Three groups, three potentially different outcomes. If the Vainglory International Premier League is the first competitive bracket that you are trying to follow then you could easily get lost in the complicated results. I’m going to lay out the standings below, and from there we’ll be able to paint a beautiful picture of what to expect, as well as which teams I think are going to win and why.

Group A Wins Losses Group B Wins Losses Group C Wins Losses pQq 2 0 Gankstars 3 0 Hunters 3 0 Invincible Armada 2 1 Beyond 1 1 Wild 1 1 Unknown 1 1 Tiger-Phobia 1 1 Raid 1 2 Victorious 0 3 Vap 0 3 HACK 0 2

Going into this final round of the group stage, only two teams have been eliminated from playoff contention; Victorious and VAP. Two groups have potential three-way ties, and the other bracket comes down to a best-of-one to decide the second place spot. These groups are close, so let’s dive into each of them.

force the three-way tie

Depending on how Group A’s match ends, we could be headed into a three-way tie between the top three teams in the group. While pQq hasn’t lost a game yet, they are far from perfect, and a loss to Unknown would mean that the three top teams in Group A would be tied with 2-1 records, forcing a second round robin stage to decide two winners.

Tercus showed up big for Unknown in their last game, adding enough jungle pressure to let his team pull ahead, and eventually siege for the win. Based on Tercus’ performance on Glaive, I doubt he’ll get the luxury of playing that hero. If Glaive does sneak through the ban phase, unless Unknown has some other magic up their sleeve, expect to see Glaive wreaking havoc.

Team pQq has a deep enough roster that they should be ready for this matchup. Druid will be the stronger laner, and will put the pressure on Unknown to keep up with his superior play. The double-edged sword will be if Rain gets to play Taka and gets the opportunity to scale. His stifling late-game pressure has been unmatched as pQq has gone 2-0 thus far.

With how Unknown has been struggling to close out games, my heart wants Unknown to win, but my mind thinks that pQq will win in decisive fashion. Hopefully Unknown can keep the three-way tie dream alive!

win and get in

Beyond and Tiger-Phobia are both sitting at 1-1. While unable to match the 3-0 record of Gankstars, a win for either of these teams guarantees them second seed in Group B. This will be a high-stakes winner-takes-all best-of-one series for the ages! Both of these teams have shown great potential at going far in this tournament, and now this game will determine which moves on, and which team looks to the next season.

Beyond made a name for themselves with their double crystal compositions that dominate the jungle with Celeste’s range and punish teamfights with the presence of Skaarf. ForgottenWar has been a key factor in these games, despite the bans targeting his Celeste.

Tiger-Phobia had the earliest solo kill in the VIPL when Urano cleverly played his early lane advantage as Ringo. He’ll need to reach deeper into his bag of tricks to stay ahead of Beyond, who likely won’t let him pick a fight that early with their scaling crystal comp.

I expect to see Beyond win this and move into the second-place slot, but I won’t count Tiger-Phobia out. If Suri isn’t answered on the backline, he’ll be serious trouble for Beyond’s mages. He would need to be the deciding factor in this great matchup.

Three’s a Magic Number

If you thought that one potential three-way tie was enough then you haven’t listened to enough School House Rock! WILD, Raid, and Hack are all in a position where this game decides if all three teams go 1-2, which would force a three-way tie and another mini-playoff series. In order for this to happen, Hack would need to beat WILD.

WILD looked really great in their last game, running a highly synergistic composition that would be very hard to ban out. If Hack tries to take away the jungle duo of Catherine and Joule, WILD could easily transition to Celeste as the jungle carry and have the same impact. Hack needs to answer that comp so that WILD doesn’t run wild again.

Group C is a close race for the second spot, so it’s hard to predict the winner of this match. When Plex plays his jungle WP Adagio his mid-game is scary! WILD need to focus him early, and potentially ban Adagio to give themselves the best shot at avoiding more qualifying rounds for themselves.

DID YOU MISS: WILD’s comp from last round.

All of these games take place on Saturday, 9 PM PDT / Sunday, 6 AM CEST on OGN Global’s Twitch.tv livestream. I’m looking forward to the bracket being finalized! We’ll have updated information as it becomes available, so check back soon!

ALSO! Big thanks to EastCoast2300 from the VaingloryGame sub-reddit who created a bracket to make it easier to follow! Check it out, here!