picture source: DotaPit
Vici Gaming started the Pro Circuit with an underwhelming performance at the first minor of the season. Three weeks ago at SL i-League Invitational they placed only bottom two and didn’t qualify for either the PGL Minor or the ESL One Hamburg Major.
Without any points secured so far, the Chinese came hungry for victory at DotaPit and made an amazing debut with their success over OG, in the opening series of day two and a dominant 2-0 win over Virtus. Pro.
Game One
Although VP had a killing machine of a draft, at least in theory, game one didn’t go as planned at all. Early game, the Bloodlusted Bloodseeker and Mirana got shut down by a very active Zhang "LaNm" Zhicheng on Pudge and completely countered late game by the infinite amount of saves that Omniknight and Winter Wyvern can provide. Add to that the Puck Dream Coil used either offensively or defensively and a six slotted Anti Mage and you’ll immediately understand how well Vici Gaming’s line-up was doing in the late game.
After a dominant laning and mid-game stage, VG were the first to take down a tier three tower via mid lane, however, they lost three heroes in that high ground push, including the Anti-Mage, and VP found the opening to finally crack the Chinese momentum. VP managed to take two lane of barracks from VG within the next 10 minutes but that was all they could do as VG realized that they need to play around the Roshan’s advantage and slowed down the pace of the game. They sieged to the VP base in two waves, once with the Aegis placed on the Anti Mage and the free Refresher on the Puck, and took a full lane of barracks in one push and decided for the final assault around the 55 minutes mark with the Aegis on Puck and the free Refresher placed on Omniknight, forcing out the GG call.
Game Two
Vici Gaming were even more dominant in game two. They drafted a good push line up with an Infest bonus and started the laning stage with duals. LaNm went bottom lane on his signature Undying to ensure a safe start for the Beastmaster. Once Ren "eLeVeN" Yangwei felt safe to stay alone vs Terrorblade, LaNm began the rotations, firstly in the top lane where Zhang "Paparazi" Chengjun was already having a great time. Seven minutes in he was on a dominating kill streak and with LaNm in his lane to help the push, VP’s tier one went down with ease. From there on, VG started to move as a unit around the map, clearing all the towers on the map and taking over VP’s jungle, which crippled Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev even more and left VP without no other option than admitting defeat.
The Pro Circuit points leaders, Virtus.Pro, dropped in the lower bracket where all the games, except the finals are best-of-one. VG on the other hand, are now one series away from the DotaPit grand finals. They will meet Team Liquid tomorrow after all the lower bracket bo1 series will finish.
