Image courtsey of PGL
ViCi Gaming and Secret reached the end of the road while OpTic Gaming lost their chance for a direct invite to the 8th International after being so close to achieving it - losing the very final needed win for them against team VP to be Top 4.
The China Supermajor is quickly coming to a close, as is the Pro Circuit 2017-2018 season. With the last points and invite up for grabs, the competition has been nothing less than spectacular.
Virtus.pro 2:0 OpTic Gaming
OpTic Gaming forced their way through enemies for a direct invite to The International. Their goal was right between their own eyes and no one could sway them it seemed - until they came face to face against the top DPC, the Russian powerhouse - Virtus.pro.
The last NA hope in this Supermajor tried to pull off a Drow-Ranger strat in the first game and they
managed to pressure VP - being the first to take a T3 and barracks but making mistakes versus a team like Virtus.pro will have a great price to pay. As OpTic attempted to take a Roshan they totally underestimated Luna's merciless power. In a matter of seconds, the bottom barracks crumbled in a bad trade. A short while later, Luna would once again be an issue, hitting their mid barracks while Death Prophet destroyed the 2nd lane in a matter of seconds - leading to the chain deaths for OpTic trying to hold their ground desperately.
The second match was almost equal. Kills and networth had pretty much 0 difference, but after the 38-minute mark the game started to change drastically in VP'S favor. A bad fight for the NA team at the Roshan pit was enough for Virtus.pro to secure the lead and take control of the match.
OpTic's road ended without being able to fulfill the top 4 mission to secure a direct invite and secured VGJ.Thunder the last of the direct invite to The International 2018.
Team Secret 2:0 ViCi Gaming
The first match of this series was totally a one-sided game. The match lasted only 32 minutes with a 19k networth leading to a 20 - 2 score.
In the second match Zhang "Paparazi" Chengjun tried to salvage the situation for his team as best as he could even though ViCi Gaming was suffering all over the map. A top networth Lycan and Ember were too overpowered and with an amazing job from the supports, Team Secret managed to drop the Chinese team in their home territory.
With their victory, the top 4 remaining contesters are the Top 4 teams in respective order of their DPC rankings.
Virtus.pro 2:1 Team Secret
The CIS vs EU showdown, Top 1 DPC team vs Top 4, was everything fans could hope for - long games and harsh fights.
The first game was a heavy mid matchup between the Nai Zheng "MidOne" Yeik and Vladimir "No[O]ne" Minenko. As Team Secret struggled and fell behind in the mindlane, the rest of the team was having a hard time vs a huge Medusa and Lina and that sealed the first 46 minutes match in favor of VP.
Team Secret wasn't done yet and the second match saw the whole team fighting with all of their might forcing the game to a whopping 83 minutes. Yazied "Yapzor" Jaradat broke a record for the Elder-Titan scoring a 45 assist ahead with 2 assists than the previous record 43 assists and the European's success forced the tiebreaking third match.
The last match of the series was incredibly quick and one-sided, as Virtus.pro completely destroyed Team Secret. As usual, Virtus.pro won all of their lanes and then maximized on their advantage to ensure there was no chance for a comeback by the Europeans. Closing the map on them, VP forced Team Secret to call the end of the match with a brutal 41 - 11 score.
The last match of the day is between Team Liquid and Team PSG.LGD in the Upper-Bracket finals.
