Gaming finished with a 2-0 sweep against Mineski playing with Kim ‘Febby’ Yong-min as a stand-in.
Day 1 ended with Keen Gaming securing their spot for the playoff stage upper bracket alongside TEAM TEAM — both teams had pretty dominant performances yesterday and will have to wait to find out who they will be playing in the upper bracket later today.
The remaining teams will fight again in the group stage matches, playing in the loser and decider series in both Groups A and B.
No teams will be eliminated after the group stage, as ESL One Mumbai is played in the GSL format. The bottom two teams from both groups will battle in the main event through the lower bracket series for one last chance.
