Title image courtesy of StarLadder
The Russian powerhouse secured their second Major grand final appearance this season after cleaning out Team Secret in a fantastic 3-game series.
When it was time for the biggest and most-anticipated series of the day at the Chongqing Major, no one knew what to expect, considering the caliber and reputation of the two teams about to compete. Virtus.pro had continued to dominate this DPC season with their championship at the Kuala Lumpur Major, the first of the season. Team Secret, on the other hand, were the ones who stood in their way in the nail-biting 5-game grand finals in November.
Now, they were back at each others' throats, fighting for a spot at another top-2 finish at a DPC Major, and a direct path to the championship prize. And they proved today, that they were hungrier than ever.
Virtus.pro 2:1 Team Secret
Secret had an explosive start, bringing out Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng's Slark out of the bag, and boy did it deliver. They turned what seemed to be VP's game for the most part right around in their favor. VP didn't lose focus at all. They struck back with two dirty and deadly combos in Game 2, a Lich+Doom for surviving the early game, and a Magnus+Anti Mage for securing the late game. It worked out exactly as they predicted.
They didn't stop there, however. Managing to snag the extremely potent combo of IO+Luna, they won the draft in the first phase itself. Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev's perfect 8-0-17 performance on Luna allowed them to walk all over Secret in a completely one-sided match, unlike the first two. They sent the European superteam into the lower bracket and will fight one last fight in the grand finals on Sunday, January 27th.
Four of the top six teams continue their quest tomorrow, January 26th, starting with the first series between EHOME and Evil Geniuses at 05:00 CET.
