Epicenter 2017: format and groups in Moscow Dota 2 tournament

A year of anticipation after its outstanding inaugural event, Russian tournament Epicenter will have teams battling their hardest from the very start.

The group stages for the event begin June 4th, where teams will be divided to determine where - and if - they’ll keep playing for the playoffs. Here’s a quick brief on how it’s going to go down.

Teams have been split up into two groups; they will meet every opponent in their group in a round-robin format. The matches will be played as a best of three, and wins and losses will be recorded until the last matches on the 7th.

This is where the format takes a twist: the top seed from each group will proceed directly to the semifinals. Teams in the 2nd and 3rd place seeds will be placed in quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, the bottom two teams, four in total, will be completely eliminated from Epicenter, taking the 7-8th and 9-10th places.

Basically, every team will need to keep fighting in every step of the way to stay in the game. While other events’ group stages, such as those for Valve events, only determine where in the bracket teams are placed, this tournament’s group stages will define the whole tournament for each team.

Below are the groups, in alphabetical order:

Group A

• LGD.Fy (China)
• Team Liquid (Europe)
• Natus Vincere (CIS)
• OG (Europe)
• Team Secret (Europe)

Group B

• Clutch Gamers (Southeast Asia)
• Evil Geniuses (North America)
• Invictus Gaming (China)
• Planet Odd (North America at time of qualifiers)
• Virtus.Pro (CIS)

Who will make it out on top, and who will be sent home soon?