Coming to the first season of Starladder|i-League Dota 2 invitational via qualifiers and with their coach standing in, Vici Gaming Reborn eliminates another directly invited team to keep the Chinese hope for a full eastern grand finals alive.
Game One:
The first game of day started with a twisted laning choice from Vici Gaming Reborn, surprising Virtus.Pro with a Broodmother mid for Zhou 'Yang' Haiyang and sent Tong 'Mikas'a Junjie in the offlane on Windranger. That alone forced VP to rethink their laning and switched Maxim 'yoky-' Kim mid on the Ember Spirit to take care of the Brood and left Sergey 'G' Bragin on his Invoker to safely farm the bottom lane.
Although the first blood went to VP courtesy of an early rotation from Lion to the mid lane, the overall lane advantage went to VG R who benefitted from an early level six on the Beastmaster. As soon as Xu 'fy' Linsen had his Roar up, VG R smoked and rotated bottom lane, invaded the Radiant jungle, scored three kills, and smashed the tier one tower.
VP regained control with the second Roshan spawn at the 21 minute mark by forcing VG R to contest the Aegis. A mistimed Roar initiation lost the entire fight for the Chinese, and G’s Invoker exited the Pit with a triple kill.
VP's momentum didn’t last long with Yang’s Broodmother keeping the pressure on with her split push. Without the space needed, VP played a very defensive game, waiting for VG R to make the five man commitment for the high ground.
Only two successful defensive team fights were needed for VP to be able to counter push, losing VG R two lanes of barracks. With Sven and Broodmother left without buybacks they had no other option but to call the GG.
Game Two:
For the second game of the series Vici Gaming Reborn went once again with a heavy lock down draft and the strong Night Stalker - Lion roaming support duo who focused all of their efforts into shutting down G’s Invoker.
Just before the first nighttime NS was already on a killing spree and close to level six, giving VG R a tremendous lead. That allowed them to make the most out of the first night. Grouped as four in the mid lane they took the tier one tower and secured a dominating kill streak for the Mikasa Puck while G was walking around with only brown boots and a Hand of Midas.
Despite yoky- making a huge effort to keep up with the super farmed VG R heroes, VP was unable to take any team fight due to VG’s control spells and Aghanim’s Scepter's extended vision.
This time they had no chance of defending the high ground and were forced to a decisive game three.
Game Three:
The last game of the series went from bad to worse for the Russians as they got eliminated from the Invitational by a rampaging Gyrocopter.
While VP seemed a bit unsure whether they wanted to go with a push strategy or a global presence with their draft, VG.R had a very clear idea of how to secure the series and went with a Mikasa classic Templar Assassin and yet another very strong support duo: Earthshaker - Lion.
All their lanes were easily won and VP was once again forced to defend extremely early. Without key items on Sven or Zeus and with Furion unable to pressure lanes, VP was a simple spectator to their own meltdown.
Starting the high ground siege at the 17 minute mark when TA was already two-shotting G’s Zeus, Vici Gaming Reborn ended the series with a fountain dive to secure the first rampage of the tournament for their carry Gyrocopter.
With Virtus.Pro eliminated, the only CIS team left to fight in front of their hometown fans is Natus Vincere, who will face LGD Gaming in the last series of today’s upper bracket semifinals.
