Day two of the Frankfurt Major saw Europe take on Asia, with Mineski trying to take down Team Secret and the much-anticipated series between Virtus.Pro and Vici Gaming. There were interesting drafts, overextensions, and critical Roshan fights galore across the two entertaining matches.
On the second day of the Main Event at the Frankfurt Major, the upper bracket was the story of Europe versus Asia. In both Team Secret versus Mineski and Virtus.Pro versus Vici Gaming, the two continents did battle on the digital battlefield of Dota. Team Secret showed their strength against Mineski, defeating them 2:0 through superior movements, team play, and drafting. The matchup between Virtus.Pro and Vici Gaming lived up to the hype of being one of the closest in the upper bracket. The teams put in great performances, with Vici managing to earn a hard-fought 2:1 series win and advance in the upper bracket.
Team Secret vs Mineski
Game One
In the first game of the series, Team Secret and Mineski both picked up fairly standard drafts for the current patch. Team Secret managed to pick up signature heroes for their cores, with Jacky ‘EternalEnvy’ Mao finding balance in all things on Ember Spirit and Aliwi 'w33haaa' Omar blowing back into town as Windranger. The early game went well for Mineski, with Ryan Jay 'Jay-Bimbo' Qui rotating well and setting up kills on EternalEnvy and Johan 'pieliedie' Astrom. Kuku Carlo 'Kuku' Palad also demonstrated his skill on Phantom Lancer, making numerous plays, including the one below.
However, the flaw in Mineski’s draft was always their ability to take the game to the late-game. Once Team Secret’s cores picked up BKBs, Mineski’s Disruptor's abilities and their Queen of Pain’s Orchid became useless, and EternalEnvy and w33haaa began to dominate the enemy team. With the added damage (and cleave in the case of the Ember Spirit) provided by Magnus’ Empower ability, Team Secret rapidly shredded through Mineski’s heroes and, eventually, their base. This allowed Team Secret to take the game just short of 54 minutes into the game.
Game Two
In game two, Team Secret did not let Mineski get off to the good start that they had in game one. Picking a Tidehunter for Rasmus 'MiSery-' Filipsen meant that fights would be much harder to take. Team Secret combined the unusual Tidehunter pick with a different hero for EternalEnvy – the Queen of Pain. This allowed EternalEnvy to dominate the lane against Ryo 'ryOr' Hasegawa's Dark Seer, stifling his level and farm progression. This farm dominance was also evident in the midlane, where w33haaa managed to obtain significantly more farm than his counterpart, Jay-Bimbo. w33haaa was not content to play the passive, teamfight-orientated Shadow Fiend. Instead, he picked up a Shadow Blade and looked to get aggressive around the map, roaming with pieliedie’s Night Stalker looking for kills.
This meant that Mineski’s supports had to further impoverish themselves by littering the map with sentry wards to keep tabs on the Shadow Fiend. Team Secret pressed this advantage to repeatedly take Roshan, clear the map of outer towers, and wait for the time to push Mineski’s high ground. Once MiSeRy- picked up his Blink Dagger, the time had come. Team Secret took one last good fight in the mid lane, wiped Mineski, and cleared up two lanes of barracks before Mineski bowed out, giving Team Secret the game and the series.
Virtus.Pro vs Vici Gaming
Game One
In the first game, both teams drafted well-balanced line-ups. VP favoured early aggression, picking a Gyrocopter and Spirit Breaker. They then added to this with the unusual pick of Visage for Ilya 'lil' Ilyuk. Vici Gaming responded to this early-mid-game-oriented draft with good teamfight heroes and an Alchemist for Jun Hao 'Super' Xie. This would force VP to either win the game early or face the slow, agonising death of split-push through Alchemist illusions with Radiance.
The game began well for VP, with Sergey 'G' Bragin claiming first blood from iceiceice. The laning phase proceeded rapidly, with VP putting on the expected levels of pressure on VG’s line-up. They managed to kill Darryl Pei Xiang 'iceiceice' Koh a number of times in the early game, and earned an experience lead.
However, as the game went on, VP failed to find kills on VG’s cores, and the gold lead that VG developed became colossal. Alchemist managed to get his core items up, and VP seemed to never be able to take objectives. VG constantly kept the lanes pushed in with Alchemist illusions and AoE spells, and took Roshan repeatedly. In the end, VP could not overcome the farm and experience advantage that Vici managed to develop, and VG used these advantages to end the game with Super's Alchemist sitting pretty and golden with 1004 gold per minute.
Game Two
Where game one was the story of VG slowly grinding VP into the ground, game two told the tale of VP taking VG by the throat and bashing them into submission. From the early game, VP seemed far more determined, aggressive, and in control than they had been in game one. An early gank onto the midlane by VG went disastrously, with all three of VG’s heroes falling before G eventually died to Queen of Pain’s Shadow Strike.
VP did not let up from this moment. Having managed to pick up their signature Drow-Visage combination, they put it to great effect. VP fought constantly, coming out ahead due to superlative Lina play from G. They turned these early victories into early objectives, clearing towers with every successful fight.
VG did put up a considerable fight, particularly around Roshan. At a crucial point in the game, iceiceice managed to set up a spectacular fight for VG with a well-placed Wall, leading to a teamwipe even though his team were well behind.
However, it was not enough. VP shook off this fight and continued to pressure VG’s towers. One final lost fight in the bottom lane proved to be too much for VG to take, and they called GG. The series was tied at 1:1.
Game 3
The third game was arguably the most even game of the series. VP once again drafted for early pressure and aggression, with global threats from Spirit Breaker and Ancient Apparition, combined with raw physical damage from a Templar Assassin. VG sought to counter this with powerful AoE teamfight heroes (in the form of Slardar and Lich) and the ever-elusive Ember Spirit.
VP held a slight edge in the laning phase, managing to eke out a small gold advantage over VG. Unlike the second game, however, they could not easily convert pick-offs into objectives, and VG pulled ahead in gold and experience.
This changed at around the 23-minute mark, with a critical Roshan fight. VP managed to kill the three cores of VG and take Roshan. With the Aegis in hand, they cleared the mid-lane towers and barrelled down bottom lane, looking to take barracks. Both teams were not keen to engage. Once VG’s tier 3 tower was destroyed, VP thought they saw an opportunity to strike, and initiated a fight. However, VG remained composed. When the dust settled, all of VP’s cores had been killed, with G dying twice.
NotLikeThis indeed
This proved to be where the game turned. VG kept cool heads, and steadily farmed. VP, on the other hand, seemed scattered. VG picked up crucial items on their cores, took objectives, and were soon knocking on VP’s door. G’s TA, on the other hand, was falling off, unable to survive fights long enough to dish out major damage.
Slardar crushes TA, and VP's dreams in the upper bracket
When he was caught out on the top lane, it led to one last disastrous teamfight for VP, with VG’s Super walking away with an ultra kill. VG pushed to the base, and VP had had enough. They called GG, giving VG the series win 2:1.
While Mineski and Virtus.Pro may have lost today, they are far from out of the tournament. They will fight through the lower bracket. If they perform as they did in their matches today, they could still make a deep run in the tournament. Vici Gaming and Team Secret, on the other hand, will be sitting pretty in the upper bracket. There is still a lot of Dota ahead for all of the teams. Be sure not to miss a moment!
Headline image credits ESL
