Royal Never Give Up, Nigma, Gambit Esports and Geek Fam advanced to the upper-bracket playoffs at the WePlay! Bukovel (Ukraine) Minor 2020 on Friday.
The $300,000 Dota 2 tournament began with eight teams vying for the $72,000 first prize, 140 Dota Pro Circuit points and an automatic berth in the DreamLeague Leipzig Major. All matches are best-of-three except for the best-of-five final on Sunday.
Friday action began with Team Spirit topping Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 in the Group A elimination match.
Royal Never Give Up swept Geek Fam 2-0 in the Group A winners-bracket match before Geek Fam recovered to beat Team Spirit 2-0 in the Group A decider match.
In Group B, Gambit came from behind to top Fighting PandaS 2-1 in the winners-bracket match. Nigma then edged Fighting PandaS 2-1 in the Group B decider match.
The Saturday upper-bracket semifinals will see Royal Never Give Up take on Nigma before Gambit Esports square off with Geek Fam. The losers of those matches will meet Saturday in the lower-bracket semifinals, and the winners will meet Saturday in the upper-bracket final.
The Sunday schedule starts with the losers-bracket final and concludes with the Grand Final.
WePlay! Bukovel (Ukraine) Minor 2020 prize pool:
1st: $72,000, 140 DPC points, DreamLeague Leipzig Major berth
2nd: $60,000, 120 DPC points
3rd: $54,000, 110 DPC points
4th: $42,000, 90 DPC points
5th-6th: $24,000, 60 DPC points -- Team Spirit, Fighting PandaS
7th-8th: $12,000, 30 DPC points -- FURIA Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas
--Field Level Media