TI5’s main event in the Key arena has now officially started. Day one saw two series from the upper bracket as well as all 8 of the lower bracket teams playing. In the upper bracket, Team Empire faced off against LGD Gaming, and CDEC played Cloud 9.
The first series saw LGD manage to fight off a determined Team Empire, ending the series 2-1 in favour of LGD. Empire are now in round two of the lower bracket, and so still have a chance to progress in the tournament. The other series in the upper bracket was not as close. CDEC were able to roll over Cloud 9, ending the series 2-0. CDEC and LGD will continue on to the next round in the upper bracket where they will face the winners of the last two round 1 series of the upper bracket. Cloud 9 and Empire however will have to work their way through the lower bracket now.
On top of the action from the upper bracket, all 8 of the lower bracket teams played their Bo1 games. It was all or nothing for these teams, MVP Phoenix vs Newbee, Vici Gaming vs Natus Vincere, Virtus.Pro vs Fnatic, and Invictus Gaming vs MVP HOT6ix. After the games were played and the dust had settled, it was Newbee, Na`Vi, Fnatic, and MVP HOT6ix who made an early departure from the competition.