The Esports World Cup kicked off this week with four action-packed tournaments.
We saw the group stage for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) and the play in stage for DOTA 2’s Riyadh Masters. We also witnessed the tournaments for Call Of Duty Warzone and League of Legends crown champions in Team Falcons and T1.
And this was only week 1 of the 8 week 2024 Esports World Cup extravaganza.
MLBB had 16 teams between four groups fight for eight spots in the playoff stage.
In group A, Nips Flash dominated by winning two of their three games and drawing the last. Fire Flux wasn’t far behind, winning two of their three games and falling to Nip Flash in their only loss.
In Group B, the first place team, Selangor Red Giant, finished with a 2-0-1 record as well. Second place See You Soon also finished with 2-1-0 record just as in group A. This allowed both teams to advance to the playoff stage.
In Group C, Liquid Echo became the first flawless team with a 3-0 record. Homebois finished as the other second-place teams at 2 and 1 to advance to the next stage.
Then, in Group D, Falcons AP. Bren also went 3-0. Finally, Falcon Esports finished at a respectable 2-1, becoming the last team to advance to the stage. This leaves the above eight teams to duke it out in the playoffs with the grand final less than a week away.
The Riyadh Masters hosted 12 teams for a play in tournament in which eight would advance. These eight will then play in a group stage with another 8 teams that qualified before the tournament.
With eight spots open and 12 teams competing, the pressure was on to produce for your club. And when the lights shone brightest, Entity and Heroic produced 8-2 records. PSG
Quest and Blacklist International were not far behind finishing with 7-3 records. Beast Coast and Aurora were the only other teams to finish with five or more wins with Nouns and Virtus Pro clocking in 4-6 records.
The seedings for these teams have yet to be determined. However, those eight teams should be joining OG Esports, Gaimin Gladiators, Team Falcons, Team Spirit, BB Team, Tundra Esports, Team Liquid, and XG.WBG in the group stage this coming Wednesday.
Call of Duty
The Call Of Duty Warzone Tournament went through all three stages during this week. The initial seeding had the champions ranked third in their group behind Guild Esports and BSL.
This ranking seemed to be justified throughout the Solo Stage as Team Falcons finished 8th overall. However, in the group stage, Team Falcons turned it on, finishing first scoring over 100 more points than second place. A differential that could have qualified for the finals by itself if it was its own team.
The Falcons once again scored more than 225 points in the finals. However, Fnatic gave them a run for their money, scoring 208.
Yet in the end, Team Falcons was victorious, followed by Fnatic in second place, and Twisted Minds in third.
League of Legends
In The League of Legends Champions, T1 started off winning a close battle against Bilibili Gaming in a 2-1 series victory. T1 faced a similar struggle against Team Liquid Honda winning another 2-1 series.
Going into the Grand Final, there were doubts if T1 could beat the undefeated Top Esports. Those doubts were quickly vanquished as T1 proved to be too much for Top Esports. After 4 games, T1 won the series and the tournament, 3-1.
Starting Wednesday, Week 2 of the Esports World Cup is all DOTO 2 and MLBB as each tournament seeks to crown a champion. If you want to find more information on these tournaments or watch them live, visit the Esports World Cup website.
With Week 1 down, there are seven more weeks left of more than 20 games to be played.