As the second day of the TI10 group stage wraps up, China continues to dominate with iG and ViCi Gaming assuming the top spot in their respective groups.
Weeks before heading to Romania for TI10, most fans and personalities predicted that this would be China's event for the taking. Hungry for a TI title and trophy, five teams found their way to Bucharest to represent the region.
And then things took a turn for the worst.
On the heels of Team Aster announcing that their entire filming crew along with the players, the team leader, and the coach tested positive for coronavirus, Invictus Gaming then reported a positive test for at least one player. Aster was allowed by Valve to play at TI10 from their current location with each player in isolation, however, Liu "White Album" Yuhao, was unfit to play on opening day.
But somehow, all of that seems to be a thing of the past, an incident that feels almost unrelated or connected to what is going on in the group stage at TI10 now.
From the most villainous team at TI representing China, Team Aster has won back the hearts of their fans. Although still not feeling his best, White Album returned to compete and the team delivered one of the biggest upsets of the day, a 2:0 sweep over the two-time championship team, OG. An interesting point to note, this was the first time OG played against China since 2019 and their loss becomes China's victory in more ways than one. Team Aster is still the lowest ranking team from China at TI, rounding out 7th place in Group B, but their win and White Album's return gives them the momentum needed to move ahead in the remaining two days.
ViCi Gaming swept through all of their games today (a grand total of six wins for the day) to take the top seat in Group B with a 9:1 record. This is the same record and position that Invictus Gaming sits in for Group A.
Rounding things out for China is PSG.LGD in 2nd place of Group B and Elephant in 5th. While the star-studded veteran lineup of Elephant is still within upper bracket contention, they suffered quite the loss at the hands of Team Spirit in a 2:0 upset.
TI10 Group Stage Day 2 Standings
In terms of heroes, there have been almost 100 heroes picked so far at the event -- only two days in.
Tinker made a debut with six games played, taking only one loss for an 83% win rate.
Monkey King, Tiny, Io, and Weaver are quite popular for picks or ban in almost every game, despite the low win rate for Tiny and Io.
Day 3 of group stage matches will kick off on October 9 at 09:00 CEST, the full schedule can be found HERE.
