PSG.LGD and Evil Geniuses opened Group Stage 2 of DreamLeague Season 20 with sweeps on Friday.
Those teams were joined atop the leaderboard by 9Pandas and BetBoom Team, who won their respective opening matches 2-1.
It was the first day of a seven-day single round robin round to determine which four teams will advance to the playoff round.
Sixteen Dota 2 teams from around the world were invited to DreamLeague Season 20 to compete for a $1 million prize pool. The winner will receive $300,000 and the runner-up will earn $175,000, with the top two finishers also qualifying for the Riyadh Masters later this year.
Group Stage 1 went from last Sunday through Wednesday, with a single round-robin format and all matches best-of-two. The top four teams from each group advanced to Group Stage 2 and formed one single group of eight, with best-of-three matches. The top four finishers from Group Stage 2 will qualify for a double-elimination playoff stage June 24-25.
On Friday, PSG.LGD beat Team Spirit 2-0, winning in 40 minutes on red and 26 minutes on green. Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang of Malaysia tallied 21 kills, just two deaths and 28 assists for PSG.LGD.
Evil Geniuses — which won a last-chance tiebreaker Thursday to advance to Group Stage 2 — opened with a 2-0 win over Talon Esports. Evil Geniuses won in 34 minutes on green and 36 minutes on red. Crhistian “Pakazs” Savina of Peru rang up 17 kills, just one death and 18 assists to lead Evil Geniuses.
9Pandas rallied to defeat Team Aster 2-1. After Aster started with a 43-minute win on red, 9Pandas won in 36 minutes on red and 37 minutes on green. Gleb “depressed kid” Zyryanov of Russia posted a K-D-A ratio of 13-0-13 on the final map for the 9Pandas.
BetBoom outlasted Gaimin Gladiators, also 2-1. BetBoom won in 51 minutes, GG came back with a quick 22 minutes playing on green and BetBoom prevailed on the deciding map in 35 minutes on red. Danil “gpk” Skutin of Russia had an 11-1-21 K-D-A on the last map for BetBoom.
Group Stage 2 continues Saturday with four matches:
–Team Spirit vs. 9Pandas
–PSG.LGD vs. Gaimin Gladiators
–Talon Esports vs. Team Aster
–BetBoom Team vs. Evil Geniuses
DreamLeague Season 20 prize pool
1. $300,000, Riyadh Masters berth
2. $175,000, Riyadh Masters berth
3. $120,000
4. $85,000
5. $52,500
6. $47,500
7. $42,500
8. $37,500
9-10. Tundra Esports, beastcoast — $25,000
11-12. Team Secret, Shopify Rebellion — $20,000
13-14. TSM, OG — $15,000
15-16. Team Liquid, Entity — $10,000
–Field Level Media