Group A Summary
After a turbulent day with several delays in part due to extensive DDoS attacks on the venue, ViCi Gaming put forth a confident showing in order to come out on top of Group A while Na`Vi and Sigma.Int are left to sort out who will take second place and end up facing Fnatic in the semi-finals. The second place decider will take place at 11:00 CET today, followed by the first of the semi-finals games at 12:00 CET.
aAa got off to a good start against ViCi but it was all turned around by some great individual plays by Super on the Storm Spirit who turned things around on some of aAa's early gank attempts, buying his team the space needed in order to allow them to farm up the Radiance on the Lone Druid. With two tanky cores in Lone Druid and the Bristleback and the initiation of the Storm Spirit zipping around the fights, ViCi took control of the pace of the game and started dictating when and where fights happened, pushing the French team out of the game and getting themselves the first step on their way into the playoff's.
Na`vi rode a surprising Razor, Io and Crystal Maiden offensive trilane into an early game lead, gaining the upper hand on all three lanes. This transitioned into controlling the pace of the game and applying pressure through controlled dives, where Sigma simply lacked an answer for Na`Vi's tanky frontline as XBOCT had gone for an early Mekanism on the Razor. Man of the match was as is often the case Dendi on the Templar Assassin, ending up 9/0/5 in what was a very convincing 25 minute display of skill by the Ukrainian squad.
The Sigma.Int vs. aAa match was as one-sided as one might expect of two teams that know each other but where one of the teams is considerably more accomplished. In the less than half hour long match that Sigma.Int dominated from start to finish the true storyline instead became the constant issues with DDoS'ing of the event, as a full extra hour was spent trying to sort out playable conditions for the match, delaying the day as a whole to the point where the inevitable decision was made to hold the deciding game for the second place finish the next morning rather than finishing off the group as was scheduled.
ViCi got the better of a few early skirmishes, which seemed to cause Na`Vi to push even harder in order to reverse the momentum, which resulted in further overextensions and giving ViCi a strong early position from which to dominate the laning stage. As they proceeded to farm effectively and utilizing great individual performances in order to gain a considerable farm advantage over Na`Vi, the Ukrainians one hope for a comeback rested on the still decently farming XBOCT Gyrocopter. However, trying to balance the need to farm with the need to stay safe ended up being too much as ViCi caught him out at around 24 minutes, which lead into a the Chinese taking the first set of Barracks before escaping on a sliver of life, crushing Na`Vi's last hope of a comeback as the game went finally entirely out of their reach.
As winners of the group ViCi Gaming are set to play Alliance in the semi-finals, while delays due to DDoS attack on the venue forced a postponement of the Group A decider between Na`Vi and Sigma.Int, the winner of which will in turn face Fnatic in the semi-finals.
VODs of Group A
>> ViCi Gaming vs against All Authority
>> Na`Vi vs Sigma.Int
>> Sigma.Int vs against All authority (not yet available)
>> ViCi Gaming vs Na`Vi (not yet available)
>> Na`Vi vs Sigma.int (not yet played)