Shanghai Major - Day 2 Recap

The Chinese Tragedy

Day one of the main event was painful for the fans of the Chinese scene. Both the TI runner-up CDEC and the traditionally strong VG ended in the bottom four of the entire tournament, earning the same rewards as two of the qualifier teams, Team Spirit and Team Archon. In the upper bracket, the crushing 0-2 defeat of LGD by MVP.Phoenix confirmed that the hosting nation could, at best, finish with a single team in the top three. This wasn’t the end of difficulties for the one-time giants of the Dota scene, as on day two, the three remaining Chinese teams found themselves set up in best-of-one elimination matches against a host of threatening opponents. EHOME, lauded as the champions of the Chinese scene and favorites to win the major after their stunning performance at MDL, would find themselves up against the Swedish juggernaut Alliance, while LGD would have to see if their match against compLexity would leave them exiting the tournament at the hands of two novice teams. Newbee’s position was no better: either they stood to test their luck against the flexible and aggressive Fnatic, or else stand as a bump in the road to another of EG’s legendary lower-bracket runs. No matter what, the outlook was grim for China, and tensions were high going into that potentially deadly series of four short games.

In the end, the worst was realized. EHOME fell to Alliance, LGD were conquered by compLexity, and Newbee were finished off by Fnatic. In the span of a few short hours, every last Chinese team was eliminated from the event in the bottom eight. The Chinese scene has never felt a more brutal loss; they somehow managed to scrape through a few high-placing finishes in Frankfurt and TI5, even if the championship seemed out of reach. This level of devastation is completely unprecedented, and it remains to be seen how the Chinese players will react. Will they be able to gather themselves in the heart of despair and find a new path forwards, or will this be the beginning of the end of Dota 2 in China? We will have to wait for the next major in Manila to see for ourselves.

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Upper Bracket, Upwards Bound

The first half of the upper bracket had already concluded with two explosive upsets on day one. Not only had Liquid finally beaten both their nerves and their perennial enemy in Alliance, but the eternal underdogs of MVP.Phoenix had managed to secure themselves a top six finish in seemingly effortless style. It was a shocking result, and the implications left a long shadow over the rest of the upper bracket. Would OG and EG be able to retain their hard-won dominance, or would they too falter and fall to the lower bracket? Would Secret be capable of showing the kind of dominant performance from Frankfurt that seems so distant now, or would 2GD’s endless jabs at EternalEnvy be proven justified? And would Fnatic be able to show that SEA is, as boldly claimed by compLexity’s swindlemelonzz, not the weakest but rather one of the strongest Dota-playing regions? Only one thing was for certain: out of the top three teams at Frankfurt, not all of them could make it to the next round.

In the end, Secret and EG would be the ones to prove themselves, while Fnatic and OG would falter and fall to the lower bracket. EG, the team seemingly guaranteed a top 3 finish in every tournament they attend, certainly came as no surprise, but the victory of the struggling Secret was a relief for their long-suffering fans. However, these victories are no reason for any of the upper bracket teams to rest on their laurels; to the contrary, their matches tomorrow ought to be the toughest that each of these four teams have yet faced. No matter who wins, these two Bo3s will surely be fights to remember.

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UB Spotlight: A Match Made in Frankfurt

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Nobody expected the first Major to end the way it did. OG, a mishmash team of veterans who never quite made it to tier 1 status and a couple of greenhorns with only their MMR to recommend them, managed to come screaming through the lower bracket after a painful group stage and demolish two of the top teams in the world in quick succession. The EG loss could be explained away by the rocky assimilation of Arteezy, but at that time, Secret had looked like nothing less than the strongest team in the world. The crushing defeat of Puppey’s latest brainchild came as a shock, but at the same time, set up a new rivalry in the competitive scene. But ever since that match, neither team has posted much in the way of results. OG managed to get gold at Dreamleague and silver in The Defense, but Secret hasn’t placed highly in a single notable event since Frankfurt. Shanghai was set to be the stage of both teams’ redemption.
But, in a cruel sort of irony, it wasn’t in the finals but in the very first round of the winners’ bracket that the two teams squared off. The loser wouldn’t suffer the indignity of early elimination, but it was hardly as climactic as one would have hoped. All the same, it was a challenge presented: for Secret, to prove they had learned from their defeat; for OG, to prove that they could hold their title; and for both, to prove to the world that they were still teams to be reckoned with.

The series was as close as any we’ve seen this tournament, graced with madcap teamfights, original item builds, and an abundance of Tidehunter. Game 1 seemed to be a painful reminder of the changes in the meta, with the one-time Secret favorite of Ember Spirit falling to the sheer destructive capacity of Lone Druid. Interestingly, w33 was the one on the Ember instead of Envy, but that slight change couldn’t salvage the game, and it looked like Secret was about to be struck down again.

In game 2, however, Secret decided to bring out the big guns. Whether it was Puppey’s idea or Envy’s, the team headed for a Drow Ranger draft, and that gamble certainly paid off. Miracle’s Slark couldn’t do a thing to defend against Secret’s pushes with an early Midas purchase, and OG found themselves shorn of their outer towers by eleven minutes. But despite that shocking lead, OG didn’t give up the game yet, proceeding to drag out the game for an unheard of twenty-five minutes, with Miracle managing to pick up enough of Secret’s massive kill bounties to actually top the net worth chart. But in the end, Secret’s advantage proved too great, and after an incredibly slow and patient siege just past the thirty minute mark, they showed that they had the skill and composure to hold their advantage.

In the third game, Secret made the same choice of a Drow draft. But in an amusing swap, OG abandoned their defensive supports of the first game in favor of higher aggression, while Secret did the reverse. The end result was a much slower snowball early on from Secret, but as they moved to take the base, their Wisp and Dazzle made the difference in keeping their cores alive. Secret had managed to send the reigning champions to the lower bracket.

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LB Spotlight: A Matter of Pride

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The round 2 losers’ bracket match between compLexity and LGD is an odd place to find a story of pride. Going to the losers’ bracket so early is all but a mark of shame, a sign that your team couldn’t perform in the group stages, the winners’ bracket, or both. But events have conspired to give these unrelated, unfamiliar teams a bone to pick with one another, as both have a burning need to show the world they aren’t all show.

compLexity, like most of the American scene, is hovering just on the edge of legitimacy. They don’t have any big results to recommend themselves, and have generally lacked the kind of performance they need on the world stage to show that they’re a team to be reckoned with. Like many of the other lower-tier attendees, they viewed Shanghai as their potential breakthrough event, hoping to prove once and for all that they’re not just one of EG’s kid sisters but a solid North American team in their own right. swindlemelonzz made this clear during his impromptu appearance on the analyst panel, with his daring claim that NA would end up being viewed as one of the strongest scenes after this tournament. But, during the actual event, coL’s performance was nothing but lackluster. Their group stage appearance would only net them a single map win against EG, while their losers’ round debut just gave them a victory over the lackluster Team Spirit. The only thing that could really be said to commend them was that they had managed to stay in the tournament that far. But LGD was a different matter: a win against LGD would be a win against an upper bracket team, and coL would be through to really strut their stuff in the LB Bo3s. The path to success was clear, and it went straight through LGD.

LGD, for their part, were having a rough tournament. Their group had them going toe-to-toe with the monsters from OG, and they had to beat down Newbee twice to get into the upper bracket. Even though they managed to get a game off of the reigning champions, their struggles were only just beginning as they went up against the eternal underdogs of Korea’s MVP.Phoenix. The nominally SEA team easily crushed them 2-0 with their massive aggression, and the long-suffering LGD found themselves in the loser's’ bracket again. What was worse, their manager had overheard one of the players from MVP.P claiming that the match would be “easy” ahead of time, and when he tried to bring his outrage to the Chinese internet, he was rebuffed by the netizens with cries of “prove you aren’t easy or shut up.” Ultimately, he failed, and now has to bear that shame along with his team. Going into the match against compLexity, LGD had everything to lose: a second loss here would mean that they were no better than those lower-tier teams they had once lorded over.

Tensions were high going into the game, with so much at stake. coL opted for the patch-suitable Lone Druid along with Limmp’s signature Tiny early on, rounding things out with the jungling power of the Chen, the pickoff potential of the Tusk, and the teamfight of the Tidehunter. LGD, for their part, went for the Sylar Phantom Lancer as their primary core with the supporting cast of Batrider, Witch Doctor, Razor, and the infamous Earth Spirit. The game started painfully for coL, with the unusual midlane PL from Sylar winning out early against the Tiny and the other lanes not going much better. But as things progressed into the midgame, coL began to gain back lost ground with their powerful midgame fighting lineup. The Chessie Lone Druid, though not as powerful as that of AdmiralBulldog or Arteezy, began building up items, and after every Ravage LGD found themselves with a tower less. MMY’s Earth Spirit performed admirably, but little by little, he found his combo doing less and less as coL’s lineup got bulkier and bulkier. Finally, while cleverly dodging a Rosh fight, coL managed to take the last of LGD’s barracks and secured the mega creep advantage. LGD attempted a Hail Mary push down mid lane, but it proved futile as coL defended successfully and took the game. compLexity showed the rest of the scene: they aren’t just another joke of a team trying to use the NA qualifiers to get easy event access, but a force to be reckoned with.

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Adrift at SEA

SEA has been struggling for a long time. During TI3, Orange managed to get an almost miraculous third place finish, and in the immediate aftermath, their star mid Mushi was snapped up by the Chinese Team DK. Ever since, the region has been striving but ultimately failing to get results. It finally looks like they might have a second chance. If Fnatic can pull out a big win somewhere, they might be able to reaffirm their scene’s legitimacy and spark a SEA renaissance, much like how EG has revitalized the NA scene. After the group stage, where Fnatic ended up barely squeaking through into the upper bracket off the back of 2-1s against Spirit and Vici, it looked like Shanghai might just be such an event.

Such optimism received a harsh rebuttal in the second series of the night, which was as one-sided as the OG-Secret match wasn’t. EG have long been one of the most dominant teams in the scene, and they willingly proved it once again with a handy 2-0 sweep against Fnatic. In the first game, a rampaging Fear Bounty Hunter ripped Fnatic to shreds with the aid of Suma1L’s Nyx Assassin, with Arteezy only eventually dealing a mercy blow with his obscenely farmed Sven. Game 2 was hardly any better, with the American squad happily snatching up another pickoff-oriented lineup and taking their second win almost a minute earlier on the back of heroes like Faceless Void and Batrider. At this point, one had to think back to the group stages: Fnatic conceded a game to Team Spirit and Vici Gaming apiece. That game against VG is the only game VG managed to win this entire tournament, while Team Spirit managed to get two more against VG. If Fnatic lost games to teams with such horrendous track records at this event, could we expect anything out of their lower bracket run but a quick and brutal elimination by Newbee?

That question would have to wait for another three or four hours of logistical agony, but in the end, the answer turned out to be yes. The loss against EG was painful enough, but Fnatic were able to pull themselves together and take a win off of Newbee. They still have a long road ahead of them, but if they can keep up the same performance against OG, they could have an impressive showing yet.

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Alliance Perseverant

After day one of the main event, Alliance were a team on the ropes. Liquid had managed to finally overcome their playstyle, with even their vaunted Naga Siren failing them in game 3. They were knocked down to the lower bracket, set to be a mere Bo1 away from a painful 9-12th finish in an event they were directly invited to. And worse, they were up against the brightest hope of the Chinese scene, EHOME. If old chicken proved himself a tough bite to chew, Alliance could very well see their rediscovered success fade away in a heartbeat. Their dominance at TI3 could turn out to just be a flash in the pan, and what seemed like an ingenious new way of approaching the game might wind up being nothing more than a cute trick in the end. The hopes and dreams of these Swedes rested on a single match, and we were set for a nail-biting match. As the Oracle at Delphi might have said to Croesus in our current age, “If Alliance face EHOME in an elimination match, a great team will be defeated.”

And, in a moment of relief for fans of the erstwhile giants, Alliance managed to pull out a win. Their strategy was nothing unfamiliar to those who have seen it in the past: the pickoff potential of a Batrider and a Beastmaster combined with the monstrous pushing power of an Io+Tiny combination to close out a comparably feeble teamfight-oriented draft centered around Dark Seer, Enigma, and Ember Spirit. EHOME were unable to make their strategy properly resolve against Alliance, and though the game would only barely miss the hour mark, Alliance’s lategame expertise shone through and let them take that critical win off of EHOME.

Their struggles aren’t over yet, however. Tomorrow, they will be facing up against compLexity in the battle of the Swedes. Will sheer numbers prove the advantage for Alliance, or will coL’s American talent give them the diversity and power of the melting pot in this Swedish showdown? Only time will tell.

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The Champions and the Gatekeepers

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For both OG and Virtus Pro, being a single match away from being eliminated entirely from an event must be a familiar feeling. Both have experienced that kind of pressure before: OG at Frankfurt, and VP at The Summit (to name the most recent example). So, as they settled in for their Bo1 at Shanghai, the sensation might have been surprisingly comfortable, or even nostalgic. Both teams are tough, both scrappy, but only one would be expected to win. VP have long been considered the “gatekeepers” of the professional scene, lingering just under the vaunted status of being fully tier 1 but being more than capable of smacking down upstarts who tried to reach those heights before their time. With OG already considered by most as a T1 team, the positions seem almost to be reversed: if VP can take this game, it might be the victory they need to finally reach full T1 status and prove to the world that they’re the kind of team you should bet on to win it all. For OG, if they lose, their victory at Frankfurt might have just been a flash in the pan, with VP putting them back down in their rightful place after all. Who would win? Who would show that they were the real deal all along?

In the end, it was OG. VP fought as valiantly as ever, but the famed power of 8k MMR won the day, as Miracle succeeded where he earlier failed. OG will be moving on to face Fnatic, and if their prior record is anything to show, they are perfectly poised to make it all the way to the finals. But this is hardly an indictment of VP: after all, they fell to OG in the exact same way at Frankfurt, and really, nobody can impugn a team for losing to the champions. VP will persevere, as they have done for so long, and we will likely see them again at Manila.