The final round for today is the second one for Group B, who’ll make up the difference in the fifth round tomorrow. This time, Digital Chaos played Fnatic, MVP Phoenix faced off against Team Secret, Newbee was versus Vici_Gaming Reborn, and EHOME battled Team Liquid.
The first pairing resulted in a 2-0 victory for Digital Chaos, where the first match had w33’s Alchemist put up an excellent 958 Gold Per Minute and a twelve minute radiance. Fnatic didn’t have an answer to w33 or Resolut1on’s Luna, and had to concede after 28 minutes. The second game looked to be better for them, with MuShi-‘s Luna putting in work to hold off w33 on Invoker and Moo on Beastmaster, but one team wipe at eighteen minutes spelled their doom. After that, five skirmishes and two other team fights went the way of DC as they ran over MidOne’s poor Ember Spirit and Ohaiyo’s under-performing Batrider before Fnatic called “GG” at 30 minutes, final score 24-12 and series 2-0, both for Digital Chaos.
Secret’s second set, this time against MVP Phoenix, started off looking like their 2-0 stomp of VG.R. Arteezy played Huskar for the third time in a row, and continued to show why many consider him one of the best players in the world on his way to a 15-3-5 record. QO’s Naga Siren failed to make any waves with a relatively late Radiance, and no one else on MVP stepped up to stop the Secret deathball from storming down every lane by the 33rd minute when they called “GG”, leaving the score at 34-8. However, the second game went almost exactly the opposite: MVP chose to ban Huskar first, and it turned out to be the best choice they made all day. Arteezy was forced to play a rather underwhelming Alchemist who arrived at Radiance after twenty four minutes. This turned out to be too little, too late, as the two-core lineup from MVP steamrolled through EternaLEnVy’s Batrider and Bulba’s Sandking, led by QO on a much better Naga and MP on an exemplary Lifestealer, going 17-1-8 by the time Secret conceded after 29 minutes. A 1-1 tie was the result for both teams in a match-up that either side felt like they could win outright.
Vici_Gaming Reborn continued to struggle in their second series, losing both games against Newbee. In the first, NoNo grabbed a fourteen minute Radiance as Alchemist on his charge to drag VG.R to a peak net worth advantage of almost 20,000 at fifty five minutes, before three absolute disasters occurred in the form of lost teamfight after lost teamfight. Overall, although the game and net worth chart looked to be securely in VG.R’s favour after twenty minutes, Newbee showed the discipline and tactical foresight that Vici couldn’t on their way to the 61 minute loss. The second game, although much shorter, went entirely Newbee’s way. Neither ChuaN’s Enchantress nor kpii’s Slardar died even once, and the rest of Newbee only lost five deaths to VG.R’s twenty four, including seven on NoNo’s Ember Spirit who didn’t net a single kill and never managed to complete his Battlefury. Ultimately, Mu’s Queen of Pain was able to run down Vici and force out the “GG” by 25 minutes, ending the series 2-0 for Newbee.
EHOME and Team Liquid pushed each other to a 1-1 draw in their series. Liquid’s first game victory came through FATA-‘s dominant Death Prophet and MATUMBAMAN’s farming capability with Naga Siren. Between the early Euls-Black King Bar on DP and the sixteen minute Radiance on Naga, EHOME struggled to take objectives, even with iceiceice’s Terrorblade picking up a later Radiance of his own. LaNm’s Ogre Magi, in particular, struggled to stay alive, much less relevant, while EHOME went into a tailspin that culminated in conceding at 42 minutes. The second game was an inversion of the first, as the teams switched sides and EHOME put iceiceice on Naga Siren, who led old chicken’s Juggernaut and old eleven’s Sand King to a 49 minute victory over Liquid’s less than stellar Anti-Mage-Mirana dual core, in the hands of MATUMBAMAN and FATA-, respectively. This time, LaNm died but once with the aptly named Undying while contributing to 90% of his team’s kills, and JerAx’s Tusk couldn’t keep up with a lowly 187 Gold Per Minute. Liquid never had the net worth or objective advantage, and were forced to concede just shy of fifty minutes with a final score of 31-14.
Group A’s standings, after Day 1 have Evil Geniuses, LGD-GAMING, and OG Dota2 tied for first with 4-2 records. Alliance, the wings gaming, and TNC Pro Team are all tied for fourth with 3-3 records. Natus Vincere is sitting in seventh with a 2-4 record, followed closely by Escape Gaming with 1-5.
Group B’s standings, also after Day 1, but with one less series played, have Newbee, EHOME, Team Secret, and Digital Chaos all tied for first with 3-1 records, while Team Liquid and MVP Phoenix are tied for fifth with 2-2 apiece. Fnatic and Vici_Gaming Reborn did not manage to win a single game today, ending with 0-4 records despite better expectations.
Tomorrow, Group A will play two rounds and Group B will have their turn with 3. First off will be OG versus wings, NaVi versus Alliance in El Clasico, LGD versus TNC, and EG versus Escape. The second round will have EG play TNC, OG face Escape, wings play Alliance, and NaVi versus LGD. The third round flips over to Group B, where Liquid will face MVP, Newbee will play Fnatic, Secret will battle EHOME, and DC will play VG.R. The fourth round will pit Liquid against VG.R, MVP against EHOME, Newbee against DC, and Secret against Fnatic. The last round of the day has Secret versus DC, Newbee versus EHOME, MVP versus VG.R, and Liquid versus Fnatic. Interestingly, Fnatic and VG.R both have the opportunity to end the day with a perfect 0-10 record, because they won’t play each other and thus break at least one losing streak until the next day.
