With their emphatic victory over the 3 time-Grand Finalist Na'Vi, Cloud 9 will continue their fight for glory in the Lower Bracket Round 2 against the #1 seed of the Round Robin Stage, the Chinese dominators, Vici Gaming. With so much to lose and so much to gain, no one wants to go home a loser this late in the tournament.
Cloud 9 vs. ViCi Gaming
Game 1
Draft - ViCi Gaming's lineup consists of the pushing strategy with Doom, Natures Prophet, Dazzle and Bristleback with some team fight/control with Sand King. Cloud9 wants huge magic burst and pick-off potential with pretty much all of their heroes. EternalEnvy's invoker will provide some split-push potential with the Forge spirits while still adding a Sunstrike to Cloud9's ganks. We're in for an interesting game!
Lanes
Top - Batrider vs a trilane (Nature's Prophet, Dazzle and Sandking)
Middle - Ember Spirit vs Bristleback
Bottom - Trilane (Exort-Quas Invoker, Skywrath Mage and Shadow Shaman) vs Doom
1:41 FIRST BLOOD - Goes to Bone7's Batrider being very aggressive on Fenrir's Dazzle.
3:39 - Almost another kill for Batrider on Dazzle with the help of Sunstrike but Sand King comes to the rescue.
7:45 - VG abandons all lanes and goes for a 5-man push on Radiant's Tier 1 Tower while protecting their top tower.
9:43 - VG takes their second tower of the game, leaving the last hit of Radiant's top tower to Doom.
10:30 - Batrider and Shadow Shaman smoke and kill Dazzle but Sand King gets a return kill on Shadow Shaman with his new blink dagger.
10:51 - Natures Prophet gets a deny on the Bottom tower with just 4 treants.
11:38 - Doom denies VG's second tower.
12:19 - Batrider, Skywrath and Ember use all of their ults to kill Bristleback.
13:00 - Sandking uses his Epicenter on an illusion!
13:07 - VG takes the Tier 1 Mid tower with the gold going to Doom
13:49 - VG does a cheeky play and takes Roshan.
13:55 - Cloud9 attempts a push and takes the mid tower with Shadow Shaman's ult but VG kills Skywrath in the process.
14:25 - Batrider finds VG's three stack.
15:09 - VG kills Ember Spirit using Doom and transitions the kill into a push.
19:45 - VG tries to take the Tier 2 Top tower but Batride picks off Natures Prophet with his ult. HUGE FIGHT ensues with 2 casualties (Skywrath Mage and Shadow Shaman), a buy-back from Natures Prophet and the top tower going down.
23:25 - VG takes Roshan, giving the Aegis to the tanky Bristleback.
25:20 - Cloud9 takes Tier 2 Top but only seconds later, VG transitions a failed smoke gank into the bottom Tier 2.
26:00 - VG pushes for the bottom Tier 3 but Cloud9 defends it successfully with both Skywrath and Dazzle dead.
27:25 - Bristleback kills Invoker but Cloud9 kills Bristleback just seconds later.
30:00 - Failed lasso-gank on BKB-ed Natures Prophet.
30:45 - VG launches their second siege on the Bottom Tier 3 tower + Rax but Shadow Shaman and Invoker destroy Dire's Tier 3 top.
31:30 - HUGE FIGHT for Radiant's Bottom rax. Casualties: Batrider, Bristleback, Dazzle, SandKing. Ember Spirit buys-back during the fight. Overall, huge defense from C9!
33:44 - C9 uses a smoke to go for Roshan using Serpent Wards to kill it quickly, aegis going to Ember. But VG quickly runs to the tower, killing Invoker, Skywrath and Shadow Shaman. SandKing goes down as well.
36:40 - Invoker escapes a 4-man gank using Cold Walk! Bristleback, with the gem, comes too late.
39:30 - Big fight in the Radiant Jungle. Huge Epicenter kills Invoker, Skywrath, Ember and Batrider.
40:00 - Invoker, Ember and Batrider buys-back to the defend the Bottom rax, ending poorly. VG 4-man team wipe with only Batrider living.
40:05 - GG! Fy's Sand King kills Batrider. C9 taps out with their Bottom Rax gone and with VG transitioning to the Mid-Rax.
Highlight clips are available on our YouTube channel. You can also visit our wiki page for more information on The International 4.
