It’s the Dota 2 International Semi-Finals! Two Chinese, One Southeast Asia and one America team are all that is left standing in the Winner’s bracket. MVP Phoenix is up against the wings gaming and EHOME are versus Evil Geniuses in some exciting best of three series.
MVP picked QO’s Phantom Assassin and MP’s Invoker to make sure that wings knew what kind of game the Korean squad wanted to play, but it turned out that wings were prepared for the chaotic and fast-paced playstyle. They took two mid-game tempo controllers by putting bLink mid with Queen of Pain and Fath_bian in the off-lane with Puck, and got Warlock and Io for iceice and Innocence to make sure they had plenty of sustain. Rounding out their draft with shadow on his Drow Ranger, wings had an amazing read on MVP’s plans all game long, making the most of every exchange and getting more gold and objectives out of the map. MP couldn’t net a single kill and had less Gold Per Minute than every member of wings. In part due to his practical nonexistence, MVP had to concede at 32 minutes and 21-18 after a four-man wipe that left only Febby on Oracle standing, and he could hardly be expected to hold off the three surviving cores of wings by himself.
QO felt good about his Phantom Assassin, but played out of the mid-lane in a return to MVP’s previously successful laning strategy. FoREv made the consecutive appearance on Dark Seer, but lacked the impact he had last game, which was unfortunate because he had seven more kills than MP. MP, for his part, did actually attend this game as Ursa, and managed to scrape together three Roshans and four kills to match his seven deaths and sub-400 GPM. Those many deaths on a core could be game losing by itself, but thankfully he was shown up by Febby’s Bounty Hunter and DuBu’s Spirit Breaker, who put in 13 and 14 deaths each while combining for only 6 kills. shadow on Juggernaut and Faith_bian on Faceless Void didn’t have to turn in excellent games but they did regardless, backed up by some very well coordinated teamwork from iceice and Innocence as Elder Titan and Disruptor from the backline and bLink as Batrider on the front. Thirty-Six minutes was all Wings needed, ending the game at 37-19 and the series at 2-0.
ppd started off his first draft with grabbing an Axe for his carry, Fear, which is not very greedy at all for the player with probably the best late game decision making. Universe’s Faceless Void definitely filled the hole at least a little bit, and as Suma1L is very comfortable playing farm-heavy mids, he took the job of keeping EG relevant in the late-game with Mirana. EHOME drafted Juggernaut and Timbersaw for old chicken and iceiceice, and their later timing window was supplemented by old eLeVeN’s Beastmaster and Fenrir’s Warlock for great pushing and team-fight power. If what I just described sounds like a predictable game, let me tell you, it was an absolute Hindenburg of insanity. If you didn’t, you have to watch the whole thing. Universe puts EG on his back time and time again, old chicken and iceiceice can’t close out the game time after time, and ppd might as well register as a charity with all the gold he gave away. EHOME had the better lineup, the net worth advantage, and even mega creeps, but Universe proved why his Faceless Void is to be feared by landing a game winning Chronosphere and led a final push down mid lane while EHOME had no buybacks. After 75 minutes, a Divine Rapier, a net worth chart that only shows EHOME’s edge, 45-42 kills, and the first ever TI mega creep comeback, EG took the first game in the series in what is already being called an absolutely classic match. Seriously, go watch it.
Just click this link and watch it, because it might honestly be some of the best Dota ever played:
EHOME looked like their shocking defeat in the previous game took a lot of the wind out of their sails, and a questionable Earth Spirit choice for old LaNm meant that they had one unreliable stun and one ultimate stun. EG exploited that lack of crowd control and put Suma1L on a greedy Medusa, with Fear on Drow Ranger to pump up his damage and provide a significant chunk himself, and Universe back on Faceless Void again to lock down EHOME while Fear and Suma1L peppered them from afar. iceiceice was back on Timbersaw, but he seemed like an entirely different player compared to the previous game. old eLeVeN and old chicken tried their hands at Axe and Mirana, but where Fear and Suma1L played beautiful, complementary Dota last game, the olds cores had difficulty making it work. No Rapier was needed for EG to end the game by forcing the “GG” in the 38th minute, 32-15.
EHOME and MVP Phoenix took a tumble today, but MVP is a little better off because of the schedule. Tomorrow, both Loser’s Bracket 7th/8th Round series but only one 5th/6th Round series will be played, which means that EHOME finds out who they are playing after the first series between TNC Pro Team and Digital Chaos, so they’ll have less time to prepare or have to prepare for both teams. MVP will play the winner of Team Liquid and Fnatic, but not until Friday, so they’ll have all night to get their plans sorted out. On the flipside, the wings gaming will square off against Evil Geniuses on Friday in the Winner’s Bracket Finals. In addition, tomorrow evening is when the All-Star Match is scheduled, after the normal series! There’s not a lot of solid information about what it will contain, but if the previous years are anything to go by, there will be a pretty big addition to the game: 2015’s TI5 saw the debut of 10v10 matchmaking and 2014’s TI4 showcased Techies ahead of release.
This article was written by a past writer, Daniel Giroday.
