Telkom Digital Gaming League (DGL) | Emerald Showdown Round 1 Results and Preview

Telkom Digital Gaming League (DGL) | DotA2 Emerald Showdown

30 January 2017 | Round 1 Results

The highly anticipated Telkom Digital Gaming League (DGL) Emerald Showdown finally takes place this week, with Round 1 kicking off last night (Monday 30 January 20h00). This tournament sees the #Top8 from the DGL Emerald Genesis Proving Grounds and the #Top8 from the DGL Emerald Do-or-Die Proving Grounds facing off in a high stakes showdown. The prize? Two teams book a place in the Community Shield, where they will be joined by six other teams. Those eight teams will then battle it out for two spots at a Telkom DGL Masters LAN (probably held in Cape Town, let’s be honest). If you want to see the entire tournament bracket, please head directly over to the official Digital Gaming League tournament page here. If you’re confused about how all the Emerald qualifiers and this Showdown all tie into each other, read our article explaining it all here.

Round 1 Results:

• ArmaGeddon 2 – 0 DUC!
• HiVe Gaming Entropy 2 – 0 Ventus Black
• Wicked Gaming Salt 1 – 0 Vz (forfeit)
• Mythic Gaming 1 – 0 ErA Invicta (forfeit)
• Sin5 Burning 1 – 0 ALG Vintage (forfeit)
• Sin5 Valhalla 2 – 0 TopKek
• Constant 2 – 0 Carpe Noctem Red
• Such DotA! 2 – 0 Valk Magni

With three teams opting to forfeit out of the running entirely Sin5 Burning, Mythic Gaming, and Wicked Gaming Salt all earn a free pass to Round 2. We thus say goodbye to Vz, ErA Invicta, and ALG Vintage. To be fair, I highly doubt any of these three departing teams could have ultimately secured a top 2 placing in the Telkom DGL Emerald Showdown. Elsewhere, the ever dangerous ArmaGeddon have put the sword to DUC! in a fairly one sided series which ended with ArmaGeddon scoring a 2 – 0 victory over DUC! in a surprise upset. DUC! will undoubtedly be furious with this result, as some had them pegged as favourites to go all the way. That estimation was a bit of a long shot in my opinion, as there are far more dangerous teams on the field of play here. ArmaGeddon just showed us that they’re one of them.

HiVe Gaming Entropy picked up a ticket to Round 2 after a 2 – 0 drubbing of Ventus Black. The Ventus team appeared to have come prepared, as I’ve heard they came out well from the draft phase, but ultimately couldn’t deal with HiVe Gaming throughout the course of play in either of the games. HiVe Gaming have been putting in some pretty solid performances of late, playing at a level much higher than their First Division seed suggests. I have little doubt that this team are going to swiftly achieve Premier Division status and could potentially do well at this tournament as well. We will have to wait and see.

Sin5 Valhalla performed well in their match to pick up a 2 – 0 victory over Premier Division team TopKek, who it must be noted have been playing pretty poorly recently. While Sin5 Valhalla are a strong team that deserved the victory, TopKek’s recent run of poor form would have made this series easier than it would have been just three months ago. Both Constant and Such DotA! easily brush aside Carpe Noctem Red and Valk Magni respectively. Constant dump Carpe Noctem Red out of the competition with a 2 – 0 whitewash, while Such DotA! give Valk Magni the treatment in their 2 – 0 victory as well. Both these teams faced fairly easy competition and it’s unsurprising that they move forward to the next stage of the tournament.

Emerald Showdown | Round 2 Predictions (31 January 2017 20h00)

With eight teams now eliminated from the Emerald Showdown, only eight more teams remain. These teams are now tasked with killing and maiming each other on the battlefield tonight for a chance at being one of the final two seeds, thus earning direct qualification to the Community Shield.

The match between HiVe Gaming Entropy and ArmaGeddon is going to be a really close one. While ArmaGeddon have put some big names to the sword of late, HiVe Gaming has relied on consistent quality DotA2 to get them this far. This match is either going to be a really close series, or one team is just going to absolutely stomp all over the other. In my opinion this is probably the toughest match to call. My prediction is: HiVe Gaming Entropy 2 – 1 ArmaGeddon.

Wicked Gaming Salt and Mythic Gaming both picked up a free pass to Round 2 in the form of forfeits. However, Wicked Gaming Salt are a new Premier Division team with some big name new additions, while Mythic Gaming languish in Second Division but also have a new improved roster. Both these teams have something to prove in the local competitive DotA2 scene and this match will probably be the most entertaining to spectate. I think this will probably be a fairly close series that could go either way, but for me one team has a slight edge that should help them prevail. My prediction is: Mythic Gaming 2 – 1 Wicked Gaming Salt.

Sin5 Burning and Sin5 Valhalla battle it out in an all Sin5 clan grudge match that is going to be full of explosions. If one of them picks Techies, I’ll be sure to pin them as my Emerald Showdown favourites! In all seriousness, both of these Sin5 teams have been performing really well of late and both have solid players in their rosters. Yet, having said that, Sin5 Valhalla just keeps outperforming the other Sin5 teams (old or newly remade). Based on their past performances I have to predict: Sin5 Valhalla 2 – 1 Sin5 Burning.

Constant are undoubtedly one of the most dangerous teams in the Emerald Showdown. Anyone who plays a little competitive DotA2 will instantly recognise the names in this team. Their performances in The Telkom DGL Emerald Genesis Proving Grounds were utterly dominant and it’s only through an act of the gods that they had to forfeit in the finals. Such DotA!, on the other hand, have had both good and bad performances in the past few weeks. They’ve not been all too consistent, but one must respect their Premier Division seeding. My prediction is: Constant 2 – 0 Such DotA!

TL;DR Round 1 Telkom Digital Gaming League (DGL) Results. We use the art of Astral Black Hole Alignment to ascertain tonight’s Round 2 victors. DUC! biggest surprise as they’re unceremoniously dumped out of the tournament in the first round by ArmaGeddon.