HellRaisers, NiP open strong in Pushka League

HellRaisers and Ninjas in Pyjamas got off to strong starts with victories on Thursday, as the WePlay! Pushka League opened play online. The 14-team, $250,000 Dota 2 event features seven teams from Europe and seven from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Each region opened round-robin roup play with one best-of-three match on Thursday. In the CIS region, HellRaisers swept Natus Vincere 2-0 with victories of 35 minutes and 33 minutes. In Europe, NiP battled past OG.Seed, the development team for OG. They won the first game in 38 minutes, dropped the second in 29 and closed out victory with a 39-minute win.

Group play continues Friday with three matches: B8 vs. Team Spirit (CIS); Team Liquid vs. NiP (Europe); and Team Secret vs. Alliance (Europe). The top four teams in each group will advance to the double-elimination playoffs, scheduled to begin May 7. All playoff matches will be best-of-three aside from the May 12 final, which will be best-of-five.

The championship team will receive $70,000, and the runner-up will get $45,000.