It's just Day One of the Playoffs for The International 2019, but the competition remamins intense. At the end of the day, two Chinese Dota 2 teams move to the next round and will face off against each other. In addition, four more teams have been eliminated from the tournament.
Upper Bracket
The starting match of the Main Event was PSG.LGD going against Virtus.pro. Both are strong teams, and it was difficult to really see who would come out on top. The first game saw PSG.LGD dominate VP. PSG.LGD's players had a more consistent performance with the team getting the win after 45 minutes. The second game was more of the same as VP had trouble dealing with PSG.LGD's picks.
The second match was even more intense as crowd-favorite Vici Gaming took on TNC Predator. VG is seen by many as a contender to the Aegis, but TNC has been known to surprise and they did just that in the first game. Vici had an early lead and was all set to win. VG, however, started to feel the pressure as Kim "Gabii" Villafuerte of TNC started to get his Lifestealer online. Once it had the radiance, things started picking up for TNC as they slowly took the lead.
When a teammate dies, most Dota 2 teams regroup and wait for their teammate to respawn. However VG kept getting surprised as instead of regouping, TNC initiated team fights. Eventually VG was unable to find an answer to TNC and called GG after more than 70 minutes.
In the second game, VG was more careful and on the defensive. Their patience worked in their favor as they managed to hold off TNC's attacks and took the win to lead to a third game. The third game saw VG dominate TNC before the latter would call GG.
With this, PSG.LGD and VG move to the next round of the Playoffs and are set to face each other.
Lower Bracket
In the Lower Bracket, four matches were scheduled, which also meant that four teams were going to leave.
The first match was Alliance versus Royal Never Give Up. Alliance has been showing better performance over the past two years and there was the expectation that they would be the one to move to the next round. However, something happened that surprised everyone. During the hero pick phase, Alliance appeared to have chosen Gyrocopter as their final pick. This was surprising considering the choice for the first four heroes. It appears that this was a misclick and instead of banning the hero, he was picked instead. The mistake cost Alliance the game and the whole tournament.
In an inteview with Jorien "Sheever" van der Heijden, Alliance Team Captain Aydin "iNSaNiA" Sarkohi said that as the timer ran out, he clicked to ban Gyor but ended up picking him instead.
The second match of the Lower Bracket was Team Liquid against Fnatic. Liquid hadn't been showing good performance, but this time around they once again proved why they were not afraid to be in the Lower Bracket. Banking on Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi and Aliwi "w33" Omar, Liquid managed to hold off Fnatic and move to the next round.
The third match was Keen Gaming versus Infamous. Keen Gaming had trouble finding an answer to Jean Pierre "Chris Luck" Gonzales with his signature hero Templar Assassin. Infamous managed to get mega creeps before Keen Gaming eventually called GG.
The final match of the day was Mineski going against Natus Vincere. It was clear from the start the Mineski had no plans of leaving the tournament and it showed. Taking the lead for most of the match, Mineski never looked back and proceed to beat their opponent.
With the elimination, Alliance, Fnatic, Keen Gaming, and Natus Vincere get to go home with around $504,000.
Playoffs Day 2
Day Two continues the two remaining Upper Bracket matches, which are:
- OG vs Newbee
- Team Secret vs Evil Geniuses
For the Lower Bracket, the matches are:
- Virtus.pro vs Royal Never Give Up
- TNC Predator vs Team Liquid
