picture courtesy of PGL
Four TI7 bound teams started the day out on the verge of being knocked out of contention at Mars Dota 2 League 2017. When the dust settled, Evil Geniuses and Invictus Gaming had been beaten down and knocked out.
A rocky start for four of the TI7 Aegis hopefuls - Evil Geniuses, OG, Invictus Gaming, Newbee had all been thrust into the lower bracket elimination series early on in the event. iG and Evil Geniuses had taken the tumble immediately, but managed to stave off elimination in the first round of the lower brackets. Niether team could not hang on any longer once they faced off against OG and Newbee.
A dominating win, flanked by two overwhelming losses would seal the fate for the 2015 TI championship team. Evil Geniuses fell 2:1 at the hands of the four time Valve Major heroes - OG. The European sweethearts had picked up a Visage and Oracle for their two winning matches and thrown in a return of the Monkey King for the deciding victory.
The clash between the two Chinese juggernauts started with a dominant first game by Newbee. Ward placement by Newbee was on point and iG struggled finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Going with an easily executed strategy for the second match, Newbee once again took control of the flow and game immediately. Shutting down Xu "BurNIng" Zhilei early on and great rotations seemed to secure the lead for Newbee. But two great team fights saw iG come alive, capitalize on the momentum and success and take the match to force the third deciding game. In the last game of the series Newbee had dusted themselves off from their setback and made things look like a cakewalk as they trampled over iG for the final game and series win 2:1.
