VG Victorious

OG vs Mineski

The day started off with OG facing off against Mineski, who unfortunately were forced to use a Standin as their carry Jay couldn’t make it. Even with Jeyo filling the void, they didn’t manage to put up much resistance against the Frankfurt champions. First, a 20 minute steamroll featuring OG’s Doom and Undying running over Mineski’s lineup from minute 0. In game two Mineski’s Alchemist got off to a dream start, getting bounties, stacks and freefarm mid against N0tail’s meepo but a few ill-advised fights later and alchemist’s huge networth advantage had turned against them. Alchemist’s treads-radiance build had neither the farming power nor the fighting impact to keep them in it and his starved team capitulated in a slightly more respectable 30 minutes.

Virtus.Pro vs Vici Gaming

The next match saw Vici Gaming up against Virtus Pro, another East vs West matchup. The teams traded the first two games, first VP winning with a disruptive Wraith King carry, then VG thanks to a brilliant performance from FY on Shadow Shaman. While the games were competitive, they were hardly nail biters. Neither of them prepared us for the 70+ minute slugfest that was game 3. At first, it looked like G’s absolutely monstrous Dragon Knight might snowball the game for VP. However, as the game progressed BurNIng’s ember slowly caught up and eventually eclipsed the DK. As both teams settled in for the long haul, first Silent’s Gyrocopter then Super’s tiny grew to ultra-farmed status, partially thanks to Ember dropping a rapier which was passed around a bit. In the end, a failed highground from VP resulted in VG having all the rapiers and they managed to convert that combined with a small buyback advantage into a game and match win, advancing to face OG.

OG vs Vici Gaming

In the last match of the day, the two winning teams OG and VG were pitted head to head in a match that most had expected to be coming. In game one, BurNIng’s carry venge with lina and tusk as his other cores somehow managed to prevail over OG’s tri-core lineup of SF, Tiny and Phantom Lancer in a 50 minute slugfest. Game two saw VG give OG their lethal Dazzle + Huskar combination (with a meepo thrown in for good measure) and without an AA or Lina type counter, VG never really stood a chance. In the deciding game, OG picked another favoured combo in Io + Tiny, but VG outmaneuvered them with 3 tanky cores in Doom, Dragon Knight and Wraith King. With such a beefy frontline, VG out-lasted OG in fights and managed to end the game in under 30 minutes for a slightly anticlimactic end to the day.

Bracket after Day 1