posted by Gerrow,
Today we had a Lower Bracket day as all the encounters that we watched happened down there. After winning their series against ru Virtus.Pro*, earlier today, eu OG continued their run in the event. The last BO3 played today saw them face off against cn CDEC Gaming for a spot in the Lower Bracket semi-final in which dk Johan 'BigDaddyN0tail' Sundstein shined on his signature heroes. We also had a Chinese showdown as cn PSG.LGD took on cn EHOME. Hop in to see how the day unfolded.
OG win two series in one day


The first match of the day, OG vs VP, ended in a victory for jo Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi and his team. The second match was a faceoff between two Chinese teams as EHOME were pitted against LGD. The last match of the day had OG oppose CDEC, who weren't strong enough to beat EG in the upper bracket yesterday.

OG look strong again as they pick up comfort heroes



In the draft of the first game CDEC decided not to ban IO in the first phase which lead to OG's capitan il Tal 'Fly' Aizik first picking it quickly. A tiny for dk Johan 'BigDaddyN0tail' Sundstein followed shortly after as it was the OG's 2nd pickup. To make the Tiny even more ridiculously strong, the European squad went for the midlane Alchemist who later supplied the Tony with an early Aghs upgrade.

OG and CDEC duked it out in the final series today


The CDEC lineup had no answer to the N0tail's violence. What is more, Chinse squad had heroes who hit their power curves fairly early. However, since Miracle did not go for the regular 'Naga build' on his Alchemist, but rather went for Vlads and Solar Crest to help Tiny fight around the map even that wasn't enough.

As Bigdaddy kept building up his lead more and more, sitting 10.000 gold ahead of everyone else, he became an unstoppable force. After taking Roshan and bringing in his Satanic, the Tiny began to take CDEC's tier 3 towers. The Chinese utterly lacked damage and could not even burn the aegis while the Tiny just hit the buildings. After breaking the barracks, ca David 'Moonmeander' Tan on the Earthshaker managed to isolate cn Chen 'xz' Zezhi's Broodmother, and CDEC realised they could no longer win game one. They called the GG soon after.

Moon catches out Xz


BigDaddy's signature Meepo makes CDEC crumble



The second game featured even more exciting pickups for the side of OG, who went for BigDaddy's another signature hero. This time it was his Meepo. He was paired with a Dazzle to ensure a hard-hitting healbomb. However, CDEC was looking to shut down Miracle as they had a clever response to his Ember Spirit putting cn Sun 'Agressif' Zheng on the Doom and having captain cn Fu 'HHH / Q' Bin on the Silencer, basically providing a guaranteed Doom on the Ember Spirit during ganks.




Although it felt like OG were on a timer to take the win in this game, Europeans didn't look like they were in a hurry at all. The carefully placed ganks by both sides as well as cn Huang 'Shiki' Jiwei's Alchemist, continuously farming, kept the midgame very interesting. OG managed to keep the gold leveled out against an Alchemist thanks to BigDaddy's high GPM and several good ganks on Shiki.

At the 25 minute mark, CDEC smoked at just the right time, catching out OG who were waiting on the next Roshan to spawn. Taking out Bigdaddy and both of OG's supports made it appear that CDEC would get a free Roshan as well, but the Rosh attempt took a lot of time and OG managed to organise themselves quickly again. Miracle, jumping in with a remnant, managed to kill Roshan and take the aegis from right under CDEC's noses, and even took out Agressif's Doom as CDEC scrambled to get to safety.

CDEC spend everything they have to kill BigDaddy once


OG kept building up their lead, taking map control from CDEC and denying the Alchemist a lot of farm. They got the third Roshan at around 37 minutes. After a few minutes of looking for openings, OG had to use the aegis before it would expire. Bigdaddy used an illusion to get deep into CDEC's highgorund, and managed to quickly burst down the Lion. Having secured an opening, OG jumped into the fight, while CDEC desperately tried to kill the Meepo, they barely even managed to take the aegis before losing 4 and calling the second gg of the series.

With that OG have eliminated the TI 5 runners up and secured a spot in Top 4 which means at least $255,000 for team. CDEC finished the tournament within Top 6 earning $200,000 and quite likely an invite to the next Major

EHOME cut it close against LGD



The first game between the Chinese saw LGD's captain cn Bai 'rOtK' Fan go for a lineup with heavy pushing power. The carry Lycan, notorious for its monstrous potential to take down buildings, was paired with a Visage to empower the push even more.

EHOME weren't much worse off though, picking up a Tiny and a Broodmother. As the midlane Ember Spirit from LGD was the only hero on their team who could effectively provide an answer to the Broodmother, it proved to be a very effective pick.

EHOME wasted no time getting in control of the match, securing good farm on all lanes and slowly building up a gold lead. After picking up few items EHOME leveraged their early lead to go for pickoffs, finding mo Leong 'ddc' Fatmeng on his Winter Wyvern more than a few times. The offlane Doom from LGD also had a hard time surviving the gangs, and EHOME continued their snowball. AT 35 minutes into the game, EHOME went for highground. They sustained heavy losses doing so, but in the end the LGD defence wasn't enough to keep their opponents out, and gg was called.



LGD, now one game behind as well as one loss away from going home, decided they would be better off with a more teamfight oriented draft. They picked up staple teamfighters like Gyrocopter and Earthshaker, along with Ember Spirit who also thrives in teamfights. EHOME on the other hand opted for another Tiny pickup, as well as a midlane Leshrac.

The match started out quite evenly, with neither team getting a clear advantage. EHOME slowly pulled ahead in farm, but rOtk performed very well on the offlane Earthshaker, and was able to turn the match into the favor of LGD. Even Tiny's conservative build going for BKB and Assault Cuirass before picking up an Aghs wasn't enough to stem the LGD tide, and after 50 minutes EHOME had to concede against the 12-2 rOtk and his team. With that LGD evened up the series 1 to 1.

rOtk could not replicate his impact after game 2


Despite a slip up EHOME superior in the end



For the tiebreaker, EHOME continued their trend to pick up Tiny heavily investing in the strats they had no doubt prepared around the hero. LGD responded with a lot of control by the likes of Winter Wyvern, Bane and Clockwerk hoping to burst down the Tiny with a midlane Templar Assassin.

However, just like the first game in the series, cn Wang 'Old chicken' Zhiyong on his Tiny snowballed out of control early on, picking off rOtk and DDC multiple times once again. cn Yao 'Somnus' Lu was the last hope on the side of LGD on the TA, but the 30.000 gold lead for EHOME was insurmountable and LGD were forced to say goodbye to Frankfurt.



As day four draws to a close, Virtus.Pro, LGD and CDEC are eliminated from the tournament while OG continue their run in the LB. Tomorrow's matches will feature the clash of the top Western teams as eu Team Secret will go head to head with us Evil Geniuses in the WB finals. In the Lower Bracket, Chinese teams EHOME and Vici will fight to remain in the tournament.

  • Gerrow
    Gerrow

    Gerrow

    Bart Verbeek
    Staff
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    ProxyPL

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    Jędrzej Smaruj
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