ViCi Gaming beat Team Tinker 3:1 in a very convincing fashion and will move on to the semi-finals. The Chinese will proceed to battle Secret Team tomorrow at 23:00 CET, after the match between EG and Cloud9 at 18:30 CET.
Follow-up news - Part One
ViCi Gaming - Team Tinker - 3:1
Game One
ViCi Gaming selected an unusual lineup with Broodmother, Mirana and Viper as their cores, while Team Tinker opted for a much more common strategy based around the Io-Legion Commander combination. Both teams tuned up the aggression pretty early into the game, with fy's Blink Dagger giving VG the element of surprise required to build a slight gank advantage. However, Team Tinker applied massive pressure on Black's Mirana, completely shutting down the German with their continuous ganks. With 7 deaths on their main carry, the transition to the mid-game was rather difficult for the Chinese squad, with both BuLba's Razor and Loda's Legion Commander dealing seemingly unbearable amounts of damage during clashes. It took a little over 30 minutes for the final teamfight of the game to take place, with Team Tinker killing four heroes without any casualties and forcing the 'GG' by iceiceice's gang.
Game Two
Selecting the safe route for the second game, the Chinese went for one of the 6.81-6.82 deathball lineups with Death Prophet, Tidehunter and Invoker as their cores. Team Tinker responded with the Elder Titan - Slark - Zeus burst damage trio. ViCi Gaming showed dominance from the very first minutes of the game, getting the first blood by minute 9 and proceeding to build a 7-2 lead in five minutes. The continuous successful ganks against SingSing's Zeus really crippled the teamfight potential of Team Tinker, forcing the Europeans to rely on Loda's Slark almost exclusively to get kills. Knowing the bad state of their opponent, VG took the chance and destroyed their first set of barracks with only 18 minutes on the clock. The ever increasing gold advantage of the Chinese was just too much for the Dire to handle, with both Super and Black completing their inventory by minute 35. Team Tinker could only delay their inevitable defeat, which arrived shortly after.
Game Three
ViCi Gaming used a similar strategy as the one they deployed in the second game, going for the Void-Elder Titan combo this time. Their opponents decided to grab Io once again, with Sven and Viper being the main sources of physical damage for the Europeans. Much like the previous battle, the early rotations by the Chinese were spot-on, resulting in a 9-2 score in the first ten minutes of the game. Team Tinker mainly focused on pressuring Black's Faceless Void, who was under constant pressure despite being in the easy lane. Abusing Black's lack of items, the Dire found the chance to force several convenient teamfights, but they were unable to control the Chinese long enough to grab the required objectives. A massive teamfight by minute 27 ended with an Ultra-Kill by Faceless Void, ultimately crushing Team Tinker's plan to shut down the farm-dependent carry. With Black regaining the top spot of the networth list, ViCi Gaming never really gave Team Tinker another chance for a comeback. With a well-farmed Death Prophet, Elder Titan and Faceless Void in their arsenal, the Chinese started destroying tower after tower, eventually breaching Tinker's base by minute 41.
Game Four
The Chinese relied on one of their most reliable strategies, picking up signature heroes for their cores and a protective Omniknight for the safelane. Team Tinker tried to answer with a reliable strategy of their own, picking up the Lifestealer and Storm combo. Tinker's laning stage was very stale however and they tried to pick off Vici with early rotations. A lot of these rotations however did not pay off and the Europeans gave away kills. Vici Gaming continued to outplay the Europeans, winning multiple teamfights and repelling their ganks. Tinker found many openings still, but were unable to make them count and eventually the healing from the Omniknight and the overall tankiness from the Vici Gaming heroes were too much for Tinker to take down and the Europeans eventually had to admit defeat.
