Falcons among four winners to open DreamLeague Season 29 playoffs

Team Falcons, PARIVISION, Team Spirit and Aurora Gaming kicked off the playoff stage with wins Tuesday at the $1 million DreamLeague Season 29 online event.

Falcons swept Tundra Esports 2-0, PARIVISION outlasted Team Liquid 2-1, Spirit blanked BetBoom Team 2-0 and Aurora rallied to best Natus Vincere 2-1.

The four losing teams are not out of it yet. They drop into the lower bracket and can reach the grand final by going on a spotless run from here on out.

Sixteen teams began the Dota 2 tournament on May 13. The top four finishers from Group A and Group B moved into the upper-bracket playoffs, with the fifth- and sixth-place finishers advancing to the lower bracket.

The double-elimination playoffs began Tuesday. All matches are best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final, where the winning team will take home $250,000 in player prize money, a club bonus of $40,000 and a minimum of 6,000 ESL Pro Tour points.

On Tuesday, Falcons defeated Tundra in 46 minutes on green and 60 minutes on red. Oliver "skiter" Lepko of Slovakia led Falcons with an average kills-deaths-assists ratio of 13.5-1.5-10.5.

PARIVISION sandwiched a 43-minute win on red and a 47-minute triumph on green around Liquid's 52-minute victory on red. Russia's Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov led the way for PARIVISION with an average K-D-A of 12.3-2.7-11.7.

Spirit prevailed in 55 minutes and 30 minutes, both on green, to defeat BetBoom. On the latter map, Spirit dominated as Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov posted a 17-0-11 and fellow Russian Denis "Larl" Sigitov was 10-0-14.

NaVi won their opening map in 41 minutes on green before Aurora took over and won in 49 minutes and 47 minutes, both on green as well. Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko of Russia averaged a 10.3-2.7-8.3 K-D-A.

The tournament continues Wednesday with three lower-bracket Round 1 matchups:

--Tundra Esports vs. Virtus.pro

--Team Liquid vs. Xtreme Gaming

--BetBoom Team vs. Vici Gaming

DreamLeague Season 29 prize pool (player prize money, club reward and base ESL Pro Tour points)

1. $250,000, $40,000, 6,000 points

2. $100,000, $30,000, 5,000 points

3. $80,000, $25,000, 4,000 points

4. $60,000, $20,000, 3,200 points

5-6. $40,000, $15,000, 2,200 points

7-8. $27,500, $12,500, 1,000 points

9-12. $20,000, $10,000, 375 points

13-14. $12,500, $10,000, 140 points -- ex-HEROIC, Nigma Galaxy

15-16. $10,000, $10,000, 60 points -- GamerLegion, REKONIX

--Field Level Media