Galaxy Battles II: First Major Triumph for VGJ.Thunder

Galaxy Battles II: Emerging Worlds have concluded with a 3-0 victory of VGJ.Thunder over Evil Geniuses in the grand finals of the event.

The tournament was held between January 19th and January 21th at Philippine Arena. Initially it was a part of Dota Pro Circuit, but later Valve decided to rescind its major status due to specifics of esports regulations in Philippines. As a result, the prize pool of the tournament was reduced in half (from $1,000,000 to $500,000) and the number of participating teams was reduced from 16 to 8.

Participants:

• Infamous (Direct Invite)
• OG (Direct Invite)
• TNC Pro Team (Direct Invite)
• Evil Geniuses (Direct Invite)
• Team Spirit (CIS Qualifier)
• paiN Gaming (South America Qualifier))
• VGJ.Thunder (China Qualifier)
• PG.Barracx (Wild Card)

Eight participating teams were seeded into a double-elimination playoffs bracket. All series in the upper bracket were best-of-three, all matches of the lower bracket were best-of-one, and the grand finals were best-of-five. VGJ.Thunder defeated Infamous (2-1) and Team Spirit (2-1) but lost to Evil Geniuses in the finals of the upper bracket and dropped to the losers’ bracket. Then they outplayed Team Spirit (1-0) and made it to the grand finals vs EG, which ended 3-0 In their favour. This is the first big victory for VGJ.Thunder since its inception in late 2016.

Upper Bracket:

Lower Bracket:

Grand Finals:

Tournament Results: