This year’s group stage had both amazing upsets and Cinderella stories. Teams like Invictus Gaming, Vici Gaming and Virtus.Pro failed to make top four in their respective groups while Complexity, CDEC, and EHOME surprised a plethora of teams and fans as they made their mark.
LGD vs Team Empire
The first game of the upper bracket will feature LGD and Team Empire. Although LGD was expected to be in the top four no one expected them to finish first in the group stages, finishing over the likes of Team Secret, Invictus Gaming and Cloud9. Team Empire on the other hand, have been average. They were tied with their CIS counterparts and beat them in a BO3 to scrape by into the group stages.
The Xiao8 lead squad picked Team Empire for their first Main Event match, the decision seemed pretty straight forward. The Chinese teams EHOME and CDEC have played LGD a lot domestically and might know their strategy while Evil Geniuses is very strong. The last time these two teams met was during the Mars TV DotA2 League LAN Finals where Empire beat LGD 2-1, but this is a totally different setting and LGD are heavy favorites considering their group stage performance.
CDEC vs Cloud9
CDEC is the new Chinese heavyweight, the squad came in as a wildcard from the Chinese Qualifiers and have performed better than all the non-invited teams. They finished with 15 points in the group, same as EG but since they lost to EG 0-2 in their match, they have slipped to the number two spot. Cloud9 have been performing great, their major problem is the ability of close games, if they are able to fix that they can easily take this one.
This is one of the most unlikely matchups in TI history, who could have predicted a “tier 2” Chinese team finishing second in their group and picking an EU heavyweight such as Cloud9. These teams have met only once before, that was during the group stage of DAC, C9 won but that match is irrelevant considering the new Meta. Technically CDEC should be the favorite to win this matchup but it is very hard to call since they have not played under such pressure, consequently this is a great opportunity for Cloud9 to advance in the upper bracket.
Random Fact: CDEC have played all their group stage games on the dire side. (datdota)
Evil Geniuses vs Complexity
This is another matchup that was unpredictable, Evil Geniuses were second favorites coming in while Complexity was supposed to win 12-16th. But this year is the year of upsets and CoL’s run has been nothing short of spectacular. The “HoN Transplants” are definitely playing the best DotA of their lives and finishing top third in a group featuring; Secret, LGD, Cloud9, iG, Fnatic is no joke.
Even though CoL have been playing great, they are in a dire situation, playing Evil Geniuses in the first round of the upper bracket. Another interesting aspect of the matchup is the bad blood between Swindlemelonzz and ppd due to misunderstandings in the past. (Reddit post). EG are the favorites and should advance to the next round.
Secret vs EHOME
EHOME have secretly played well in the group stages, they didn’t lose even a single BO2 during the entire stage. The rOtk lead squad won two and drew five games. They are playing well and could give Secret a run for their money but it will be a hard task.
The last time these two teams met was in the quarter finals of MDL, where Secret 2-0’d EHOME and eventually won the tournament. This is probably the most “David vs Goliath” matchup in the upper bracket, even though Secret haven’t been the dominant Secret that we have come to know but they are still heavy favorites to win this matchup.
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