No Upsets on MSC Group Stage Day 1

The MSC Group Stage Day 1 has kicked off with surprising wins from unexpected regions against the strongest teams in the tournament! The results, however, there’s not big shocks so far.

Here’s everything that’s happened in MSC Group Stage Day 1.

MSC Group Stage Day 1 Results

Team Liquid vs. Ultra Legends

Team Liquid was clearly the favorite coming to this match, as they are even the favorites of the entire tournament up against a newcomer. What was surprising was Ultra Legends actually putting up a fight in the early game, catching Team Liquid off guard for a minute.

The game, however, snowballed when Team Liquid found their footing. They gathered together to push back Ultra Legends with the amount of experience in the international scene they have. Game 2 was pretty much the same once Team Liquid adjusted to their playing environment, giving them the match win easily and convincingly. The MENA champion has huge potential despite being a newcomer on the international stage. They could join the best MLBB teams soon.

ONIC vs. CFU Gaming

The second series of the MSC Group Stage Day 1 had a déjà vu feeling with last year’s match. ONIC faced SeeYouSoon, a Cambodian team that stopped them from getting to the Top 8 of last year’s MSC. Now they once again face another Cambodian team by the name of CFU Gaming to relive their nightmare. The first game felt like we’ve watched it before. CFU Gaming dominated the game entirely since ONIC didn’t have enough damage, giving them the first point of the match.

Game 2 also had the same result, where ONIC might really relive their past experience of being 2-0’d by a Cambodian team. But CFU Gaming got super excited to the point of overextension, giving ONIC a window to punish them. This led to ONIC swinging the lead towards theirs. Getting all neutral objectives from that point, leading to a score of 1-1.

In the last game, ONIC suddenly woke up and showed their true strength, not letting CFU Gaming breathe for one second. They finished the games as quickly as possible to move on to the upper brackets to contest for an immediate spot for the knockouts.

ONIC must’ve put their trust in Kairi playing all 3 games as Yi Sun Shin and Kiboy in Badang for them to make it work as much as they wanted.

SRG.OG vs. Virtus.pro

Everybody believed this would be a quick series, as the defending champions are just up against the wildcard winner of MSC 2025.

The first game felt winnable for Virtus.pro, showing up immediately early on, but the difference in experience showed come late game. The decision-making of both teams was prominent, where one had its first time and the other was well-versed on what to do. SRG.OG finished the game when they caught Virtus.pro’s indecisiveness, giving them the lead 1-0.

The next game was the unexpected result where VP’s EXP Lane BadKot suddenly solo killed KRAMM with the fastest kill in the tournament. This led to a boost of morale for the VP squad, snowballing so fast that SRG.OG didn’t have time to react to it. The game ended 10 minutes in, surprising everyone with their win. 

The last game felt like the first game until SRG.OG struck first when they were contesting for the neutral objective. SRG.OG then finished the game after a bit of difficulty with their opponent, Virtus.pro. This showed promise for the 2nd place EECA region representative, being on equal ground against the defending champs of MSC.

Mythic Seal vs. Corinthians

Mythic Seal was renowned as the dark horse of the tournament in the presence of Philippine, Indonesian, and Malaysian teams. The early part of the first game showed it as such, where they dominated the game heavily against the LATAM region champions. They were overconfident to finish it, so Corinthians had a huge window to punish them for their negligence of the ability of Corinthians’ draft to counter-go. This led to Corinthians pushing the mid lane straight, upsetting the Myanmar representatives.

The 2nd and 3rd games, however, weren’t close enough, as Mythic Seal played in perfect harmony with each other to win both games. They knew that it wasn’t supposed to go the distance of game 3, so they made up for the last game to finish quickly for them to earn the last slot for the Upper Bracket of their group.

MSC Group Stage Schedule

The next day of the MSC 2025 Group Stage will be on July 24, 2025, at 12:00 PM GMT+3. The games will consist of all Group B matches to determine the upper bracket and lower bracket matches for Day 4. The continuation of Group A will be on July 25, 2025, at 12:00 PM GMT+3 to determine the first 2 teams to go to the knockouts and the first 2 teams to go home.