All the highlights from our final day of Groups at the Singapore Major.
Our last day of our Group Stage saw plenty of top-tier Dota on display. With the final series done and dusted, we now know the full seeding for our Upper and Lower Brackets in the Playoffs tomorrow.
We break down all the action from Stream A.
Quincy Crew vs Alliance
It’s been a rough ride for Alliance in the Groups. Still, they came into the first map of this series with a disciplined approach that paid off.
Quincy Crew had a strong line up, with Quinn “Quinn” Callahan on Puck, A Tusk for stand-in Wilson “Poloson” Koh Chin Wei and Avery “LoA” Silverman on Enigma, their draft provided plenty of stun and lockdown opportunities. Meanwhile, Yawar “YawaR” Hassan’s Juggernaut and Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos on Venomancer brought the damage. It looked good on paper. They snatched first blood and were looking strong through the lanes.
Then at 11-minutes, Linus “Limmp” Blomdin’s Dragon Knight got his Blink Dagger. Then things really started to ramp up for the EU team. Alongside Gustav “s4” Magnusson’s Timbersaw pick, the two cleaned up the kills. Timber’s performance was especially memorable, with s4 going 11/2/7.
Alliance were sporting a 29k advantage, and 18-kills up on Quincy when the NA team called GG on Game 1.
Our Game 2 saw a very aggressive start from both sides, with both teams managing a pick-off during the fight for runes. The score was 1-1 and the game hadn’t even reached 1-minute. By 13-minutes, there were 16-kills on the board. With both Alliance and Quincy taking 8 apiece. But as the game moved into its later phases, Quincy’s draft were able to ramp up the pace. They had secured themselves a 7k gold advantage by the 30-minute mark. Quinn’s Void Spirit was a force to be reckoned with, packing an Aghanim’s Scepter and an Aeon Disk into his stash by 30-minutes.
At 33-minutes, Quincy closed out the game to bring our first series of the day to a tie.
PSG.LGD vs Vici Gaming
Next up we saw China go head-to-head as PSG.LGD and Vici Gaming battled it out.
Game 1 saw Wang “Ame” Chunyu secure Troll Warlord in the draft, and it was a Death Prophet pick for Zhang “y`” Yiping ensuring a pretty comfortable laning phase for LGD. They came into the mid game strong as a result, picking up a 2k gold advantage by the 15-minute mark.
And they just built from there. By 25-minutes, they had a 13k lead in the net worth, and they were moving for a second Rosh at 27-minutes. It was soon over for Vici, with LGD taking a decisive victory on the first map.
As we came into our second game of the series, Ame switched things up with a Terrorblade, and y` took the Elder Titan. But Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang stuck with Puck in the mid against Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang’s Void Spirit in the lanes. All in all the lanes came out a draw for both teams, it was looking like it could have been anyone’s game.
But things weren’t looking that way as the game neared its 20-minute mark. By then Vici had secured themselves a 2k gold lead. The kills were 6-6, but it was clear that the power of that Alchemist pick for Ren “old eLeVeN” Yangwei was just beginning to build.
The next 11-minutes saw Vici’s net worth balloon to a 20k advantage as they brought this series to a tie. Taking Game 2 in a win as clean as the one LGD had taken from them earlier.
Also Read: Singapore Major; Groups, Day 4 Stream B
Team Aster vs Vici Gaming
Vici were back-to-back on Stream A, coming up against another regional rival in the form of Team Aster.
It was a battle of the spirit brothers in mid for our first map, with Ori picking Ember Spirit and an Earth Spirit for Aster’s stand-in, Cheng “Mad” Han. Aster had a slight lead during the early game. But a team fight at the 8-minute mark saw them take heavy casualties, giving Vici an advantage they could run with for a while. The kills were flying fast during the first 15-minutes, 24 of them on the board already for a tied count of 12-12.
Vici’s draft had a lot of map mobility, with Ding “Dy” Cong on Weaver and eLeVeN on Pangolier on top of the Ember. They utilised it to its fullest, squeezing out every inch of farm. Aster held out impressively for 47-minutes, but Vici were more than putting them through their paces. Objective after objective fell, and Vici had megas at the 40-minute mark. They closed the first game 42-25 kills and with a 37k lead in the net worth.
Game 2 started with plenty of fire on both sides, again we saw a high kill-count through the lanes. But there was no doubt this series belonged to Vici. Aster managed the barest spike of a lead in the early game. And then Vici just dominated. Yang “Erica” Shaohan was on fire on his Monkey King, leading the way in farm as well as kills. He bought his BKB at 19-minutes and was unstoppable from then on out. He went 11/0/5 over the 29-minute game, playing a huge role in helping Vici take home this 2-0 victory.
Thunder Predator vs Vici Gaming
Hot off the heels of their win with Aster, Vici was straight into their next series. Facing off against Thunder Predator. The undisputed kings of the first day of groups.
And Thunder lived up to their reputation, coming in to the first map strong, putting away 11-kills in the first 13-minutes and establishing a clear gold advantage. Thunder Predator were thrashing, the kills were 27-10 by 28-minutes, Vici could not catch up.
Alonso “MNZ” León’s Bloodseeker could rely on back up for almost every pick-off thanks to Joel “MoOz” Mori Ozambela on his Earth Spirit. He put in huge work for his team, scoring a massive 23-assists as he danced around the map with some of the finest dukes we’ve seen at the tournament so far.
But in true Dota style, just when everyone thought it was all over for Vici, they came back. Taking 8-kills back-to-back and bringing the score to 31-21, netting themselves a 13k gold lead by 34-minutes.
Vici Gaming saw their chance and they ran with it, straight up to the mid rax. Thunder Predator were knocked for six. At 34-minutes Game 1 was another win for Vici.
Game 2 saw a bit of a seesaw in the early game, with the gold lead swinging between both teams. Still TP looked stronger in the lanes, with MoOz again on Earth Spirit, coming up triumphant against Ori’s Storm.
A team fight at 20-minutes, however, spelled a disaster that Vici just couldn’t claw their way back from. Although Vici did try to mount a defense, there was no holding them back. TP pushed for the mid rax at 36-minutes with a 15k gold lead. By 40-minutes, it was double that. Thunder Predator took out the second map at 43-minutes with a 36k gold lead. The final kills on the board, 41-18.
It was a tie to end this thrilling series, which provided some of the best viewing professional Dota can offer.
Thunder Predator vs PSG.LGD
Our final series for Stream A saw Thunder Predator meet China yet again. This time in the form of PSG.LGD.
Game 1 was a snowball for Thunder Predator. They banned out Troll and Jug in the draft, and while NothingToSay’s Alchemist did alright in mid. Ame’s top lane with Razor did not go well.
TP had 7-kills on the board just 7-minutes into the game, and a 1.2k lead in the net worth.
Frank “Frank” Arias was a huge component in the swift success of Thunder Predator during the first map. He went 9/0/7 on his Timbersaw pick, obliterating Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida’s Mars for 5 of them.
This game was over in just 23-minutes, in our fastest series of the day.
And while Game 2 did last a touch longer, it still didn’t look good for LGD. Mnz snapped up Troll Warlord in the draft, and Ame again went for a slightly uncharacteristic hero in Nature’s Prophet. While Zhao “XinQ” Zixing took a risk on Techies.
By contrast, TP’s draft looked a lot more capable. It was an Earthshaker for MoOZ this game. But he still did plenty of work catching LGD’s heroes out. Racking up 27 assists in Game 2. Team Captain Romel “Mjz” Quinteros also put in work on his Oracle, earning just one less assist, for 26. He even managed to pick himself up a Blink Dagger in the last minutes of the game.
TP snagged themselves a 2-0 victory over LGD at 34-minutes. Landing them comfortably at the top of the standings for the group stage with a total score of 5 wins, 2 ties and 0 losses.
The action continues in Singapore tomorrow as we move into the Playoffs. Our first game of the day kicks off with Evil Geniuses vs Fnatic. You can catch all the action live on the One Esports Twitch
The post Dota 2: Singapore Major; Group Stage; Day 4, Stream A appeared first on Esports News Network | ESTNN.