posted by Abelle,
iG Vitality vs VG.J
The first match of the day got off to a quick start with stomps going one way and then the other.
VGJ.Thunder took the first game with a pair of bears - Ursa for Sun 'Agressif' Zheng and Tusk for Xu 'Fy' Linsen. iG.Vitality got the better of their foes in Game 2 with Zhang 'Eurus' Chengjun’s signature Invoker going 12/0/12.Game 3 was where things go interesting. VG.J had a commanding start to the game, building up a 15k net worth lead before the 30 minute mark.
Bai 'rOtK' Fan’s Abaddon had a Radiance, fy was playing Rubick and Agressif’s Luna was getting fat. iG.V held on though, split pushing with Paparazi’s Juggernaut and using the power of Sniper to defend their highground. iG.V were able to make adjustments midgame, turn the game around and keep their tournament run alive.Evil Geniuses vs Team Faceless
The lower bracket boys didn’t disappoint in their match against SEA’s only hope at DAC.
Evil Geniuses played extremely well in Game 1, but 
Team Faceless* put on a fine showing of teamwork, helping their big damage dealers 
Dominik 'Black^' Reitmeier’s Clinkz and 
Anucha 'Jabz' Jirawong’ Ember Spirit make things difficult for EG. EG were in the lead for most of the game but Faceless managed to swing the lead their way multiple times, though they could never hold it for long.
Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev’s armlet toggles in particular stole the show in this game.The second game was almost painful to watch. Faceless seemed aimless as EG bulldozed through them to take the series win in a 27 minute rout with a finishing kill score of 32 to 8. To top it all off, Arteezy nabbed himself a nice little double Rampage.
Team Empire vs iG Vitality
EG’s dominance gave iG Vitality less time to rest up than they might have hoped for after their three game start to the day, but the Chinese squad didn’t seem too fazed as they played their second best-of-three of the day.
Team Empire’s insistence on picking Phantom Assassin into the heavy magic burst of Lina baffled the analyst panel, but the gamble paid off in Game 1 as they overwhelmed iG.V in true aggressive CIS fashion. Empire seemed to have total control of the game, and took the series lead in just over 40 minutes.Much like in their earlier match, iG.V adjusted beautifully to the situation. They picked up Beastmaster for
Xiaodong 'InJuly' Yang and Terrorblade for Xu 'Sakata' Zichen and went on the aggressive themselves in Game 2. Empire were able to respond to the pressure reasonably well early on but soon enough they began bleeding kills and towers. After a point, Terrorblade was too big to kill, Paparazi’s Invoker was able to do whatever he wanted in fights and iG.V evened up the series.Empire changed tactics in Game 3, but iG.V seemed to have figured them out. They drafted Beastmaster again and Warlock for counter initiation and despite Paparazi’s Invoker utterly losing midlane to
Rostislav 'fn' Lozovoi’s Sniper, iG.V capitalized everywhere else that they could and turned the game around in an impressive comeback that soon turned into a disaster for Team Empire.After six hard fought games, iG Vitality took their place in the penultimate round of the DAC lower bracket. They will face the winner of Newbee vs Evil Geniuses (yet another lower bracket match featuring two TI championship teams).
The first game of the day tomorrow will be that Newbee vs EG showdown. Here is how the bracket looks so far.
Image Credit: PGL via Twitter
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