Photo courtesy of MarsTV
As the lower brackets of MDL Changsha Major continue to chug along, OG and TNC became the latest victims of elimination.
The day was filled with lower bracket heartbreaks, starting out earlier with both of the Invictus Gaming squads being eliminated, then followed by OG and TNC Pro Team bidding farewell after some one-sided and some very exciting matches.
OG 0:2 Newbee
Newbee has been struggling in the second half of the 2017-2018 Pro Circuit season, sputtering in their last few appearances without taking any DPC points since March at Bucharest Major. In fact, the team's last three points awarded were for 3-4th place finishes following their championship win at ESL One Genting in January.
The Chinese team has a lot on the line with a 7th place DPC ranking and several hungry teams on their tail eyeing their potential TI8 invite. In order to solidify their invite, Newbee would need to step up significantly in their last three events.
Having a rough start in the group stage, barely squeaking by into the main event, the Chinese TI7 runner-up team showed up to compete and defend their lives in the lower brackets. After overpowering IG in the brutal best-of-one elimination series, they then outplayed OG.
In the first match, Newbee dominated the second half of the game as Song "Sccc" Chun and Xu "Moogy" Han's Slark were too much for the Europeans to handle. The second game, the Chinese team simply showed up and were ready to capitalize on a bad fight, take objectives and play their hearts out to win.
TNC 1:2 PSG.LGD
TNC had secured themselves a spot in the upper brackets, nudging out PSG.LGD in the group stage to take the third seed. In a SEA battle, they fell to the lower brackets after getting swept up by Mineski 2:0.
PSG.LGD were knocked down in the group stage immediately after a flawless first-day performance. The Chinese rising stars were then relegated to the lower brackets where they had to re-establish their formidable reputation. They overthrew iG.Vitality to keep their tournament hopes alive earlier in the day.
The first match was a flawless event for Lu "Somnus?M" Yao on the Death Prophet and Jian Wei "xNova" Yap on the Omni Knight while the rest of team performed with outstanding precision and coordination. LGD dominated the first match with a fearsome display of teamwork and talent.
The second match was looking to be all LGD's for the taking, but TNC showed an enormous amount of tenacity and patience, pushing the game out longer and seizing the advantage in team fights and forcing LGD against the wall. TNC maintained their composure and after over an hour of thrills and kills, tied up the series with their victory.
The deciding match was much quicker in comparison to the previous one. TNC seemed to not get a grip on the laning stage as was needed and after the early game PSG.LGD was able to run away with the game.
The action will resume tomorrow, Saturday, May 19th with the Lower Brackets Round 3 and then Round 4. Mineski will face off against Newbee at 10:00 local time/04:00 CEST.
