Day Three of The International 2019 has ended and it is down to eight Dota 2 teams as two more have been eliminated. In the Upper Bracket, OG appears to be on the way to a possible back-to-back title as it takes on PSG.LGD in the Upper Bracket Finals. The winner of this match secures a spot in the Grand Finals and a guaranteed second place finish.
UPPER BRACKET
The first match of the Upper Bracket saw two top Dota 2 Chinese teams go against each other with PSG.LGD versus Vici Gaming. The first game was rather close with VG initially taking the lead. However, PSG.LGD slowly chipped away at this lead, targeting Zhang "Paparazi" Chengjun on his Wraith King. PSG.LGD eventually shifted the balance in its favor and took the win. The second game was pretty much similar, taking around 42 minutes with team kills pretty much the same as well. The win secures PSG.LGD a spot in the Upper Bracket Finals and a guaranteed third place.
EG vs OG
The second match was between two former TI champions with Evil Geniuses versus OG. The first game was all EG as OG struggled hard to find an answer to EG's picks. Despite being on Invoker, one of his signature heroes, Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen was shut down to end the game with zero kills. EG's win was thanks to excellent performances by Artour "Arteezy" Babaev on Terrorblade and Sumail "Suma1L" Hassan on Lina. Both players had nine kills and zero deaths.
For the second game, EG looked to close out the match by picking Terrorblade again for Arteezy with Suma1L going for the Gyrocpter. With Topson on Tiny, and with excellent support from Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka on Earthshaker and Johan "N0tail" Sundstein on Oracle, OG managed to slowly pick apart EG. OG eventually got mega creeeps and proved to be too much for EG who was forced to call GG.
The match went to a deciding third game with OG again picking Invoker for Topson with Anathan "ana" Pham on Jueggernaut. EG meanwhile went with Mirana for Suma1L and, expecting a possible long game, Anti-Mage for Arteezy. OG however was not denied on its quest for a championship as it made short work of EG. While OG's cores did play strongly, it was Sébastien "7ckngMad" Debs making excellent plays that earned him MVP of the game. Like the second game, OG got mega creeps and while Arteezy did what he could to defend, the pressure was simply too much.
The Upper Bracket Finals now have PSG.LGD versus OG, which Dota 2 fans know as a TI8 rematch.
LOWER BRACKET
In the Lower Bracket, Infamous kept surprising everyone as it continued on its Lower Bracket streak. The team pretty much led in the first game of it match against Newbee. The game took around 25 minutes before Newbee decided to call GG. The second game was different. Quinn "CCnC" Callahan dominated the second game with his Outworld Devourer and Infamous couldn't find a way to answer the offense. It boiled down to a deciding third game. This time around it was Infamous that played fearlessly and managed to get mega creeps. Newbee did what it could before eventually calling GG and dropping out of the tournament.
Team Secret vs Mineski
The second match was Team Secret against Mineski with elimination being the penalty. Despite ending at around 35 minutes, it was one of the best games of the tournament. Mineski had what many would call as the greedy pick with Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov on Wraith King and Kam "Moon" Boon Seng on Alchemist. Knowing Mineski's early game was weak. Secret sought to capitalize on this by choosing Visage for Michał "Nisha" Jankowski and Meepo for Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng. That plan initially appeared to work, but Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross Jr. started making moves to help with the ganks and eventually gave Alchemist a Radiance at the 10-minute mark. Sensing trouble, Secret managed to take Roshan out, but Minseki managed to recover from the various team fights that followed. Mineski eventually gained the high ground and the mega creeps. Mineski continued to push, but this appeared to be overcommitment on their part and most of the team was killed. Secret took advantage of this and went for a GG push to win the game.
Learning from their first game mistakes, Mineski took things a bit slower and it initially paid off. However, Secret once again managed to make a comeback and slow things down. Secret later managed to kill off Mineski's supports and with the numbers advantage, went for the Throne. Despite it being a three-versus-five fight, Nikobaby on Facelss Void managed to lead the way and hold of Secret's offensive. That tipped the scales in their favor with Mineski winning the second game.
For the third game, Secret went for magic damage picking Faceless Void for Nisha and Omniknight for Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg. Mineski meanwhile decided to go for a fast push pick with Nikobaby on Warith King and Moon on Death Prophet. There was also the Shadow Shaman pick for Ryan Jay "Bimbo" Qui. Secret went slow this time, focusing on protecting their towers and managing to do so time and again. After a series of back and forths, Secret just took their time and was rewarded with a win and a move to the next round of the tournament.
Day 4 Schedule
Day 4 of the tournament has only three scheduled games, all on the Lower Bracket. The matches are:
Royal Never Give Up vs Team Liquid
Infamous vs Team Secret
Evil Geniuses vs Winner of RNG vs Liquid
This means that after Day 4, three more teams will be eliminated.
