Day Two of The International 2019 was a busy one for the Dota 2 teams in Group B. There was a total of 12 matches for Day Two compared to eight from Day One. At the end of it all, it is OG that is now on top.
OG had three games in Day Two, playing against Evil Geniuses, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Royal Never Give Up.
While EG is a strong team, it was OG all the way. In the first game, EG's Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan took the advantage on the mid lane with his Outworld Devourer. However Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen dominated the game on his Ember Spirit ending with 10 kills and only one death. On the second game it was Artour "Arteezy" Babaev who attempted to carry EG with his Sven. Despite a good performance from Arteezy, this performance was matched by Anathan "ana" Pham on Juggernaut. OG finished the game and ended the match against EG 2-0.
The next match was against NiP and while most were expecting a usual Dota 2 match, it became the biggest story of the day for Group 2, and the entire tournament. In the first game, OG picked Shadow Demon, Treant Protector, Axe, Windranger, and Io. Though it appeared to be a good choice of heroes, OG surprised everyone by having ana use Io. That's right, they were going for the carry Io strat.
In the initial stages of the first game, NiP took the lead early, especially with Mirana, Slark, and Sand King dominating the net worth chart. However they were unprepared for what happened next as ana's Io got the right amount of farm. Combined with the survivability of Axe, Treant, and Windranger, OG eventually took control and won the game with ana getting a total of 11 kills.
In the second game, OG again went for the safe lane Io for ana. Game two played out like the first one with NiP initally taking the lead and OG eventually taking control. In the first game, OG took down a tier four tower that had backdoor protection and even went as far as fountain diving NiP. The same thing happened again in the second game with NiP eventuall calling GG.
With this result and knowing its impact to the community, OG "apologized" for using the strat.
Sorry for your pubgames btw
— OG (@OGesports) August 16, 2019
Against RNG, the TI defending champions again showed what they are made of. The first game ended with ana on Spectre getting 14 kills and zero deaths with Topson getting himself 16 kills. The second game was more of the same with both ana and Topson getting double-digit kills.
The Group B the results are:
- OG (9-1)
- Natus Vincere (7-3)
- Vici Gaming (7-3)
- Evil Geniuses (5-5)
- Infamous Gaming (4-4)
- Virtus.pro (3-5)
- Fnatic (3-5)
- Royal Never Give Up (1-7)
- Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-7)
