The last two games series from group B brought disappointing results for Evil Geniuses, Virtus.Pro and Team Empire while MvP. HOT 6 shined in their last matches of the day.
Evil Geniuses vs Virtus.Pro
Evil Geniuses versus Virtus Pro was certainly one of the most anticipated matchups from group B and the teams delivered the high level DotA expected from them.
The story of first game boiled down to the midlane duel between Sumail's Templar Assasin and Illidan's Silencer who was drafted with the sole purpose of nullifying EG's snowballing potential. And for a while, the russians managed to keep a tight leash on Sumail with constant pressure applied on the talented youngster. But EG quickly banded around Sumail and started to serve the pain back to Virtus Pro with amazing initiations from Universe's Clockwerk followed immediately by devastating QoP ultimates. That gave Sumail the breathing time he needed to bounce back and in the usual manner he ended up wrecking the opposition. It's worth mentioning the cohesion displayed by EG, both in teamfights and in the itemization strategy aimed at negating the Global Silence Virtus Pro was so reliant on.
The second part of the series can also be described as a duel, a duel of the drafters to be more specific. Although ppd is renowned for his amazing overview of the meta and theory crafting prowess, he had to bow down in front of fng's brilliant intuition. Evil Geniuses attempted a safe second game by drafting a four protect one lineup comprised of ganking supports and burst heavy cores who were meant to create noise around the map while Fear's Ember Spirit farmed up a fat and unstoppable inventory of items.
But that did not sit very well with Virtus Pro and even though their draft read as "split push" they turned the game on its head when they went for straight all out aggression on Fear's safe lane which forced EG into a defensive stance. The Russians did not hesitate and kept pushing tower after tower and despite great individual plays from EG, their composition was not meant to defend the high ground and eventually succumbed to the unrelenting pounding that Virtus Pro had dished out.
That concluded the day one for Evil Geniuses and Virtus Pro, it seems that neither of the teams are happy with their results.
Vici Gaming vs MvP.HOT6
The Vici Gaming – MvP.HOT6 two game series planted the seed of a possible Korean Dream at this year’s International as the SEA qualifiers winners spoiled VG’s plans right from the beginning. Being far away from what we could call an easy game for VG, the Chinese favorites found themselves in a huge trouble once the game reached the mid stage as MvP.HOT6 outplayed the veterans in a spectacular way.
After they exhausted their opponents with their constant aggressive playstyle, MvP.HOT6’s Storm Spirit played by MP made the winning move when he managed to steal the Aegis which resulted in the Koreans wiping out the entire VG line-up in the teamfight that fallowed. A minute after, VG’s base got invaded and was torn apart by MVP.HOT6 who nullified the six potential points to be scored by Vici Gaming.
Coming into the second game on the driver's seat, Mvp.HOT6 took VG bu surprise once again with a last pick Huskar handled by Forev. Once the game started the Koreans forced Vici yet again to a very aggressive early playstyle but unfortunately, this time around, they were unable to play as well as they did before. As a result they very quickly fell behind while Vici Gaming got stronger and stronger.
Once the game moved into the mid stage, Hao's Ember Spirit became impossible to kill, and without any control abilities MVP.HOT6 at the mercy of VG's split push which continued for more than 20 minutes. It lasted till the 48 minute mark where Vici Gaming finally decided to go for a five man high ground push. This push was highly successful as they destroyed the defending Korean squad.
EHOME vs Team Empire
Facing Empire in the last game of the day was a fresh and eager to win EHOME. For Empire, to win this match meant that they could redeem themselves after they got rolled on by Vici Gaming earlier in the day-but winning this series against the very experienced Chinese players was going to be a difficult battle.
Part one of the series can be distilled to the sinusoidal profile registered on the gold and experience graph. The game looked like a never-ending tug of war in which both teams traded kills, towers, gems and momentum. Yoky was an absolute stand-out, delivering incredible Echo Slams. However, the Echo Slams were for naught, because in the end it all came down to a costly trade for Empire around the 70 minute which involve the lose of Silent's Divine Rapier. This shattered the equilibrium of the match and put EHOME in pole position.
Going into the second game of the series, both teams rehashed some hero choices, EHOME keeping ROTK on his signature Clockwerk and Zyf on Razor while Team Empire stubbornly clung on their Gyrocopter, Earthshaker and Bane picks. It seemed like the history was going to repeat itself with the trading of the kills and towers-many viewers braced for the possibility of another long drawn out game. However, the difference that proved critical to the outcome of the game was Empire's pick of Resolut1on's Storm Spirit-on which he played like an absolute beast. EHOME could not punish his mobility and he got fat quickly. The Storm proved uncontrollable and was the main cause for two consecutive wipes suffered by the Chinese in the span of three minutes around the half hour mark.
The two fights set Team Empire on a winning trajectory. They won ten minutes later with yet another teamfight that put the entire EHOME team on the sidelines.
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