Day one of The International 5 Chinese qualifier is over and while no team has been eliminated, two teams namely Tongfu and Tongfu.Oldboys are close to elimination after losing both their matches.
The favourite of the qualifier, EHOME did not play particularly well but it was enough to top their group with only Newbee.Young left in their itinerary. Following closely behind EHOME is underdog team Energy Pacemaker who finished with two wins and one loss (to EHOME) is solid in second place of group A.
The placement of group B on the other hand is still undecided considering only four matches have been played. Open qualifier winner Wings Gaming looks solid as they defeated Tongfu earlier today and is currently tied with CDEC in second place. HGT is currently placed first in the group with one win and one draw.
Going into the second day, it is still everybody's game and every team including Tongfu and Oldboys (both at 0-2) still have a chance to make it to top 2 assuming they win all their matches and their prayers that all the group leader lose everything. However, the chance of that happening is very slim.
Day 2 schedule:
04:00 - CDEC vs HGT
04:00 - Wings vs VG.P
06:30 - Tongfu.Wz vs EP
06:30 - Newbee.Y vs Oldboys
09:00 - Oldboys vs Tongfu.Wz
09:00 - EHOME vs Newbee.Y
11:30 - VG.P vs Tongfu
11:30 - Wings vs CDEC
14:00 - Wings vs HGT
14:00 - CDEC vs Tongfu
Game of the day: Tongfu.Wz versus Newbee.Y game 2
The second game between Tongfu.Wz and Newbee.Y is indeed a must-watch on day one of the qualifiers. On top of the extremely action-packed game, the game is a story of a comeback in the making.
Starting the game with a massive kill lead and a total shut down of Tongfu.Wz's Gyrocopter, Newbee.Y's constant aggression and overconfidence was the reason of their downfall. Halfway through the game in what seems to be an easy 2-0, Newbee.Y's constant aggression on the top lane led to multiple long range Ice Blast to Lightning Ball paved way for Tongfu.Wz's comeback.
While Newbee.Y continued controlling the pace of the game after the mistakes but Tongfu.Wz capitalized on Newbee.Y's mistakes and slowly crawled back into the game. A huge factor to Tongfu.Wz's comeback was the purchase of Dagon 5 on the Broodmother, bursting Newbee.Y's core heroes like Shadow Fiend before the start of every battle.
By 30 minutes, Tongfu.Wz has accrued a massive gold lead and sieged towers while their opponent watch them take down towers after towers. Patiently, Tongfu.Wz sieged high ground and destroyed all the barracks in one whole swoop. Tongfu.Wz backed off and secured Roshan before ending the game at 45 minutes.
Best moment of the day: 10 death teamfight
Red hot: Energy Pacemaker
Considered by many as the biggest underdog of the Chinese qualifier, Energy Pacemaker did not disappoint their fans as they finished second in their group. Despite losing to 0-2 to EHOME, EP put up a valiant fight and nearly took them down in one game.
However, inexperience to close out the late game got the better of them but they will live to fight another day. With only one game to go (against Tongfu.Wanzhou) to finish the groupstage, EP should be able to finish top two in the group.
Unexpectedly cold: EHOME
While EHOME finished first in their group, their one game loss to Tongfu.Wanzhou and shaky second game against Tongfu.Oldboys have left many wondering if EHOME is indeed as strong as people expected them to be.
EHOME's newest addition Tian Yu 'Cty' Chen played well in all of their games and thoroughly displayed his ability to dominate the solo mid position but EHOME's underperformance could mostly be credited to their lack of teamwork and communication.
EHOME also seemed to have problems controlling the pace in mid-game. In their loss against Tongfu.Wanzhou, they allowed their opponent to overrun them all over the map and the game only lasted so long due to their superior high ground defense. Regardless, Tongfu.Wanzhou's advantage in gold and experience overpowered them in their last fight.
