Lima Major: Tundra, PSG.LGD and beastcoast out

Second day in the Lima Major playoffs had only elimination series on the schedule.

Three teams had to wave goodbye to their tournament run and head home without any Dota Pro Circuit points earned at the first major of the year. The opening lower bracket elimination rounds brought sad news for the China and SA Dota 2 fans, who are now left with just one representative fighting for the trophy.

For China, it’s Team Aster who hopes to make a full comeback by surviving the lower bracket bloodbath. Their redemption campaign started well with a hard fought victory over the TI11 Champions, Tundra Esports.

Team AstervsTundra Esports

Aster focused on objectives with a carry Nature’s Prophet for the first game and ran over Tundra in 30 minutes. However, the TI champions bounced back hard, evening out the series, setting a networth lead record for the Lima Major, 63,000 gold.

Game three featured an interesting approach from Tundra, who chose a carry Gyrocopter to lane against Aster’s offlane Enigma, and a position 4 Monkey King, on which Martin "Saksa" Sazdov aimed at a late game core option.

He went for an early Heaven's Halberd to diminish Asters’ heavy right click damage coming from Draw Ranger and Templar Assassin, but more interestingly, after the Halberd, he aimed straight for an Eye of Skadi, which he didn’t complete up until the 40-minute mark.

Tundra lost their tier three towers before being able to turn around a fight with Saksa’s Monkey, and the sole team fight won in the high ground defense came a bit too late for them to mount a full comeback into the game.

Evil Geniusesvsbeastcoast

The day continued with an incendiary atmosphere in the arena as the hometown heroes, beastcoast and Evil Geniuses, had to fight each other for survival. The series brought the loudest cheers a LAN can witness, while the two teams engaged in what felt like a true celebration of the SA Dota.

It was a pity that these two had to duel on home soil in the elimination rounds, but that didn’t stop them from delivering action packed games with countless early team fights that made the arena erupt every other minute.

It was Evil Geniuses who prevailed in the end, taking revenge for their defeat in the DPC regional league where beastcoast claimed the top spot in the SA region.

Team SpiritvsPSG.LGD

Day 2 closed with a highly contested series between PSG.LGD and Team Spirit. The first game finished with an even kill score, 25 to 25, but with Team Spirit coming out victorious courtesy of a signature Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov Magnus and a carry Lina capable of taking the objectives fast. The Chinse team hit back hard in game two with a deathless performance from Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang on Storm Spirit and a well-executed strategy revolved around the Roshan spawn timers.

Their Tag Team-Ursa-Enchantress strategy went so well in game two that they felt comfortable using it once again in the final game of the series. They switched the Enchantress out for Chen, but that wasn’t the main issue that cost them the game.

Team Spirit had perfect tools to kite Shiro’s Ursa or to disengage when needed and fight on their terms. Past the 15-minute mark, when Spirit had Hurikane Pike completed on Draw Ranger and Gleipnir on Furion, the fights went all in their favour and PSG.LGD had to bow out of the competition with just a 9th/12th place finish.

Day 3 in the playoffs stage has another three series on the schedule with one more elimination match and the upper bracket semifinals expected to be played starting at 10:00 local time, 16:00 CET.