Dota 2 Lima Major Group stage ends with 12 teams remaining
The Lima Major 2023 Group Stage has concluded its five days of nonstop action. Twelve teams will advance to the Playoffs, while six others have been sent home.
Eight teams qualified for the Playoffs’ upper bracket. Those teams are Team Liquid, Entity, Gaimin Gladiators, Team Spirit from Russia, Shopify Rebellion, Evil Geniuses, Talon Esports and Aster.
North American team Beastcoast, Chinese powerhouse PSG.LGD, London-based Tundra Esports and Ukrainian organization HellRaisers also qualified for the Playoffs, but they must start from the lower bracket. Meanwhile, TSM, BetBoom, EHOME, Knights, Geek Slate and Execration were forced to catch an early flight home.
2023 Lima Major Group A, Group B
Group A’s first-ever South American DPC Major has the Gaimin Gladiators and Team Spirit securing the top spot with a record of 11 wins and five losses combined.
Team Spirit beat Execration 2-0 and moved to the Upper Bracket. Gaimin Gladiators, on the other hand, crushed PSG.LGD. EG won over TSM, and Talon Esports was victorious against EHOME.
Even though Group A’s results were mostly predictable, there were a few surprises. For example, International 11 (TI11) winner Tundra Esports failed to advance to the playoffs.
Despite a promising start to the Group Stage, the defending champion was eliminated to the losers’ bracket after shocking losses to PSG.LGD and EG.
On Group B, Team Liquid and Entity had already secured two spots in the upper bracket before the final day of the Group Stage, leaving Shopify Rebellion, Beastcoast and Team Aster to battle for the remaining two spots.
After sweeping Beastcoast, Shopify Rebellion secured the third and final spot in the upper bracket from Group B. Later, Liquid swept Aster in another match, sending Beastcoast and Aster to a sudden-death playoff.
Aster conquered Beastcoast in a decisive three-game series to earn the second and final Group B playoff spot. The team is the only Chinese team in the upper bracket of the Lima Major.
Group B’s lower bracket spot went to Beastcoast, leaving BetBoom and Geek Slate to battle for the final playoff spot.
BetBoom needed Geek Slate to lose in straight sets to force a third-place match. The team found renewed optimism after winning game one, but Geek Slate quickly extinguished it by taking game two.
Meanwhile, HellRaisers annihilated Knights in a decisive match, forcing a best-of-three series to decide who would earn the final Playoff spot. In the end, however, Geek Slate lost to HellRaisers.
BetBoom’s defeat was undoubtedly Group B’s biggest letdown. Many people expected the Eastern European “superteam” to win the Lima Major because of the team’s reputation.
2023 Lima Major details
The quarterfinals for the winners’ bracket will begin on the Lima Major Playoffs’ first day, Tuesday, February 28. The teams will have a one-day break before the Playoffs begin.
Lower bracket play begins on March 1, with winners advancing to the semifinals on March 3 and losers relegated to the losers’ bracket.
The Lima Major Playoffs is a double-elimination tournament from February 28 to March 5. Except for the Championship Match, which will be a complete best-of-five series, all Playoff matches will be best-of-three.
Teams must finish in the top eight to claim a share in the $500,000 and 1,900 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) point prize pool. A certain number of DPC points are required to obtain a direct invite to this year’s Tim Dota 2 global championship tournament.
