We take a look back at all the action from Day 2 at TI 10.
Our second day at TI 10 yet again brought us some truly beautiful Dota 2. As the competition starts to heat up, it’s make or break time for our Lower Bracket teams. And things are no less brutal in the Upper Bracket, where a fall could mean the difference between an easy ride to the Grand Finals, or a difficult climb back to the top.
If you missed out on all the thrills and spills, we’ve rounded up a few of the most memorable moments from Day 2 in Bucharest.
LGD & Virtus.Pro continue their Upper Bracket run
We were treated to not one, but two three game series in our Upper Bracket today, and both had their fair share of surprises. Our opening series looked a little shaky for PSG.LGD at times, as T1 SEA team pulled out all the stops to keep their Upper Bracket dreams alive. Although it wasn’t meant to be, T1 played more than admirably. Wjile Virtus.Pro proved they’re not to be underestimated in their Upper Bracket match-up against Vici Gaming.
Upper Bracket Highlight: T1 go down fighting
Our opening series in Bucharest on Day 2 had no shortage of incredible moments. While PSG.LGD ultimately reigned triumphant, T1 were no push over. We breakdown what made this series pure Dota magic.
Game 1
Our game opened with T1 drawing first blood, taking down Zhao “XinQ” Zixing’s Snapfire just before the 3-minute mark. Although Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon’s Crystal Maiden was quick to fall after. The stage was set for some vicious Dota.
Wang “Ame” Chunyu looked comfortable on his Terrorblade pick, and he had Zhang “y`” Yiping’s Bane providing plenty of support during the laning phase enabling LGD to take their safe lane easily. Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida’s Magnus only managed to draw in top, finding a hard match in Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon on the Morphling. Meanwhile it was almost impossible for Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang Dragon Knight to go up against Karl “Karl” Baldovino on his Lina in mid.
But lanes aren’t everything, and while LGD came out of them with only a small advantage in the gold. They built on it quickly, racking up the kills through the mid game to give themselves a solid lead.
T1 didn’t take it all sitting down, but they couldn’t gain the upper hand against Ame’s Terrorblade to bring him down. LGD took the first win of the series at 34-minutes, 27-15.
Game 2
This is a game where you’ll want to watch the replay.
The draft looked strong for LGD, with Ame once again running the TB and NothingToSay taking Death Prophet mid. Karl’s Doom pick struggled to gain the upper hand over DP during the lanes thanks in no small part to XinQ’s roaming Snapfire and the added benefit of y` bring Elder Titan mid. But 23savage and Kenny “Xepher” Deo did manage to take top lane with their Medusa/Dawnbreaker combo.
T1’s draft just didn’t seem to pack the same punch. But again, once the lanes were over, things heated up and they really started to put on a show. They took the net worth lead with three clean kills at 14-minutes. And they just kept running with it. But LGD wasn’t willing to just roll over and take it. We were treated to plenty of ruthless team fights that saw heroes dropping like flies as LGD brought their own offense to the table.
But T1 were not going to be denied this victory.
Karl was peerless on his Doom. He went 11/5/10 this game, creating multiple opportunities for his team and delivering the most pick offs over all.
The last 10-minutes of the game saw some truly jaw dropping plays. A total of 10 buybacks flying out as both teams scrambled to close out the 54-minute match.
But it was T1 who took the win. Pushing LGD to three series and looking remarkable while they did it.
Game 3
After the roller coaster ride of the last game it was hard to know what to expect from the final game of the series. T1 seemed to be setting up a strong draft, with 23savage on Morphling, Karl on Storm Spirit and a Venomancer for team captain Carlo “Kuku” Palad. While Xepher and Whitemon with a support ET and Disruptor.
LGD‘s draft saw an Ursa/Wisp combo for Ame and XinQ, which didn’t look as powerful after OG’s defeat running it yesterday. NothingToSay landed an Ember Spirit pick and Faith_Bian took the Magnus this time, which provided plenty of strong initiation for OG’s line up.
But despite the drafts looking well matched, LGD took the lead in this game early. They had a lot of mobility and map control in Ember and Magnus, and they used it to their advantage extremely well. They’d secured a 2.5k gold lead by the 10-minute mark, and their wealth just continued to balloon as they rolled over T1.
Kuku didn’t manage to land a single kill this game, as LGD closed it out at 37-minutes with a 23-kill lead. 32-9.
T1 will now have to face Alliance in the LB to keep hopium alive.
VP pull out all the stops against Vici
Our second series saw Virtus.Pro turn the tables on Vici, sending them packing to the LB.
It all looked peachy for Vici through Game 1. Yang “poyoyo” Shaohan the pain on his Tiny pick. Racking up a mammoth 28.6k net worth over the 39-minute game. A solid 10k higher than any of VP’s cores. But while they took the win, it wasn’t a smooth stomp to the finish line. Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang managed to hold his own through the lanes, drawing against Danil “gpk” Skutin’s Razor. While Ren “old eLeVeN” Yangwei wasn’t looking his finest in this game, ending with a K/D/A of 1/2/14.
Our second game saw another slow and steady start, with Vici taking the first kill just past 4-minutes. Both teams were playing it cool. Although poyoyo managed to take top lane on Drow Ranger, it wasn’t enough for Vici to really build a strong early lead.
Plus, VP were returning the kills beat for beat until just past the 20-minute mark. That was when Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko’s Medusa started to become a real problem for Vici’s line up. They just could not bring the ‘dusa down. Virtus.Pro drew the series 1-1 just shy of 46-minutes.
Then, they came into Game 3 with a combination of an aggressive draft and precision of play which Vici just couldn’t match. Running Luna on Nightfall, the CIS team wanted to close this one out early. And they did. Taking the win at 33-minutes to remain in the Upper Bracket.
Quincy Crew and Fnatic say farewell
Our Lower Bracket started to heat up as it moved to its Bo3s. Two quick series bolstered both Team Spirit and OG’s chances of reaching the finals as they claimed the win in their respective match ups.
It was a rough ride for Fnatic, Game 1 of their series against Team Spirit saw them fall at 25-minutes with only 6-kills on the board, with three coming from Marc Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto and three from Ng “ChYuan” Kee Chyuan. Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong, Yang “Deth” Wu Heng and Djardel “DJ” Mampusti all ended the game without claiming any. It was a demoralizing defeat for the SEA team. And the second game was a pill just as tough to swallow.
Team Spirit took the victory, 7-32 with a whopping 45k net worth lead, at 37-minutes.
Lower Bracket Highlight: OG conquer Quincy Crew
The next series was OG vs Quincy Crew. And there’s no doubt watching the Hassan brothers fight from different sides of the map definitely made for an exciting and emotional game.
Game 1
Game 1 looked strong for Quincy. Yawar “YawaR” Hassan seemed almost indomitable on Monkey King and Quinn “Quinn” Callahan was holding his own on Kunkka in the mid against Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen’s Void Spirit. At the game approached the 20-minute mark, QC had managed to snatch themselves a 4k lead in the gold. But then as OG pushed into their high ground at the 38-minute mark, things started to fall apart. Quinn’s lack of BKB meant Topson’s VS could just pop him. Then Arif “MSS” Anwar’s Lion fell a second later. Then Topson moved on to Rodrigo “Leslão” Santos, and with just one core and one support left alive, there was little hope of Quincy Crew holding.
Topson delivered an outstanding performance this game, he didn’t have the easiest laning phase, but he still managed to carry his team to victory, going 20/3/4 by the time GG was called at 40-minutes.
Game 2
Game 2 delivered a close match in the kills, with the final kill-count only five apart, 33-38. But there was no doubt OG had the control in this one. They kept the gold advantage right from the outset of the lanes. Closing with a 33k lead. QC never even had a chance to snatch it back, with both Martin “Saksa” Sazdov and Topson again proving instrumental in delivering OG’s victory. Saksa’s Snapfire was beastly, taking 11-kills across the 38-minute game. While Topson’s choice of Dawnbreaker proved to be deadly for QC. Another fantastic game for the mid laner, with a final K/D/A of 11/2/19.
But it’s good to see brotherly love still prevails.
I’m not crying you’re crying from DotA2
OG will face-off against Team Spirit on October 15.
The International returns today, beginning with our UB match between T1 and Alliance, then EG are set to go head-to-head with Vici before we return to the Upper Bracket. Be sure to catch all the action live on Twitch.
