The Kuala Lumpur Major groups announced

PGL has recently drawn The Kuala Lumpur Major groups and now we know the initial matchups of the tournament. Groups will be played in GSL format, which includes 4 stages:

• Opening matches
• The winner vs. winner match (aka winners' match)
• The loser vs. the loser (aka losers' match)
• The loser of the first stage vs. the winner of the third stage (aka decider match)

The winners of the winners’ and the decider match and will be seeded to the upper bracket, while the rest of the teams go to the lower bracket.

Let’s do a brief overview and try to predict the winners of each group.

Group A

Team Secret was absolutely on fire during ESL One Hamburg, and they have a relatively easy opponent in the opening match, so we expect Puppey’s squad to take the first place.

If paiN Gaming has as strong performance as they had against Team Aster a couple of weeks ago, they should beat NiP and get out of the group through the decider.

Predictions:

1st place: Team Secret
2nd place: paiN Gaming
3rd place: Ninjas in Pyjamas
4th place: J.Storm

Group B

The outcome of this group largely depends on the shape in which Evil Geniuses come to the tournament. If the team beats Aster, they won’t have much trouble against the winner of the other pair.

Vici Gaming are also poised to get into the upper bracket, although the other Chinese team will give it a run for its money.

Predictions:

1st place: Evil Geniuses
2nd place: Vici Gaming
3rd place: Team Aster
4th place: TNC Predator

Group C

PSG.LGD on paper has the easiest opponent in this tournament, as Tigers are the ones who won the wildcard spot at The Kuala Lumpur Major through The DreamLeague Minor. We expect PSG.LGD to sweep this group and give a slight lead to Fnatic in the chase for the second place.

Predictions:

1st place: PSG.LGD
2nd place: Fnatic
3rd place: Gambit Esports
4th place: Tigers

Group D

Virtus.pro had “a bumpy ride” during the recent ESL One Hamburg 2018 when they lost in the middle of the “Mercedes meme" controversy. Nevertheless, the Bears should win this group without dropping more than one map.

In their top form Alliance can be a Tier 1 team (check the results from the WePlay! Reshuffle), so we can expect them to get out of this group though winners’ or decider.

Predictions:
1st place: Virtus.pro
2nd place: Alliance
3rd place: Forward Gaming
4th place: paiN X

The Kuala Lumpur Major with the prize pool of $1,000,000 and 15,000 DPC points kicks off November 09.