TI 7 group stage day 1 has come to an end with LGD gaming being the uncontested leaders of Group A. A good day for the organization, LGD Forever Young are also undefeated as the leaders in Group B.
The top four teams of the night - LGD Gaming, Team Liquid, TnC Gaming and Evil Geniuses was exactly what most had predicted. The rest of the group bracket was a bit more unexpected with Infamous giving their opponents a run for their money and Fnatic rolling into last place without a single victory to their name.
TI 7 group stage day 1: Group A recap
The iconic Chinese organization LGD gaming were primed to be one of the real contenders of the group going into the event. Only last month they took the championship title of Mars Dota 2 League 2017. As per what's come to be expected, LGD displayed beautiful precision in their team fights, being able to isolate and focus on the right heroes to maximize their success. They destroyed Fnatic with two tidy victories, the first being ripping off a bandaid, painful but quick and it was over - in less than 23 minutes. The team then set their sites on Team Empire which they conquered with relative ease.
The CIS team has had their share of a mental and emotional rocky start. Having to leave behind one of the core players Vladimir "Chappie" Kuzmenko who was hanging in limbo waiting for the return of his visa from the embassy, the team recruited veteran carry player Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok already onsite as a contracted Russian talent. The team came out of the gates with guns blazing in their first series against Team Empire. The CIS team upset Team Secret after almost an hour long first match in which they rode on the back of their stand in player. With a sizeable lead and their hopes riding high in the second match, the team was not able to hold on tightly and Team Secret's pick offs turned the tables on them to end with a commendable tied series to start. Their two game loss to LGD which followed was then offset again by the tied series they took against the Peruvian hopefuls, Infamous. Resolut1on's flawless game on Weaver gave Empire the first match but the Peruvians fought back to take the second win.
The Peruvians had already shown they were a real contender in the group when took a win off Team Secret to tie up their first series. Although the team looked to be struggling in the first match with uncoordinated and an individual vs team based play style, Infamous had pulled it together to turn things around. Two split series to start the day is more than commendable for a team that was highlighted as the underdogs of the group.
Evil Geniuses performance was thrilling to watch but were unable to clinch a series win, instead tying up all three of their first day series 1:1 against TnC, iG.Vitality and Team Liquid. It was TnC's first win of the night against Evil Geniuses that really caught the attention of fans around the world. With a phenomenal and flawless performance, Marc Polo "Raven" Luis Fausto went 19:0 against the NA giants on his Phantom Assassin. Raven wasn't the only stand out player of the night for the team. In the overwhelmingly favorable series against SEA brethren, Fnatic, Carlo "Kuku" Palad would share the spotlight with his stellar performances.
For Team Liquid, the Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi show never fails to impress. In what seemed to be a loss fo the team in the second game of the series against iG.Vitality, Miracle- starting to bully the entire team, kicking arse and taking names to close out with a surprising 2:0 win. They continued to trample over Fnatic and then split the series with Evil Geniuses to round out the day.
Fnatic will need to head back to the drawing board to revamp and retool their strategy and mindset. With three series losses on the board and no doubt a fragmented mentality, the team will need to find mostly wins in the upcoming days to avoid elimination before the main event.
The TI 7 group A day 2 will start on Thursday, August 3rd at approximately 11:30 PT/20:30 CEST - immediately following the group A first series.
Keeping track of The International 2017 matches is getting much easier with Overwolf!
We at GosuGamers have partnered up with Overwolf to bring our amazing match ticker to the in-game application. The functionality of the application will be much like our Chrome extension with information on the competing teams, the tournament, the game played and the match schedule.
Overwolf's user interface allows you to view the match ticker both while playing your favorite game and while browsing or working at your desktop. The app will ensure you never miss a moment by notifying you of upcoming matches in the games you have selected, with a handy single-click link allowing you to go directly to the action from your reminder. Overwolf It is the easiest way to track multiple matches across various titles that are taking place simultaneously. Additionally, the app has a filter feature that allows you to pick the exact titles that you are interested in following.
You can find the GosuGamers Matchticker application by downloading Overwolf here, and searching for "GosuGamers" in the Appstore.
