Boston Major - Playoff Day 1 Recap

The first day of the Main Event of the Boston Major went underway on Wednesday with half the field taking the stage to compete in the first round of the single-elimination playoffs. After a tumultuous group stage that saw a few key upsets, the teams were seeded into a bracket that sees at least two teams expected to have come out as top seeds facing off in the round-of-sixteen. With no room for error, the teams were placed on a perilous precipice, any false step would see them falling out of the competition.

The four series played on the first day all ended in 2-0 sweeps, but the scoreline can be deceiving. While there were certainly displays of dominance, at least one series saw a healthy back-and-forth, with the underdogs showing a remarkable tenacity despite serious deficits. That series was the first: Virtus.Pro versus iG.Vitality.

Virtus.Pro vs. iG.Vitality

VP came into the Major as the hottest team in Dota, and they have shown no signs of letting up. Their signature strength-core style has been developed into an effective strategy within a metagame that sees nuke-heavy cores like Luna, Mirana, and Timbersaw picked with regularity. Their group-stage performances were strong, continuing the trend established at The Summit not so long ago. Against iG.V, however, VP had some difficulty overcoming the impromptu mix of Chinese veterans and newcomers, facing a tougher test than they perhaps expected.

For their credit, iG.V strategized as if they were a team without stand-ins. Their drafts were solid, an unexpected turn of events given that the team’s captain was among the visa victims. Stand-in Q did his part, giving the team high priority picks such as Luna and Batrider in both games, allowing the individual strength of the team’s core players to shine. Similarly, the team’s map movements displayed a level of team cohesion that was perhaps unexpected, at times out-maneuvering the CIS team in trading objectives and in baiting out smoke ganks.

Within a few minutes of the first game, any trained eye could see that iG.V had come prepared for Virtus.Pro. Their Treant Protector pick effectively stalled out VP’s early-game push engine and allowed iG.V to enter the midgame on even ground, giving them opportunities to take favorable trades against the CIS team. In both games, there was a period where iG.V looked to be in the driver’s seat as they were able to execute on the strengths of their line-up much better, but VP came back in both games behind superior teamfighting.

V1lat having a smaller breakdown during the very intense game 2 If nothing else, iG.V may have provided a blueprint for how to combat VP. Despite the disastrous laning phase of the second game, they were able to use the vision-focused splitpush strategy to take Virtus.Pro to the brink, only to just fall short in the end. Had they not given up such a big early lead, it’s entirely possible that iG.V triumph and force a deciding game three. A stronger team playing with their full roster should be able to emulate this style and perhaps even avoid the pitfalls that ultimately doomed iG.V and eliminated them from the tournament.

Evil Geniuses vs. Wings Gaming

Both Evil Geniuses and Wings Gaming came into Boston with high expectations. While neither had been on an absolute tear, both teams looked to have held form since their runs at The International. It is surprising, then, to see both teams having dropped a series in the group stage, the losses providing the seeding that set these two teams matched against each other in the first round. Many unhappy fans blamed the format for this unfortunate set of circumstances, but the truth is much plainer - the teams themselves got into this situation, and one of them was going to suffer the consequences.

Many favored Wings in this series, seeing EG’s two series losses to compLexity as much more damning than Wings’ sole aberration against Warriors Gaming Unity. There was some precedent for the opposite, however, as the most recent matchup between the two teams saw Evil Geniuses eliminating Wings Gaming from the Summit. Still, no one quite expected the games to play out as they did.

The first game began with every indication that this was going to be a slugfest between the two seemingly evenly-matched teams. They traded kills and towers and farm in a dance not unlike any other tango between two reasonably skilled squads. Each seemed to be moving to the beat of their own drum-- two unique, but equally solid styles-- and the victor of the game to be decided in execution alone.

Crowd supporting their "home town" boys.
It is in that department where EG excelled. Their mid-to-lategame map movements and teamfights were spectacular, edging out Wings again and again by slim margins until the advantage finally reached a tipping point. Led by the wonderkid duo of SumaiL and Arteezy, EG slowly chipped away at the base of Wings Gaming, abusing the Alchemist-Shadow Demon siege engine to confine and choke out the Chinese team until they eventually fell. The two EG stars were superb, with only two deaths between them at the end of the game, a testament to their methodical approach.

The second game would prove to be an anti-climax, as it was EG’s supports who took a turn strutting their stuff. The Shadow Demon + Leshrac combo walked all over the Wings lanes, securing kill after kill and beginning to snowball an advantage that would carry the defending champions right out of the competition. Boston will be the inauguration of a new leader of the pack; Wings go home in inauspicious fashion, the future uncertain.

Warriors Gaming Unity vs. compLexity Gaming

The benefactors of the group-stage upsets that saw EG matched against Wings were the perpetrators themselves, Warriors Gaming Unity and compLexity Gaming. In a stroke of bracket luck, one of the two surprises of the tournament was assured a quarterfinal berth. Both teams had already surpassed expectations that would have seen them bombing out of the tournament straight away, and now one was going to make top twelve!

Conventional wisdom would favor compLexity, as they had not only managed a single upset as WG.U did, but they had repeated the feat in the rematch, securing a second-place seed out of their group. Still, the pre-match analysis had the teams relatively even, with Winter even favoring the SEA squad overall. Again, the stage was set for what promised to be a close affair…

compLexity: eliminated but still together What followed was disappointing. In a 2-0 routing of the North American squad, Warriors Gaming Unity rolled, or perhaps chained, into the playoffs. Their laning-focused drafting bent and broke the compLexity side. In game 1, coL simply never got going, as their magic-heavy draft fell behind early and had no ability to play from behind against the Timbersaw with Pipe. They put up more of a fight in the second game but were ultimately unable to outfight the SEA squad down the stretch.

WG.U’s core combination of Timbersaw and Luna was effective in the short match. The early-to-mid strength of the cores compliments the laning-focused style, giving the team the ability to leverage their lead into quick game wins. To progress further, however, the SEA team will need to show more than this single effective strategy. One hopes that this team is not yet out of surprises.

OG vs. MVP Phoenix

These two teams have some history together. At The International 2016, MVP was the team that knocked OG out of the Winner’s Bracket in a shocking upset. OG are out for revenge in Boston as the teams meet again. Neither roster went unmolested in the shuffle, but OG have emerged again as a top team, while MVP have struggled to regain form.

Hungry for another trophy While some of the players have changed, the styles of these two teams have stayed the same since TI. OG employed core-centric, teamfight control drafts in both games against MVP, while the Koreans aggressed wildly in an effort to disrupt. At TI, MVP were able to effectively set the tempo of the game by constantly forcing engagements until OG folded under the pressure.

To MVP’s credit, they had early leads in both games. It certainly appeared as if they were only one or two won fights away from sealing game 1, and they certainly had their chances to close the game out quickly. Unfortunately, MVP’s lineup petered out down the stretch, as OG’s area-of-effect crowd control was too much to deal with the longer the game went on. Game 2 was no different, OG simply replaced the Dark Seer-Slardar combo with Axe-Warlock and kept on trucking.

Put simply, MVP have lost their edge. OG showed real weakness against their style, especially in the first game, but the Korean team was unable to convert the lead into a victory. It’s unfortunate to see a team that inspired such praise from the community fall, and it is surely frustrating for the players to exit so early.

Zerenity's vlog

LiquidDota and PVGNA staffer Zerenity is at the event and he packed his video camera. So here's your chance to see what it's like to be on-site for the Boston Major.

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