The Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017 began Sunday with the best-of-two round-robin group stage. Twelve of the best teams traveled to Shanghai, China to compete for a total prize pool of $576,950.
The only team to set itself apart and finish the day with a perfect record was OG in Group A. The Boston Major champion struggled a bit in the first game against Faceless when Anathan "Ana" Pham's Storm Spirit died ten times, but the rest of the team was able to compensate. In Game 2, OG ground Faceless down in a one-sided Drow Ranger victory.
The other top performer in Group A was Team Empire, which took a commanding 2-0 win over LGD.Forever Young and tied with Faceless 1-1. Empire utilized Monkey King in both games against LGD.FY, who was clearly unprepared for the newest edition to captain's mode.
In Group B, the Chinese home teams took the top spots, with Newbee and Invictus Gaming each claiming a series win and draw apiece. Invictus Gaming took down Team Liquid 2-0 in two very well played games, and despite losing its first game against Team NP, iG came back and completely shut NP down in Game 2 of the series.
Newbee also took a game off Liquid, but it took a grueling hour and 12 minutes to finally a claim a win, and Liquid were able to bounce back to tie the series in Game 2. Newbee's 2-0 win came in a series against iG Vitality, who finished the day in third place in the group.
The three western teams in Group B, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid and Team NP all finished the day at the bottom of the barrel, leaving them with a lot of work to do in the next two days of group stages if they hope to avoid starting the playoffs in the lower bracket.
