The fourth day has dawned and it is the day of decisions: NewBee and MVP have only a glimmer of hope and cannot afford to lose. On the other end of the spectrum, Secret remains untouched with VG, EG and BG sitting right behind them.
Read quick summaries about the played games:
- Day 3, part 2: Round Robin, round 23-26
- Day 3, part 1: Round Robin, round 19-22
- Day 2, part 3: Round Robin, round 16-18
- Day 2, part 2: Round Robin, round 13-15
- Day 2, part 1: Round Robin, round 10-12
- Day 1, part 3: Round Robin, round 7-9
- Day 1, part 2: Round Robin, round 4-6
- Day 1, part 1: Round Robin, round 1-3
- Day 0: Wildcard qualifiers
Grab a quick glance of the venue and get an impression of the atmosphere on site:
Round 27
CDEC found themselves on the bad side of things quite quickly as their offlane Void was unable to find much farm or experience. On the other side, TongFu was able to rotate efficiently with their heroes, most notably the Batrider. CDEC still found farm on their core heroes and kept up, but a teamfight gone bad was the beginning of CDEC's defeat. An ultra kill for TongFu's Sniper ensured not only a tower, but also a huge advantage that CDEC could not keep up with and even a four man Chronosphere was not enough to take down TongFu in a teamfight. Realizing this, CDEC tapped out.
Invictus Gaming vs. Team Secret 0-1
TI2 champions Invictus Gaming draft themselves a rather passive line-up with a Keeper of the Light, a Medusa and an Earthshaker against the rather aggressive and slightly push orientated line-up from Secret, who picked up an Axe, a Windrunner, Visage and a Lycan. The early to midgame went rather well for iG, who didn't lose too much momentum and were able to trade objectives fairly well. By the nature of their line-up, they were behind by quite a bit and it was on Secret to dictate the pace of the game. The Europeans did so very efficiently and knew when to pressure and eventually took down the mid rax. The coordination and patience from Secret made it difficult for iG to engage properly and they lost their rax before they could respond properly. The following teamfight was rather one-sided and sealed the deal for Secret.
Big God grabbed an early advantage through a stable laning phase and was able to pressure LGD-Gaming quite a bit. LGD however fought their way back into the game with clutch pick offs and well coordinated teamfights. Sylar especially on his Anti-Mage in combination with Yao's Troll were able to beat down BurNing's tanky Spectre and a successful teamfight was immediately transitioned into a push, which eventually left Big God with no other option than to call gg.
Round 28
The game showed early on what it was going to be about: 4 kills before the creep waves hit, a sign of a very aggressive game. Na'Vi won their lanes quite effectively and NewBee's rotations were futile. They couldn't find the necessary kills on Na'Vi's cores and especially teamfights ended horribly for NewBee as the Chaotic Offering from Funn1k's Warlock was too strong. The Ukrainians made sure to keep the pressure up and time was running out for the TI4 champions as their line-up was supposed to take objectives after aggressive engagements but failed to do so. NewBee tapped out after multiple lost fights.
Hellraisers vs. MVP.Phoenix 1-0
Both teams go full on aggressive into the game with two very aggressive line-ups. Back and forth, both teams kill each other and dive the opposing towers, resulting in 18 kills within 9 minutes. Hellraisers was however always on the upper hand, as they managed to get favorable trades with MVP overextending a lot. At some point, MVP was unable to trade at all and just gave away kills, as HR was able to sustain their aggression with an Omniknight. It was eventually too much and the Koreans had to admit defeat.
Evil Geniuses vs. HyperGloryTeam 1-0
Two aggressive and teamfight orientated line-ups clash in a very even game that goes back and forth for most of the game. Both teams are able to take kills off one another with the core of EG leading the networth chart, but HGT's line-up always had the potential to shutdown EG and came close several times, but timely Shallow Graves from ppd kept Suma1L's Storm Spirit alive and he continued to do great work at disabling and taking down HGT's core heroes. The North-Americans were in general very clever in their engagements and always knew when to engage, disengage and who to focus and two successful teamfights in a row secured them the win.
Round 29
Cloud9 picked an offlane Storm Spirit in this game, the pick was too greedy, resulting in bOne7 getting nothing. Other than this, the laning stage was rather quiet with EE's Tiny and Black's Terrorblade trading farm but as the mid game arrived, a back and fourth series of pickoffs and teamfights occured; but when Wisp got picked off by a smoke gank near the Rosh pit, VG secured rosh and started pushing highground. This ended in the loss of a ranged rax and three buybacks from Cloud9. Following this, some unsucessful split push by Cloud9 led to another Aegis taken by VG and when VG tried for a second set of rax, C9 was crushed by VG's Mek, Pipe and healing ward when defending.
TongFu took a page out of C9's playbook and sent out an Omniknight and Batrider dual lane. It didn't work quite as well though as they traded kills with BurNing's Morphling still being able to farm. It remained quite even in the midgame and TongFu won a big teamfight through their sustain, but Big God turned it around afterwards and kept outplaying their opponents. Eventually xiao8 and BurNing were too strong and there was nothing TongFu could do. Instead of rushing things, Big God stayed patient and even after having taken down two sets of rax didn't rush into the base. It was just a matter of time however and the retirees punch in yet another victory.
Secret vs. Rave 1-0
Rave chose a somewhat passive line-up, which Secret responded with a greedy one. An Enigma in the jungle, a Shadow Fiend and a Necrophos remained all untouched on Secrets side and led the networth chart. Rave tried to find openings to bring down either of those cores but Secret was quick to react and turned any attempts around. At some points, the farm was too overwhelming for Rave and they could not contest towers or Roshan attempts anymore. Secret knew when to apply pressure and when they forced the issue, Rave had no answer other than calling gg.
Round 30
LGD-Gaming vs. Natus Vincere 0-1
Na'Vi rotated early on with their supports and they were thus able to effectively win three lanes and secure a fast Blink Dagger on Funn1k. The Ukrainians kept the pressure high early on and they grabbed objectives and even stacks from their opponents. 17 minutes in, Na'Vi breach highground and catch LGD off guard, picking off Yao from the getgo and taking rax while killing their enemies. A stolen Ravage from Vanskor secure yet another teamfight that Na'Vi transition into another push and the gg is called from LGd, 22mins in.
Invictus Gaming vs. Hellraisers 1-0
Chinese juggernauts iG turn up the aggression from the start with a very kill hungry line-up to punish the slightly passive draft from Hellraisers. Invictus Gaming rotates effectively and starts finding kills with every move, quickly taking away the space from Hellraisers to farm up. Hellraisers tried to respond with ganks of their own, but iG was always in a better position and managed to find HR out of position before big engagements. Eventually, the farm disadvantage proved to be too much to take on and iG forced their way into the HR base, eventually winning the game.
A very action packed game saw both teams clashing from the first minute onwards and at some point saw 36 kills 18mins in. Both teams planned to transition from teamfights into pushes, but C9's line-up proved to be more sustainable throughout fights and the pushing potential was much higher with a Chen and a Shadow Shaman. The Europeans were able to coordinate their teamfights better and managed to burst down MVP quickly enough. The Koreans found themselves at the backside of things and despite their big teamfight combo and potential, they were unable to repel C9 from pushing into their base and had to admit defeat.
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