The Dota 2 MDL Chengdu Major is heating up as matches in the Upper Bracket have been revealed. North American teams will be facing off against Chinese teams. Meanwhile, two teams have been eliminated in the Lower Bracket.
Upper Bracket
The first match featured Vici Gaming going against Fighting Pandas. Fighting Pandas is a relatveily new team that formed during the post-TI9 shuffle, and is led by Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao. While the members of Fighting Pandas have tournament experience, it didn't do anything much for them. In the first game, VG dominated the match, giving up only three deaths and finishing in under 30 minutes. The second game was pretty much the same, and by same we mean pretty much a blowout. VG took the win with the final score of 20-8 at just two seconds shy of half an hour.
The second match was also a North America versus China match-up. In the first game, it looked as if iG had trouble finding an answer to Artour "Arteezy" Babaev's Faceless Void, who ended the game with nine kills and one death. In the second game, iG put up a better fight against EG. There were excellent performances from iG's members, but once again it was Arteezy's performance that carried EG to the victory.
Matches on the Playoff's third day include TNC Predator going against J.Storm and VG versus EG. These four teams are already guaranteed at least a sixth place finish and the two that win move to the Upper Bracket Finals for a guaranteed third place finish.
Lower Bracket
In the first match of the Lower Bracket, it was Team Liquid against EHOME. The first game was a good one, with both sides having that back-and-forth. Liquid, however, snatched the victory. In the second game the teams would again go at it head-to-head, but Liquid's picks were good enough to give them the win.
The second match was just as interesting. Alliance wasted no time, with Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov showing everyone why he is the next superstar. Nikobaby ended the game with double-digit kills and no deaths while helping Alliance get the win. Chinese team Aster did not take the loss sitting down. This time it was Aster's Song "Sccc" Chun who carried his team to the victory. By the time the third game rolled in, there was the expectation it would go the distance. Alliance didn't want to prolong things, and Nikobaby again showed a top-notch performance.
Upcoming matches in the Lower Bracket include iG going against Fnatic with the second match having Fighting Pandas battle versus beastcoast.
