Day 2 of ESL One Hamburg’s Dota 2 major wrapped up on Friday morning and, unsurprisingly, it was a lot of fun. Two teams locked up spots in the playoffs, which guarantee DPC qualifying points, and a minimum $90,000 paycheck, while one unfortunate squad was sent packing. Here are the standings, as of this writing (courtesy of Liquipedia):

But how did these games shake out? And what other interesting things happened in-game? Read on and find out!

Newbee’s Troubles Return with 2-1 Loss to Secret

Team Secret became the first squad to secure DPC qualifying points from ESL One Hamburg by defeating Newbee in the Group A upper bracket finals.

The first game saw Secret draft a crafty, global-heavy lineup that included Io, Spirit Breaker and Nature’s Prophet. That would’ve been tricky to deal with under any circumstances, but when Secret got the better of the laning phase, it was completely out of control for Newbee by mid-game. Secret’s lead just grew and grew and, eventually, Newbee just couldn’t compete with their omnipresent heroes.

The tides turned hard in Game 2, with an absolutely savage performance by Newbee. While things were mathematically close for the first 15 minutes, Newbee shut down Secret’s cores, preventing Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard and Adrian "Fata" Trinks from ever coming online. The result was an utter stomp, that ended with a lopsided 33-6 kill count in Newbee’s favor.

The final game was easily the most competitive. After taking control of the game early, a botched team fight saw Team Secret hand the lead over to Newbee, nearly evening the net worth and experience tallies after 20 minutes of control. A botched initiation by Song "Sccc" Chun, however, resulted in a three-for-nil teamfight and comfortable Roshan kill for Secret. That allowed Secret to regain its footing and eventually take the win.

While this doesn’t end Newbee’s run at ESL One Hamburg, this was a rough blow for a team that needed to rebound from an ugly last-place finish at StarLadder. If it can’t rally and make it to the top-four, that could sprout whatever seeds of doubt might be planted in the team after a tough start to the season.

Team Liquid Takes First Series Loss of Season from Virtus Pro

Team Liquid are experts in the art of the comeback but not even they could handle a white hot Virtus Pro. For the first time in the 2017-2018 season, Liquid dropped a series, as they fell to the lower bracket following a 2-1 loss to the CIS standard-bearer.

For the most part, both teams played up to their potential here.

VP was its usual self, playing its signature smashmouth style of Dota 2 that thrives on chaotic action. That directly translated into success in the first game, as it tore apart Liquid with early aggression and never let up until forcing the GG.

Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi is nothing if not resilient, however. The Liquid captain rallied his team in Game 2 after falling into a deep deficit, orchestrated some absurd base defenses and stole away the victory to take things to Game 3.

For a time, it seemed like the rubber match was going to pan out the same way. Despite falling behind early, Liquid reiterated its case for being the best defensive team in Dota 2 and got in position for another revival against a leading VP. Unfortunately, a simple misclick by Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barqawi, who accidentally used Sunder on a teammate instead of an enemy as Terrorblade, resulted in a critical teamfight slipping through Liquid’s fingers and VP claiming the series.

While Newbee’s loss to Secret is a worrisome one, this shouldn’t shake a confident Team Liquid. They’ll return tomorrow as a massive favorite against the winner of Keen Gaming vs. SG E-Sports, and should be able to seal up some DPC points without much trouble.

Evil Geniuses Cruises, Fnatic Eliminated

Evil Geniuses didn’t just need to beat Fnatic on Day 2 of ESL One Hamburg. They needed to beat Fnatic up. The boys in blue have looked pedestrian to this point in the 2017-2018 Dota 2 season, and they couldn’t psychologically or competitively afford to struggle with a weaker opponent in Fnatic.

While they didn’t necessarily steamroll the SEA upstarts, they got the clean 2-0 win they needed to both extend their stay in Germany and regain some of their confidence as an elite-level team.

Fnatic looked generally disorganized in Game 1, with sloppy rotations and shaky coordination. There were occasional flashes of what the team is capable of, as it pulled off some effective ganks and initiations, but for the most part EG was comfortable from start to finish, and took a cozy win.

The second game was much hairier, but was once again defined by Fnatic’s inability to confidently come together. For 30 minutes, Fnatic played a much tighter game, with a Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao Broodmother providing constant tower pressure and his teammates doing good work capitalizing on the space he generated. When the time for five-on-five team fighting came, however, one throw led to another and Fnatic went from being neck-and-neck with EG to down 11,000 net worth and two sets of barracks. The end came shortly thereafter and, just like that, Fnatic was sent home.

Day 3 Preview

As with Friday, Saturday will consist of three best-of-three series with the two remaining spots in the playoffs on the line.

The first will be Keen Gaming vs. SG E-Sports in Group B. The loser of that series will be eliminated, while the winner has the inauspicious task of facing Team Liquid in the final match of the group stages later in the day.

Snuggled between those two series is Evil Geniuses vs. Newbee. As discussed, both teams are looked at as elite-level squads but need some qualifying points to show for it. Only one will get some in Hamburg, however, making this the most important contest to watch tomorrow.