The playoff pairings were decided by an exciting best-of-one tiebreaker round after three days of gruelling battle in the group stage at ESL One Stockholm Major, as Group B concluded with four teams locked in second place.
And the massive Dota tournament is still going on. ESL One Stockholm 2022's main stage begins today in Sweden.
We observed the group stage matches for 8 days before deciding on the names of the 12 teams who would compete in the playoffs. Today's first round of the upper bracket will be held at Hovet Arena.
We'll watch the following matchups in the first round: Tundra Esports vs. Team Spirit, Thunder Awaken vs. BetBoom Team, OG vs. TSM, and Gaimin Gladiators vs. T1. All matches will be played in a best-of-three format from now on.
Schedule, betting odds, prize pool
ESL One Stockholm Major 2022 takes place from May 12 to 22 in Sweden at the Hovet Arena. As part of the championship, fourteen teams from all over the world (with the exception of China) are fighting for a prize pool of $500,000, as well as 3,530 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) rating points.
Below are the current predictions for the upcoming matches. Teams that are highlighted in bold have the odds in their favour. You can click on the dates to take yourself directly to the detailed match page, and live bet whilst the matches play out. You can always visit luckbox.com to watch your favourite team’s matches and bet live.
Upper Quarter-Finals
- Tundra vs. Team Spirit n(May 16, 2022 - 11:00 CEST) 1.45 vs. 2.50
- TA vs. BB Team (May 16, 2022 - 14:35 CEST) 1.92 vs. 1.80
- OG vs. TSM (May 16, 2022 - 18:05 CEST) 1.60 vs. 2.20
- GG vs. T1 (May 16, 2022 - 21:40 CEST) 1.60 vs. 2.20
What happened?
By sweeping Fnatic 2-0, Gaimin Gladiators were the only team in Group B to avoid the tiebreakers. They finished the group stage with three victories, two ties, and one defeat, qualifying them for the Group A upper bracket alongside Tundra Esports, OG, BetBoom Team, and T1. The rest had to deal with the tiebreakers.
Unfortunately, this sent Fnatic to the bottom bracket, where they faced off against Thunder Awaken, TSM.FTX, Team Liquid, and Team Spirit in a best-of-one match.
Thunder Awaken delivered shocks left and right to emerge as the tiebreaker's greatest victors. They began the day tied with TSM in group play, but once placed in a bo1 situation, they stunned everyone and got out of the tiebreakers in first place.
Thunder Awaken began the tiebreaker rounds with a last pick Alchemist vs TSM and completely controlled the tempo that they established for themselves. They smashed a carry Clinkz from Team Liquid in the next fight, and in the final game, they utterly shut down the TI10 champions Team Spirit, who had to cry out the GG while being harassed in their own fountain by Crhistian "Pakazs" Casanova on Chaos Knight.
Team Liquid, the much more experienced adversary on the other hand, ran out of steam, losing both games and falling to the bottom bracket.
What to watch?
Tundra continues to dominate, sweeping Beastcoast and BOOM Esports, while BB Team continues to surprise, defeating EG and T1 before the playoffs. Day three features only five matches on the schedule, but players will want to tune in straight away to witness Tundra and T1 meet, followed by EG's final effort against Beastcoast and an intense game between OG and BB Team. At this level of competition, all the matches have head to head odds and may go either way, so it's absolutely worth investing your time.
