Another season of WCA finished this week in Yinchuan, China, unfortunately, not without a fair share of hiccups and controversies.
WCA 2016 was the first LAN event to have had the “pleasure“ of running on the 7.00 patch. Putting aside all the accidents, delays, misunderstandings, etc. that can happen at any LAN event, having to play on a far from stable Dota 2 client - two days after the big update was deployed - brought a new kind of drama.
Seventeen minutes in, during the second game of Vici Gaming vs Prodota Gaming semifinals, the game crushed and the organizers gave a default win to the Chinese team, sending the Europeans to fight for the third place decider while VG advanced into the grand finals. Of course, the players tried to understand the logic of WCA‘s decision, when a list of rules was posted by the organizers on twitter.
And here is the paragraph that enlightened us all:
– WCA 2016 LAN Finals rules ”
So, according to the rules, Vici Gaming was declared victorious as they were winners of the first match, and in the second one they had a 19-12 kill score lead and roughly a 9k gold advantage.
Once they reached the bo5 grand finals, Vici Gaming faced IG Vitality, who recently returned from Boston Major. Vitality were able to play with their full roster on this occasion, unlike in Boston, where they had to bring two stand-ins to fill the gap created by the visa issues. Just returned home, without any time to properly practice on the new patch, IG Vitality displayed impressive tenacity in the grand finals where they were pushed in a decisive game five.
WCA 2016 final standings:
1st: 
IG Vitality - ¥ 2,400,000 (~ $347,569)
2nd: Vici Gaming - ¥ 1,000,000 (~ $144,820)
3rd: We Are Young - ¥ 500,000 (~ $72,410)
4th: 
Prodota Gaming - ¥ 200,000 (~ $28,964)
