The main event of The International 2019 is underway at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai, China from August 20th-25th 2019.
The first day of the main event saw us part ways with 4 teams already.
After an exciting day one, day two just got even better with nail-biting and intense match-ups especially the lower bracket matches. Here is a short recap for you guys!
OG VS Newbee
Newbee were clearly the underdogs going into this matchup. Newbee is a Chinese organization consisting of NA players. But these NA players are no strangers to TI or the competitive pro scene. Well, on the other hand TI8 winners had a clear mindset and knew exactly what they wanted to do which was clearly portrayed in this series. OG clean sweep Newbee 2-0 in this best of three series.
Game 1 – OG again with the core IO pick completely destroyed Newbee. The core IO pick is something that the teams are still struggling to counter. OG with the IO carry and mid Bristlebackjust completely outdrafted and outplayed Newbee. OG were so confident in what they did and it clearly showed when this happened, take a look!
Game 2 – OG drafted their most comfortable picks going into TI with a clear mindset to clean sweep and close out the series 2-0 and they just did that. Topson on MK and ana’s Juggernaut gameplay, Ceb with the Magnus RP just destroyed Newbee, CCNC tried to carry his team but just couldn’t do it alone. It seemed like OG did their homework and read Newbee like a book everytime, abusing the long cool down on ultimates, OG took small pick-offs over the map and eventually unlocked high ground.
With this win, OG secures a top 6 finish only to face EG in the upper bracket semi-finals! FLY VS NOTAIL #HYPE! Meanwhile, Team Newbee fall down to the lower bracket and has one more chance to keep their dream alive.
EG vs Secret
Both the teams here are fan favourites, but with the recent Dota Pro Circuit performance, the dota 2 community favoured Team Secret to win this match up. Instead, EG with beautiful individual performance and draft shock Team Secret and knock them down to the lower bracket with a 2-1 finish in this best of three series. Just want to point out insane performance by EG’s offlane player s4 in all three games!
Game 1 –This game was purely s4’s show. S4 on the CentaurWarunner just outplayed Secret with a lot of two to three-man stomps allowing Sumail and RTZ to capitalize on his stuns. EG had a clear mindset to focus Midone and shut him down on the midlane which clearly worked wonders for them. Also, a colossal mistake committed by Nisha getting caught out at the bottom lane, allowed EG to capitalize on this mistake and close out Game 1. Here is a short clip from Game 1!
Game 2 – Hands down the most intense and perfect wombo combo execution by Team Secret! In the early to mid-game, it seemed like EG had this one in the bag with flawless display of Tidehunter gameplay by S4, always getting two-three heroes in his Ravage. EG again focused down Midone on his QuasWex Invoker shutting him down and harnessing his scalability but it was just not enough to close this game. Puppy had a Wombo Combo under his sleeves, Team Secret with good co-ordination and wombo combo just destroyed Evil Geniuses! Here is a beautiful clip of perfect execution of the Wombo-Combo! With this Team Secret equalize the series 1-1.
Game 3 – Decider game, EG the comeback masters. In the early to mid-game, Team Secret had an insane amount of lead over EG. With, s4 doing poorly in the lane and Nisha capitalizing on it by free farming, it seemed like Nisha would easily carry Team Secret to victory. Dota plus win probability predicted 90%+ on Team Secret but EG pull out an insane comeback in this game 3. EG focused down Zai in team fights taking out the SK from the team fights enabled them to move freely and focus down other heroes. After completing, BKB’s on their cores EG seemed unstoppable. Sumail on one of his signature heroes just completely stomped Team Secret. S4 doing great on his Enchantress in the mid to late game, EG were able to make a comeback and close out this series 2-1.
With this win EG secure a top 6 finish at The International and will face-off against OG in the upper bracket semi-finals. Team Secret drop to the already stacked lower bracket and will continue their run there.
Shortly after the EG-Secret game, the winners of the DOTA 2 Short Film Contest were announced.
The winner took home a prize of 25,000$.
Winning Entry:
Virtus.Pro vs Royal Never Give Up
Done with the upper bracket matches for the day, we now move on the to the lower bracket.
The first match of the Lower Bracket Round 2 saw Virtus.Pro take on home team Royal Never Give Up. Before the event, Virtus.Pro were considered one of the favourites to win TI, based off their 2nd place in the DPC season.
Despite their average results in the group stage, VP was expected to beat RNG in the best of 3 matchups.
Game 1:
Although RNG had an alchemist, VP had kept him in check, wont the laning stage handily.
They were on course for a victory, but a bad fight at a bad location , turned the tides for RNG, No-one died twice in quick succession without buyback and VP had to tap out of game 1.
Game 2:
Game Two followed a similar script as game 1, with VP doing well in the early laning stage, but running out of steam as soon as RNG players bought Black King Bars and hit their timings. Theomni knight pick by RNG completely negated all the damage done by the Virtus.Pro heroes. Gradually VP fell behind after a lot of lost fights, and RNG took the win.
The result was completely unexpected and took everyone by shock.
With this loss, Virtus.Pro have been eliminated from The International 2019 in the 9th-12th place.
Game 2:
Game Two followed a similar script as game 1, with VP doing well in the early laning stage, but running out of steam as soon as RNG players bought Black King Bars and hit their timings. Theomni knight pick by RNG completely negated all the damage done by the Virtus.Pro heroes. Gradually VP fell behind after a lot of lost fights, and RNG took the win.
The result was completely unexpected and took everyone by shock.
With this loss, Virtus.Pro have been eliminated from The International 2019 in the 9th-12th place.
RNG move to the next round of the lower bracket where they face the winner of TNC vs Team Liquid.
Despite being one of the top teams in the world for 3 years now, The International glory evades them.
The players were crestfallen, because they knew they had tried their best in the past 3 years.
In the post-game interview, NoOne even hinted at roster changes. This is sad news, considering that the core of this VP roster has been together for more than 3.5 years.
TNC Predator vs Team Liquid
The last game of the day saw TNC Predator take on TI7 winners Team Liquid.
TNC beat Team Liquid 2-0 in the group stages in an absolutely dominating fashion.
Keeping that in mind, TNC were considered to repeat the task again today, but it is never wise to underestimate Liquid.
Game 1:
Both teams had an evenly balanced draft, but Liquid hit their item timings faster. The game was progressing at a slow pace, with both team farming, but TNC building up a net worth lead.
Then a moment came, when Liquid got their Black King Bars , and decided it was go time.
A bad fight at roshan led to host of buybacks from TNC’s side and they couldn’t recover from that.
TNC did not itemise well to deal with all the physical damage coming in from Liquid’s side with the Templar Assassin and Troll Warlord. Even though Gabbi from TNC was playing the Wraith King, Liquid got through his 2 lives quickly.
Thus, Liquid took a 1-0 lead in the best of 3 series.
Game 2:
After that exciting game 1, TNC Predator were 1 game away from elimination, so they picked Gabbi’s signature position 1 Bristleback, but Liquid had a surprise for TNC with their last pick Anti Mage, played by Miracle-.
The TNC Line-up was on a timer, and had to end the game before the Anti Mage farmed and got all his items.
But TNC was unable to do so , and given their lack of disables, they were not able to deal with the split push by Liquid and eventually the Anti Mage spiralled out of control and Team Liquid over ran TNC.
With this loss, TNC Predator are eliminated from TI9 in the 9th-12th position.
While TNC run at Ti9 end, Liquid proceeds to face RNG in the lower bracket Round 3 tomorrow.
Just like the VP players, TNC’s players were crestfallen after their loss, and Armel was very emotional in the post-game interview, even apologising to their fans and supporters for their bad performance today.
With this, we end our recap of today’s games:
Tomorrow, we will get to witness 2 upper bracket semi-finals, and 2 lower bracket round 3 elimination games. Along with the games, the winner of the ARCANA vote will be revealed tomorrow.
The action resumes tomorrow at 7:30 AM IST.
For highlights or replays, one can visit the respective twitch channels and check out the past broadcasts.
All games are also uploaded to the DOTA 2 official YouTube channel.
Do not forget to update your fantasy teams for tomorrow. You can do that either in the game or at https://www.dota2.com/fantasy.
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