The first round of the 1v1 event offered some great plays and surprises to boot. Four of the players will play in the next stage, while four were eliminated today.
It’s been a while since there was a 1v1 tournament in Dota 2. The last one was three years ago when s4 won the 1v1 Solo Mid title at The International 4.
DAC 2017 revived the tradition and today, March 29th, saw the first four games played. A total of eight players were chosen to fight for the honour of the best 1v1 mid in China.
DAC 2017 1v1 Solo Tournament Rules:
1v1
Mid lane
Shadow Fiend only
The following items and actions are not allowed:
Jungling
Blocking the creeps or changing their direction other than with your hero
Soul Ring
Infused Raindrop
Runes
Bottle
Activating a Shrine
Couriers are automatically deployed
Victory condition:
Kill enemy hero twice or destroy one tower.
Players:
Artour "Arteezy" Babaev
Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi
Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan
Zhang "Paparazi" Chengjun
Xu "BurNIng" Zhilei
Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao
Song "Sccc" Chun
Zhou "bLink" Yang
Miracle- (Dire) vs Arteezy (Radiant)
The first match was a clash of stars between two of the community favourites, Arteezy and Miracle-. It was Arteezy who managed to secure the early advantage in terms of last hits and started gradually building on it (17 to 10 after four minutes of play). Despite Arteezy growing in net worth over the next few minutes, he decided to be the proactive one and went for a smoke gank, but going behind his enemy did not result in a kill. Miracle- slowly started to get back in the game, aided by his Magic Wand investment. The Liquid player managed to send Arteezy home after several successful Shadow Razes and gained the upper hand in the game after 13 minutes of play. The two players went for more hide and seek games, until at the 20th minute they faced off under Arteezy’s tower and Miracle-‘s 17 wand charges proved their value, as he was able to kill his opponent.
Paparazi (Radiant) vs SumaiL (Dire)
The second game was a lot shorter, but it did not end in the hands of the favourite. The first four minutes were close, as neither player had too significant of an advantage. Paparazzi was still ahead in terms of last hits, but not by a wide margin. Then out of the blue, the two players went into caveman mode. The Chinese player was in a better position and managed kill his opponent. That early in the game, Sumail typing “gg” was probably the right call. And the first the big favourite was eliminated early and rather unexpectedly.
BurNIng (Radiant) vs EternaLEnVy (Dire)
The Chinese legend went into the match more aggressively and after only two minutes of play was close to killing his opponent. EnVy started unconventionally with a Ring of Basilius which did not help him much, as he had to sacrifice early healing items for it. Both players, however, went for the wand investment that proved crucial to Miracle-‘s victory in the first game. The tempo was slowed after the fourth minute and the players seemingly settled into getting last hits. Not for long, however, as true to himself EternaLEnVy went for a highly risky move, chasing his opponent between the tier one and tier two mid towers, but was punished and conceded the victory to BurNing.
Sccc (Dire) vs bLink (Radiant)
The last game was arguably the most one-sided in the series. Sccc started dominating right from the start and got a cs advantage, but bLink recovered with the next wave, but Sccc continued to build up his advantage. The first few minutes gave the impression that Sccc was mechanically superior to his counterpart, but his richer experience playing Shadow Fiend should also be taken into account. Seeing that the game was going out of his hands, bLink decided to go for a straight fight with Sccc, but was killed and called the "gg".
