All four Chinese teams that played at the Singapore Major completed their quarantine time and starting today, April 27, they entered the battle for a ticket to the second Major of the year via China Dota Pro Circuit upper division league matches.
First to duke it out in a best-of-three series were the Singapore Major champions, Invictus Gaming and Team Aster, who fought with a stand-in in Singapore and placed 9th-12th.
Reunited now with Ye "Borax/BoBoKa" Zhibiao, Aster were able to take down 2-0 China’s finest team of the moment. The series began with iG’s Zhou "Emo" Yi standing strong with Kunkka in the mid lane versus Aster’s Beastmaster. An early Armlet along with Heaven’s Halberd on him allowed IG to take a considerable lead, and with the Aghanim’s Scepter completed, iG’s team fights looked net superior. However, iG’s early dominance came to an end once Aster had a Halberd of their own and their Tidehunter was able to initiate with a Blink Dagger purchased only after the 20-minute mark. A Roshan secured towards the end of the game gave them the extra boost to fight in iG’s base and start the series with a game advantage.
Headed into the next one, Aster aligned a good mix of magic and physical damage with Faceless Void in the carry position. Along with Leshrac and Skywrath Mage to melt down anyone caught in Chrono, Aster managed to take full control of the game. Nonetheless, iG were able to mount a comeback past the 30-minute mark with Satanic completed on Troll Warlord, but despite their tremendous efforts to push the series to a decisive game, Aster’s lead and map control was too big for them to overcome.
Third week in China's upper division will feature only the four teams from the Singapore major fighting against each other as follows:
April 30
Invictus Gaming
vs
Vici Gaming
PSG.LGD
vs
Team Aster
May 2
Team AstervsVici Gaming
Invictus GamingvsPSG.LGD
headline image courtesy of Perfect World
