Playoffs are here! Meet the Top 8 teams of ESL One Kuala Lumpur cover image

Playoffs are here! Meet the Top 8 teams of ESL One Kuala Lumpur

ESL One Kuala Lumpur has seen the return of Meepo. Anything can happen from now on!

ESL One Kuala Lumpur's Group Stage is over, and as a result we have to say goodbye to four teams as we start the Playoffs. As Group Stage wrapped up, things got wild with the 1v1 tie-breakers between mid lane players, and the first Meepo of the tournament, with a 100% win rate now, was played (please don't pick it when you find your next ranked match, we deserve better.)

Teams eliminated and their prize pool

Today was the last chance for some teams, but others had their fate decided even before the games started. This is the case for the SA qualified team Wawitas Sagazes, which faced Team Secret today and almost got a tie. 9Pandas was in a similar situation, but their rival (iG.G2) showed no mercy. Both teams will receive $25,000 USD each.

LGD and Blacklist International were in an awful situation too, but they still had chances today if they earned all the points from the 2-0. Sadly, there was no chance after they lost their first game of the series. Both of them will receive $30,000 USD.

ESL One Kuala Lumpur Group Stage (Image via Liquipedia.net)
ESL One Kuala Lumpur Group Stage (Image via Liquipedia.net)

Playoffs Day 1 also started today

Playoffs develop on a Double-elimination format, which allowed the first and second place of each group to play an Upper Bracket game today. Only one Tiebreaker was needed to determine if Team Secret or Gaimin Gladiators had a chance to avoid the Lower Bracket. The decider game was a gift for the old school fans, since it was a 1v1 midlane game between Quinn "Quinn" Callahan and Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng. The ending weirded out everyone since MidOne thought denying himself on the Neutral Camp didn't count as a kill, but when Quinn got the First Blood, the game was over. Here's the live clip of the last epic Shadowraze exchange.

As the Playoffs started, we saw it: The Meepo. G.G2 managed to win the first game playing the Meepo but the second game was a whole different story. Even though Gaimin Gladiators managed to beat the cheese strat, they decided not to risk it and ban the hero for Game 3. This was enough to win the series by 2-1 and advance to the Upper Bracket Final.

On the other hand, Azure Ray brought a better result for the Chinese community, since they managed to beat the "Pinnacle 25 Years Anniversary Show" winners and strongest MENA organization: Team Falcons. How, you may ask? With the Arcane Blink enthusiast Dazzle. He was nerfed on 7.34e, but you should see how easy it was for Xm to buff him on his own. Perhaps Lou's Lone Druid was the real problem, but Dazzle definitely got the spotlight.

The Upper Bracket Final will be played on December 16 in front of a live audience. Check out what other activities you will be able to find on-site and remember there's a one-day break before the Main Event starts with the Lower Bracket Round 1, featuring Team Secret vs Team Liquid (Dec. 14, 23:00 EST) and Tundra Esports vs BetBoom Team (Dec. 15, 2:35 EST).

What did we learn for the rest of the tournament?

YOU DON'T PICK MEEPO! Jokes aside, here's a small list of the heroes with the best win rate by amount of games played. You'll see some "broken" heroes may not be here because they tend to be banned.

Heroes / Stats
Games
Win rate
KDA
GPM
XPM
Grimstroke
20
75.00%
3.83
337
446
Pangolier
17
64.71%
4.48
575
696
Enchantress
16
56.25%
2.43
359
430
Phoenix
15
60.00%
2.96
352
513
Primal Beast
13
76.92%
4.60
519
644
Lifestealer
10
80.00%
5.87
629
671
Data via Dotabuff.com

If you don't want to miss a thing about the ESL One Kuala Lumpur, be sure to check our live coverage of the event. Remember we are always posting Dota stuff to keep you updated!