picture courtesy of PGL
Two very similar teams in terms of play style, one featuring some of the most iconic figures of the Chinese Dota, VG J, and the best CIS squad of the moment, Virtus Pro, fought against each other today to stay alive in the single elimination format of the Kiev Major.
The pressure was very high for both teams as Virtus Pro is the sole CIS representative at a CIS Major, and surely they don’t want to disappoint their fans on home turf, especially after their poor performance from Boston. VG J, on the other hand, was one of the two Chinese teams left in the competition. Lead by the old Chinese god Bai 'rOtk' Fan and with what most consider to be the best support duo of all times, Xu 'fy' Linsen and Lu 'Fenrir' Chao, reunited at VG J, the Chinese are indeed a fearsome force, regardless of their group stage results. The CIS aggression was put at test with the VP vs VG J matchup.
Game One
In the opening game of the series, VP targeted rOtk with all their five bans, and let the Fy--Fenrir duo to slip with two powerful supports that provided huge team fight control for the Chinese team. Monkey King and Warlock, along with a Sand King offlane, made VP staple heroes look underwhelming once the game transitioned into its mid stage. Despite a good start and a decent laning stage, VP lost the entire map control around the 27 minute mark when VG J managed to take a huge team fight that lead to a lost tier three tower and melee barracks bottom lane. Despite being clearly over run, VP tried times and times again to catch their opponents off guard and even snatched the last Aegis of the game from them but, in the end, they couldn’t survive the massive teamfight control provided by the VG J supports .
Game Two:
The second game started very promising for VG J, who dominated VP during the laning stage courtesy of early rotation coming from their carry Phantom Assassin. Repel on PA worked wonderful in the first 10 to 15 minutes, allowing VG J to dive deeply behind tier two towers in their thirst for blood. However, at the 14 minute mark, VG J was confidently doing Roshan and the only move that could have brought a real chance at a comeback for the VP was a smoke contest. VP delivered when they needed it the most. Backed up by a full packed arena chanting their name, they successfully contested the Aegis, killed four VG heroes, placed the second life on Ursa and achieved a miraculous comeback to push the series in a decisive game three.
Game Three
The last game scenario unfolded almost the same with game two. VG J surprised VP with a last pick Pugna support, who provided the early push and caused a lot of problems to Roman 'RAMZES666' Kushnarev’s Slark. VP was slowly falling behind, running two farm and level depended cores, a mid-lane Ursa and a safe lane Slark, who was constantly ganked and bullied out of the lane. By the 30 minute mark, they were already forced to defend high ground and that was the time when they managed to pull out an amazing team fight to wipe the entire VG J line-up. Immediately after, all the cores completed their BkB’s and the game took a full turnaround. The Dark Seer-Disruptor combo of VP perfectly coordinated their four big spells several times, allowing VP to win big team fights one after another. Would be a pity to spoil the entire game to you, and that’s why we offer only a small preview of how crucial Alexei 'Solo' Berezin and Pavel '9pasha' Khvastunov plays were for VP to secure a win against what historically is proven to be the greatest support duo Dota 2 has ever had, Fy/Fenrir.
