Dota 2 Bali Major Playoffs day 1: Liquid, BetBoom, Gaimin Gladiators, Quest advance to semis

The Dota 2 Bali Major Playoffs finally kicked off on Wednesday (5 July) with the first round of the upper bracket.

Western European heavyweights Team Liquid, Gaimin Gladiators, and Quest Esports as well as Eastern European powerhouse BetBoom Team emerged victorious and advanced to the upper bracket semifinals.

Meanwhile, Western Europe's Tundra Esports, South America's Beastcoast, as well as PSG.LGD and Team Aster from China were knocked down to the lower bracket.

Here's how all the action in opening day of the Bali Major Playoffs went down:

Team Liquid 2-1 PSG.LGD

Western European juggernauts Team Liquid kicked off the first day of the Bali Major Playoffs by taking down Chinese powerhouse PSG.LGD.

The series started with a back-and-forth, 55-minute game one, where Liquid carry Michael "miCKe" Vu on Morphling led his team to a late game victory. MiCKe paced Liquid's 32-20 kill lead in game one with an excellent 16 kills against just two deaths.

PSG.LGD were quick to strike back in a 34-minute game two, overcoming a strong start by Liquid and forcing a deciding game three. Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang led the way on Primal Beast, racking up nine kills on two deaths.

While the first two games of this match have been relatively close, the decider was anything but.

Liquid absolutely stomped PSG.LGD in game three, building a quick lead from the laning stage and never looking back. Midlaner Michał "Nisha" Jankowski showed out on Storm Spirit to help Liquid secure the 2-1 series victory, putting up a perfect 11 kills to fuel his team's 23-6 kill score.

BetBoom Team 2-0 Tundra Esports

The second match of the day saw star-studded Eastern European squad BetBoom Team sweep reigning The International (TI) champions Tundra Esports, who have been playing with coach Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling as a stand-in after Martin "Saksa" Sazdov was forced to miss the rest of the Major due to a sudden illness.

BetBoom came out swinging to start the series, stomping Tundra in 35 minutes to the tune of a 26-8 kill lead. Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko on a carry Broodmother and Danil "gpk" Skutin on Ember Spirit both had nine kills to lead their team to victory.

While game one was a one-sided affair, game two was a hard-fought slugfest.

Another strong start by BetBoom made it look like this would be another quick one, but Tundra were able to put up a stubborn base defense thanks to Oliver "skiter" Lepko's Phantom Lancer and his army of illusions. Leon "Nine" Kirilin's mid Rubick also managed to steal Proximity Mines from BetBoom's Techies to make Tundra's base nigh impenetrable.

While Tundra would bring the fight to BetBoom's base with relentless sieges and 'Rat' Dota shenanigans, multiple Divine Rapier pickups by gpk's mid Snapfire forced a stalemate that forced the game well past the hour mark.

A series of chaotic clashes all across the map eventually resulted in BetBoom finally breaking into Tundra's base. Despite a valiant defense by the TI champions, BetBoom threw their bodies at the opposing Ancient and used all of their buybacks to finally complete the series sweep after a 104-minute marathon.

Gpk was the difference maker in that thriller of a game two, finishing with a series-high 22 kills against just three deaths. Nightfall on Morphling pitched in with 20 kills of his own on five deaths.

Gaimin Gladiators 2-1 Beastcoast

The third match of the day saw two-time Major champions Gaimin Gladiators defeat South America's Beastcoast in three games to continue their campaign for a third-straight Major title at Bali.

Beastcoast started the series by pulling a fast one on the Gaimin Gladiators with a surprise Meepo pick for David "Parker" Chote.

With Parker's Meepo having free reign to run rampant across the map, Gonzalo "DarkMago" Herrera on Storm Spirit scored pickoff after pickoff, eventually leading to a 33-minute victory for the South Americans.

DarkMago paced Beastcoast's 38-8 kill lead with 15 kills on just one death while Parker added a clean 13 kills of his own.

Gaimin Gladiators were quick to shake off their loss in game one, however, as they dominated Beastcoast in a 33-minute game two. The reigning Major champions led from start to finish, letting Anton "Dyrachyo" Shkredov on Medusa lead his team to a game three with a perfect 9-kill, 10-assist performance.

Game three was yet another stomp, as Gaimin Gladiators once again led from the laning stage and never looked back. Quinn "Quinn" Callahan put on a show on Puck, notching 10 kills against one death to help his team secure the 2-1 series victory after 35 minutes of action.

Quest Esports 2-1 Team Aster

The day closed with surging Western European squad Quest Esports defeat China's Team Aster, 2-1, to become the fourth team to advance to the upper bracket semifinals.

Quest opened the match with a 32-minute stomp behind dominant performances from Tony "No!ob" Assaf on Primal Beast and Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf on Timbersaw, with both players combining for a clean 16 kills.

Aster bounced back in game two with a stomp of their own, this time taking 29 minutes to force the GG call. Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan led the way on Ember Spirit, putting up a clean six kills and nine assists to pace Aster's 23-7 kill lead.

Game three looked to be another stomp going Aster's way, as they dominated the laning stage with a high-tempo lineup headed by SumaiL on Leshrac. Despite losing a lane of barracks and even a tier four tower, Quest managed to hold on long enough for Aybek "TA2000" Tokayev's Medusa to come online.

TA2000 showcased just how strong Medusa can be in what ended up being the deciding clash of the series at the 27-minute mark. Despite having all three Aster cores surrounding him, TA2000 managed to stay alive and help his team score a teamwipe that eventually allowed them to take the series after 38 minutes.

With today's results, Liquid, BetBoom, Gaimin Gladiators, and Quest have all secured at least a Top 6 finish as well as US$25,000 and 400 DPC points in winnings.

Those four teams will clash in the upper bracket semifinals on the third day of the Playoffs on Friday (7 July). Liquid will be facing BetBoom while Gaimin Gladiators will take on Quest.

Meanwhile, day two of the Bali Major Playoffs will feature the first round of the lower bracket, where the losers of the first round of the upper bracket will fight the lower bracket seeds from the Group Stage. Here are all the matchups on that day:

• PSG.LGD vs Team Spirit

• Tundra Esports vs Azure Ray

• Beastcoast vs Shopify Rebellion

• Team Aster vs 9Pandas

The Bali Major Playoffs will take place from 5 to 10 July and will follow a double-elimination format. All Playoff matches will be a best-of-three except for the Grand Finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.

While the competing teams in Bali are fighting for their cut of the US$500,000 prize pool, they have their eyes set on a share of the 3,500 DPC point pool.

Those DPC points will go towards securing all-important direct invites to The International (TI) 2023, this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual multi-million dollar world championship tournament that will be held in Seattle this October.

For everything you need to know about the Bali Major, check here.

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