mTw against Virtus.Pro was the first game of the West Qualifier of The International 2012. Even more action was added to the game as Virtus.Pro used two standins in this opening match.
From all the round 1 matches, the tournament's opener mTw vs. Virtus.Pro was probably the most anticipated one. Who would succeed? The team which changed its roster seven weeks before the tournament, stabilized it and trained so hard for getting this last spot in Seattle. Or is it the team does not even play this important match with its regular lineup? Azen and Dread on VP's side were replaced by Scandal and blowyourbrain from team Empire for the first day of the tournament.
Map 1: Don't fail your push against Kuroky!
First map was with mTw on the Radiant side with first pick. The team decided to play with a fairly aggressive and squishy lineup and syndereN on his trade mark Invoker. Virtus.Pro on the Dire side prefer to play with a hard carry, and with Kuroky they have a player among them which is definitely capable of playing those carries appropriately.
mTw was the team to gain the early game advantage, carry it over into the mid game and establish a 10k gold lead. The European's tinker helped them, of course, with keeping the lanes pushed and gain control over the map. The players of Virtus.Pro, well aware of their late game advantage, decided to turtle the game and wait for Kuroky to farm more.
It was mTw, who made the mistake of bruteforcing the push at the bottom barracks, two times even, and losing those fights decisively. Because of this, Virtus.Pro was able get back map control, score more double kills with Kuroky's Faceless Void and take the win on the first map.
mTw
Virtus.Pro
Map 2: Beware of Funzii's Lone Druid
The second map was an action packed demonstration of how Lone Druid can ruin your game. This time, mTw picked Lone Druid before the second banning phase, so VP didn't have a chance to ban him out. The solo against solo lane Lone Druid against Windrunner turned out to give mTw both a fairly good gold and experience lead.
More action, however, was happening in the Radiant jungle, with VP starting as Radiant on this map. The Russian's carry was Lifestealer this time, another rather unconventional carry in professional Dota 2. mTw was trying to counter this with a trilane on bottom. Effectively, it looks like, since more and more teamfights gave the better end to mTw, who were now also able to gain a tower advantage. After already 27 Minutes and a devastating 0-5 team fight loss, Virtus.Pro gives up and the match goes onto a deciding third map.
mTw Virtus.Pro 
Map 3: You sure, you don't want to invite both teams, Valve?
After the very long pause because of the Dota 2 servers have been offline, mTw and Virtus.Pro started the third match about five hours after the official start of the match. This time, syndereN picked an aura stacking strategy with Beastmaster, Vengeful Spirit and Shadowfiend for mTw. Virtus.Pro, still with the two standins, tried to counter it with a Death Prophet for Kuroky.
A breathtaking situation was happening in the early mid-game: mTw baited Roshan for some minutes, Virtus.Pro just waiting patiently for mTw to over-commit. mTw, however was not in the mood for giving presents. The attempt to end the situation with a smoke gank by VP was destroyed by a very good teamfight from mTw's side, swapping Death Prophet right back into the action when she wanted to retreat. The reward, Aegis of the Immortal, was lost due to a successful woods gank later on.
For a long time, this was a slow, careful play style game with only few herokills. After 45 minutes, just 20 deaths for Radiant and Dire combined were counted. After both sides managed to get at least on barracks teared down, this game transitioned into late game, when just a single mistake causes the loss. Maybe the smartest item choice of the game: Halberd on the Crystal Maiden to reduce the damage output of Shadowfiend, which was critting with 1200 damage.
Summarizing the late game is most likely useless and so to keep it simple: Watch this game! Virtus.Pro pushes mTw into the lower bracket, with mega creeps.
mTw Virtus.Pro 
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