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With the Group Stage concluded, the Bali Major 2023 Playoffs are now set. The last major of the Dota Pro Circuit had a few surprises, so let's see how this next stage will begin.  

Final Group Standings

  Group A ended up being mostly expected results. The more exciting start that we address in past articles ended up normalizing over time, concluding with Shopify Rebellion barely making it through to the Bali Major Playoffs. Their bad start here at the tournament was bad enough to force them to a tiebreaker against Blacklist International, but they managed to secure a crucial 2-1 win that places them as the final seed of Group A. Here's what the standing ended up like:     Group B, on the other hand, hasn't stopped surprising us since their first game finished at the Bali Major. Evil Geniuses are eliminated from the tournament in dead-last with a 3-13 record. Gaiming Gladiators, the Major kings of 2023 in Dota finished third, behind Quest Esports and BetBoom Team, two rosters who haven't even secured their TI qualifications yet.     If suprising results aren't enough, don't worry, Group B brings drama to the Bali Major too. IO Esports tweeted an announcement in which they said they were disqualifying Azure Ray due to a bug abuse in their game against Nouns. That tweet has now been deleted. The decision seemed to be retracted as Azure Ray moved on to play their tiebreaker BO3 series against Bleed Esports to see who would make it to the Bali Playoffs. A couple hours later, during the aforementioned series, IO Esports tweeted another announcement, this time saying that their investigation was inconclusive and that, due to the seemingly random nature of the bug, the team (Azure Ray) would remain in the tournament.     The bug in questions allegedly is one where if you ping Watchers the ping icon will let you know if they're under enemy control, even through fog-of-war. This debacle ended up having a lot of impact in the tournament since Azure Ray eliminated Bleed Esports 2-1 in the tiebreaker and were the last team to qualify to the Bali Major Playoffs.  

Bali Major 2023 Playoffs: The schedule and bracket

      With all the Bali Major 2023 Playoffs teams qualified, this is what the bracket looks like. It is, as it always is, a double-elimination bracket. All matches will be BO3 series with the exception of the Grand Final, which is BO5. Despite a shakier performance in the Group Stage, Gaimin Gladiators should still be the favorites to win it all at the Bali Major Playoffs, alongside Team Liquid. The two teams have topped every single DPC Major in 2023 so far, with GG winning the three titles while TL looked on from the second place in the podium. Can Liquid strike and take down the Gladiators in a possibly weaker state? Will GG just continue their trophy-winning spree? Or will the upsets continue with the likes of Quest Esports pulling off the heist of the year? The Bali Major 2023 Playoffs kick-off in a bit more than a day, with Liquid vs PSG.LGD on July 5th at 2AM UTC/ July 4th 10PM EST. Catch it live on Twitch and Youtube.

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Images courtesy of Liquipedia, Team Liquid, Epulze and IOEsports. Keep tabs on Esports Heaven to be up-to-date with the latest coverage on the Dota 2 Bali Major as well as other DPC coverage.