The final two rounds of the group stage had quite a few upsets amongst the pairings, as Fnatic took Team Secret 2-0, Vici_Gaming Reborn took Team Liquid for both games, Digital Chaos beat Newbee twice, and MVP Phoenix lost out to EHOME. After that, EHOME continued their roll by taking both games off of Newbee, Liquid turned it around and stonewalled Fnatic 2-0, MVP and VG.R pushed to a draw, and Secret fed away their final two games to DC.
Secret’s first game against Fnatic looked to be going in their favour after a rocky mid-game, and just before sixty minutes they had a net worth advantage of over 9,000 gold, but all it took was one lost team fight for MuShi-‘s Drow Ranger and MidOne’s Shadow Fiend to obliterate two lanes of barracks, the tier four towers, and take the game in the 62nd minute, final score 28-34. Game two was all Fnatic, all the way, with MuShi- on Alchemist outperforming Arteezy’s Storm Spirit. Dj and MidOne put in stellar games on Mirana and Ember Spirit, but EternaLEnVy struggled as Drow Ranger and BuLba couldn’t make up the difference with his Beastmaster. Secret conceded at 36 minutes after losing two lanes of barracks half of the third, final score 24-12.
VG.R took the first match out from under Liquid after a collapse of a team fight that featured die-backs on FATA-‘s Death Prophet and MATUMBAMAN’s Timbersaw, while NoNo proved he does belong here by taking his Storm Spirit to new heights with a 17-5-21 record by the time “GG” was called at 46 minutes, 37-33. The second game had VG.R continue the momentum, where Zyf had the opportunity to put in some work on Terrorblade, going 10-2-8 and holding FATA-‘s Death Prophet to only 2-5-7. Liquid were forced to concede at 39 minutes just after a five for nothing team wipe by VG.R, leaving it 25-12.
DC’s first 2-0 victory occurred through two quick games, only taking forty-six minutes in the game to dispatch Newbee with ease. Hao spent both games trying to get the pushing engine of Newbee started on Drow Ranger, and instead had two very lackluster performances. Resolut1on and w33 on Ursa and Alchemist then Slark and Mirana could hardly contain their dominance, ending the first game at 29 minutes and the second at only 16, the final scores 13-8 and 21-3.
MVP Phoenix spent the first game spinning the wheels of QO’s Alchemist and hoping that would be enough, but even with all his farm from the 956 Gold Per Minute, he was no match for iceiceice’s Anti-Mage and old chicken’s Death Prophet. LaNm and Fenrir on Kunkka and Keeper of the Light got on both of their horses to power through the support eating combo from MVP in the form of Febby and FoREv on Riki and Nyx Assassin, and after 45 minutes MVP had enough and called “GG” with two lanes of barracks lost, while EHOME didn’t have to give up a single tier two tower. The rematch was far closer, with pitched battles swinging the advantage in both directions as MP on Lifestealer and QO on Slark fought to outpace the item progression of iceiceice’s Terrorblade and old chicken’s Razor. Two bad team fights in a row led to every hero of EHOME’s picking up their big item in time to end the game at 39 minutes from behind 27-29.
The next round started out with EHOME pushing their momentum onward and taking a 59-minute slugfest on the back of old chicken’s Mirana over Newbee and the under-performing kpii on Faceless Void. Even so, both teams managed to break the base before EHOME solidified their victory with the first set of barracks in mid-lane, causing Newbee to concede after nearly an hour of play and 41-22 kills. Round two, as so many of these best of twos have gone, was a case of EHOME running away with it early and never letting up, punishing Mu’s Dragon Knight over and over, as old chicken did not even die on Razor before two lanes of barracks were pushed down and Newbee admitted defeat at just 25 minutes, 19-10.
Liquid, for their part, managed to turn the tide of underdog uprisings and stomp all over MuShi-‘s squad. Fnatic looked to be back to themselves after rising from the depths just prior to this series, as MidOne and MuShi- couldn’t find their way to winning plays on Slark and Invoker then Timbersaw and Alchemist. MinD_ContRoL played an excellent Nyx Assassin both games to buoy his team to victory, taking only 34 minutes for the first game and 29 minutes for the second, ending them 22-5 and 27-11. Both FATA- and MATUMBAMAN had only one death each while combining for 32 of Liquid’s 49 kills over the whole series.
The only split series of the last two rounds had game one go firmly in favour of MVP Phoenix, with a particularly detrimental three minutes period occurring shortly into the game, as Zyf’s Drow Ranger and mikasa’s Batrider each died three times and ddc’s Keeper of the Light and Fy’s Enchantress each died twice. This led to the long ramping up of QO’s Naga Siren, who took her seventeen minutes Radiance all the way to the bank for a final net worth of over 41,500 gold. After 50 minutes, NoNo on Morphling had enough of trying to salvage the game and called “GG” with the score reading 28-18. The opposite happened in game two, as Zyf redeemed himself with Ursa, taking twenty-two kills and assisting in a further eight while dying only once. This time around, Febby and DuBu on Vengeful Spirit and Earth Spirit struggled to stay out of the grave, with thirteen and ten deaths, respectively. 34 minutes was all it took for MVP to concede, leaving the score 38-15 and the series at 1-1.
Secret continued their unabashed nosedive in the final matchup of the night, while DC took the opportunity to allow ousted Secret members w33 and MISERY to get a little revenge on their erstwhile teammates. The first match looked like DC running down a pub team, as Resolut1on’s Chaos Knight, w33’s Mirana, and Moo’s Timbersaw turned out to be enough to stop Arteezy’s formerly successful Huskar dead in his tracks. 30 minutes into the game, Secret lost their fifth team fight and called “GG”, leaving the score 24-8. Game two looked like it might be Secret’s first win of the day, but EternaLEnVy’s Mirana and Arteezy’s Faceless Void couldn’t close it out early enough, even with Puppey’s signature Chen providing an army of pushing power. Resolut1on kept his farm up on Morphling, and got too big to be handled by the offbeat itemization of Secret’s cores. DC only had 29 kills to Secret’s 36, but after Envy fed Moo’s Beastmaster a Divine Rapier DC ended the game at 61 minutes, leaving Secret without a single victory for the day.
After five rounds of Dota for both Groups, some surprises came up in the standings. Group A has Evil Geniuses in first place at 8-2, OG Dota2 in second at 7-3, the wings gaming in third place at 6-4, TNC Pro Team and Alliance tied for fourth at 5-5, LGD-GAMING and Natus Vincere tied for sixth at 4-6, with Escape Gaming liable to leave the group stage in dead last with their 1-9 record. Group B has Wildcard winners EHOME out in front with the best record so far of 9-1, followed closely by Digital Chaos at 8-2. Team Liquid and Newbee both sit in third at 5-5, while MVP Phoenix and Vici_Gaming Reborn are tied for fifth with 4-6. Team Secret fell from first place all the way to second to last with 3-7, while Fnatic is still stuck in the basement but are no longer winless with 2-8.
Tomorrow is the final round of the group stages, and each team will play two series against their last two group-mates. This will solidify the group standings and determine who is through to the Main Event in the Winner’s Bracket and who has to enter the Loser’s straight away.
First up is:
- OG versus TNC
- wings versus NaVi
- LGD versus EG
- Alliance versus Escape
followed by:
- EG versus Alliance
- TNC versus Escape
- wings versus LGD
- OG versus NaVi
Group B will have:
- EHOME versus VG.R
- Fnatic versus MVP
- Liquid versus DC
- Newbee versus Secret
and then rounds out the day with:
- MVP versus Newbee
- Secret versus Liquid
- VG.R versus Fnatic
- DC versus EHOME
Dota 2 is currently available for PC via Steam.
This article was written by a past writer, Daniel Giroday.
