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After the shocking 2-0 from EHOME over Team Secret earlier in the day, it's time for a recap of the lower bracket matches. There is no lower bracket to save them here, so everything rests on these best of 3 series'. Some big teams here and 2 must go. Reports by GetJinxt.
Team Empire (0) vs. MVP.Phoenix (2)
The storyline seems written a thousand times across time and space; the underdog, new kids on the block up against an established juggernaut. Well, this time it was MVP.Phoenix up against Team Empire in the lower bracket for the chance to make top eight at TI5. To be frank, it seemed that the young Korean squad would be making a rapid farewell; however, sometimes David can kill Goliath.
Game one saw MVP systematically tear down their Russian opponents. With constant Relocates from MVP’s support Febby, they controlled the early map pressure and started an avalanche in their favor; additionally, mid player QO went off, ending the game at 19-5-5 on his Templar Assassin. The constant picks, facilitated by blink engages from NuTz’s Lion, were too much for Empire to handle, eventually giving up the first game at just 33 minutes.
The second game saw Empire draft a squad who would theoretically hold off MVP while carry player Silent farmed to invincibility on Anti-Mage, but the Koreans still had a few tricks up their sleeve. With a draft that included Febby on Bounty Hunter and March on Spirit Breaker, they absolutely hunted down Empire’s supports with no mercy. This allowed them to funnel kills and free farm into carry kphoenii’s Phantom Lancer, who eventually took over the game. The Koreans pushed for the win at 41 minutes.
With at least a top eight finish, MVP.March has led his team further than anyone expected, paving the way for a Korean team to join the ranks of the top teams in the world. Even though he will be retiring due to military service after this event, he has definitely created a legacy of Dota 2 in Korea. MVP.Phoenix will face Vici Gaming later this week for the chance at a top six finish, a first in Korean Dota 2 history.
C9 (0) vs. Vici Gaming (2)
Cloud9 vs Vici Gaming was definitely a match many fans were looking forward to. Vici had just knocked out last year’s champs, NewBee, while Cloud9 were knocked into the lower bracket after a crushing defeat against the Wildcard team CDEC only yesterday; unfortunately, C9 seemed to have a hard time shaking off the 0-2 blues.
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Game one started off with C9 achieving an almost insurmountable gold lead of 20k in the first half hour, even taking a set of rax from Vici. However, this all went downhill once Vici’s carry player Hao managed to get enough items to effectively splitpush on Spectre. The hero’s kit allowed him to join any fight on the map, creating a lot of pressure on its own. However, Vici support Fy made it clear why he’s the best Rubick in the world this game; with an Ag’s Scepter, Blink Dagger, Force Staff, and Octarine Core on top of his Ghost Scepter and Boots of Travel, he was everywhere at once, constantly jumping around fights and stealing a spell literally every second. With multiple steals of game-changing ultimates like Supernova and Requiem of Souls, Fy singlehandedly carried the mid to late game team fights; the gg was finally called at 70 minutes. If there were one game to watch from the entire group stage so far, I would recommend this one.
To be frank, it seemed that C9 tilted very hard after such a staggering defeat. With a weird draft that had no stuns and very little in the way of CC in general, they seemed to just bank on crushing lanes and pushing early for the win. Vici did not let this happen, however, as mid player Super’s Sniper was allowed free farm and picked up multiple kills on C9’s mid player, Fata on Shadow Fiend. A lot of this was due to the Vici’s offlaner, iceiceice on Dark Seer; he quite literally was chasing Shadow Fiend around the jungle and picking up solo kills almost into the enemy base! Support player Fenrir also helped out with perfect Fissures from his Earthshaker. With such a huge amount of space and free farm, Vici took fight after fight until a clearly disspirited C9 congratulated them on the win, being knocked out of the main event after a 29 minute crushing defeat.
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This was just one of many surprising matches today, with C9 seeming to tilt very easily. However, this means that Vici Gaming will be moving on to the best of eight, and will be facing MVP.Phoenix for advancement to the top six later this week. Today was certainly a great day for Korean and Chinese Dota 2!
