With a strong 3-0 over the guys in green, Virtus Pro become the Summit 6 champions, with OG in second and EG in third.
Last year, Virtus Pro were the subject of great scrutiny after they admitted to a rule violation in the grand finals of the Summit 5 qualifiers against Ad Finem. Tainted with the incident, the former VP squad then went to ESL One Frankfurt 2016 where they placed last and the team disbanded. The new roster however, has redeemed the organization as Virtus Pro is back with a vengeance, given their titanic showing here at the Summit 6.
Game One
Virtus Pro went with a classic Luna-Shadow Demon combo for game one, along with a Dragon Knight to further comeplement their pushing potential. OG went in a similar direction with a fourth pick Terrorblade, along with an Outworld Devourer for Anathan 'ana-' Pham.
VP seemed to have OG's number, as the early game saw them dominate their lanes. Despite this, OG managed to take down all of VP's tier one towers by the fifteen minute mark: a consequence of Johan 'N0tail-BigDaddy' Sundstein's Terrorblade.
However, as the game transitioned to the later phases, OG's chances looked grim as VP were well ahead in terms of farm and progression. Most of the midgame saw both teams try to farm up and get to their cores' late game potential. OG looked to catch up with a Roshan at 21, but they lost two and the aegis in the process as VP responded quickly. With Roman 'RAMZES666' Kushnarev ahead by almost 4K in networth to N0Tail, OG's chances even in the late game looked ever more dire.
VP continued their game in a methodical fashion and with great discipline, as they pushed out the waves and continually slow seiged OG's highground. VP almost ran into disaster at 32 as Alexey 'Solo' Berezin Disrupted RAMZES on the highground, which Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka followed up with a well placed Fissure, trapping the Luna. With their lead in farm and exp however, VP managed to still come out on top as they took a tier three along with two from OG, only losing Luna's aegis. VP simply continued their slow push plan, staying calm, and sealed the game a few minutes later.
Game Two
Looking to move on from their loss in game one, OG went with a classic Drow strat, along with a Pudge support, hoping to repeat the succes they had with JerAx on the hero yesterday. VP responded and went with a great support lineup, with an Ogre, Sand King, and Wisp: the trio which would spell disaster for the OG safelane.
Early game saw the shenanigans start right away, as a big fight broke out in front of Rosh pit before the rune spawn. VP came out on top with three kills to one, which they made four a few seconds later after the rune spawned. VP looked to contest OG's tri-laned Drow with their Ogre, SK, Wisp aggro tri-lane and they found great success as Solo simply ran at OG. With the support of Pavel '9pashaebashu' Khvastunov and Ilya 'Lil' Ilyuk, the trio dominated the poor frost archer, making the score 6-1 in the first five minutes. To make matters worse, RAMSEZ also crushed Gustav 's4' Magnusson's Clockwork in the safelane, grabbing a few kills as well as a copious amount of farm.
The laning stage set the tone for the rest of the game, as VP continued their lead, their frontline with Ogre-Wisp simply too tanky for the behind OG to take down. OG continued to hemorrhage heroes into the mid-late phases and as such, tried a desperaton smoke at 14 minutes. Unfortunately, a well-placed ward from VP scouted the smoke out and OG lost three for nill. With all their outer towers down by the 20 minute mark, OG had few options left, as they were hemmed into their base by the heavily farmed VP heroes as well as the incredible vision game. OG called gg a few minutes later at 22, as they looked to game three to bring back their momentum.
Game Three
Much like game two, game three started off with a crazy level one teamfight where OG chased down VP all the way around to their tier two tower. And just like in game two, VP came out ahead with three kills to two.
Early on, both sides mounted continual aggression, the total kill count going up to 14 in the first five minutes. VP were again the ones that seemed to come out on top with Lil's Enchantress rotations proving absolutely devastating. With VP steaming ahead in both gold and exp, OG's chances for a comeback looked dire.
As the game moved into its final stages, OG continued to lose heroes as fight after fight went the way of VP. OG never seemed to find the fight or moment to bring it all together and they surrendered at around 20 minutes after a valiant effort to keep themselves in the series.
As the Summit 6 ends, hype for the coming Major continually grows, and only the tournament will tell if VP can continue the success they had here at the Summit. It will also be interesting to see how strategies change from now to the Major, as teams rewatch the replays from this tournament, and adjust their picks, bans and lanes accordingly.
