Vici Gaming's trip to Germany has been short-lived as they were defeated by Fnatic, 2-1. Coming up next will be a rematch of the DreamLeague finals, a best-of-three series between Alliance and Cloud9.
Fnatic, the last team with a German-citizen player, defeated and knocked Chinese team Vici Gaming out of this tournament after a 2-1 victory. The European team showed how strong their Tiny-Wisp duo is, and it is curious as to why their enemy didn't ban them out on all three games.
Fnatic will be moving on into the top four, wherein they will face the winner of the highly-anticipated match-up between Natus Vincere and Evil Geniuses. The next match is a DreamLeague finals rematch, a game between Alliance and Cloud9.
1st - $80,000+
2nd - $40,000+
3rd-4th - $20,000+
5th-8th - 
mousesports, 
Vici Gaming - $10,000+
Game One
Fnatic drafted their famous Tiny-Wisp combo, which they followed with what turned out to be cheesy combination heroes in Skywrath Mage and Centaur. VG plays a similar five-man strategy as iG, and they have drafted a strong pushing line-up which included Death Prophet, Razor and Shadow Shaman. It was the European team who got the first blood as the team ganged upon the warding Shadow Shaman, who had just planted a ward.
Fnatic's early game aggression was paying off as they got quick levels on their heroes and are arguably winning every lane. They scored a lot of kills, utilizing classic combos such as the Toss to a Hoofstomp, among many others. Tiny got off to a big start, finishing the Scepter to go with Treads and Drums just 15 minutes into the game. That also marked VG's few team fight victories so far, yet they are still behind by more than 7,000 on the experience graph.
With the threat of a blink Centaur, the Moonlight Shadow and the Relocate, VG was having difficulties on finding their farm. On the other hand, Fnatic was enjoying themselves on gobbling out the resources all over the map. With a big lead on their hand, they engaged VG on a drawn-out fight on the Roshan pit which saw multiple buybacks. Fnatic's lead pulled through in the end, and they claim a 1-0 lead on the series.
Game Two
Do not fix what isn't broken, right? Well, Fnatic's first four picks were from the pool they had the last game. The only difference was the Slark, which replaced the enemy-picked Mirana. Vici Gaming went with generally tankier and more mobile heroes, which includes a Tidehunter, a Mirana and a Lycan. Vici Gaming missed multiple attempts for a first blood as Mirana failed to follow up a Disruption with a Sacred Arrow. Instead, it was the Tiny-Wisp combo who took the first blood after beautiful engagement on Lycan.
Fnatic continued their strong play as well, securing farm for Tiny and levels for Wisp again. But this time, VG's Tidehunter solo is getting a lot and Fnatic's farming hero in Slark is not getting as much as he was last game. VG chose their engagements better this time, carefully picking out the fragile heroes early on fights and securing skirmishes.
It was a bit reminiscent of the iG-Mouz game, as Vici Gaming was holding against 4v5 team figts while the Lycan farms and pushes. The game had back and forth swings, with the teams trading blows to each other. It eventually translated into a big gold lead for them, as well as a decent experience advantage. The game ended as Fnatic's last attempt at defending failed, and VG racks up the win to force a tiebreaker.
Game Three
For the third straight game, Fnatic went with a Tiny-Wisp duo again. They added big ultimate heroes in Lich, Venomancer and Brewmaster. VG, on the other hand, geared up for a strong push line-up which included Pugna and Shadow Shaman. As the last game, the duo of Tiny-Wisp got the first blood again - this time from a nice toss back by Tiny.
The game had a stalemate, and many minutes passed with both teams just trading blows. It was basically even for more than ten minutes, but VG later imploded and lost consecutive teamfights. Wisp and Tiny, who both were not having the best--of-times early, suddenly accelerated and then caught up, if not surpassed, the enemies.
With Veno's wards and Tiny's slow seige capability, Fnatic was able to force VG into trying to defend. Without a dagger on any of their hero then, the Chinese team was simply unable to defend or stop the enemy from pushing. Fnatic had Aghs on their Venomancer and Lich (aside from Tiny), which game them a big teamfight presence. VG wasn't able to execute the push that they were planning, and they ended up conceding the game after the enemy overpowered them.
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