With Day One of the Dota 2 Shanghai Major Group Stages officially in the books, fans around the globe are left to wonder just who exactly should be considered tournament favorites after a shocking day of matches that ended with former tournament favorites EHOME dropping to the Lower Bracket.
Things had been looking up for EHOME, coming off a 2-1 defeat of CDEC in the Loser’s Match. The shock of their opening round loss to MVP Phoenix didn’t seem quite as bad, following the latter’s shutout of Team Secret, and many fans undoubtedly expected the final match-up of Day One to be the point when EHOME began to climb back into the competition. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time we’d seen Team Secret collapse in a major tournament. But it was not to be.
The final match-up of Day One began a bit slowly for EHOME, who quickly fell behind on kill and tower counts, but a handful of poorly-chosen fights by Team Secret would keep the tournament favorites in the game. But EHOME failed to convert those opportunities into significant lane pressure, going on to lose Game One with just two downed towers to their name. The whole affair took a bit longer than expected, given Team Secret’s early momentum, but a 15,000 gold advantage for the European all-stars proved too much for EHOME to overcome. Team Secret would go on to win Game One in 40 minutes.
Game Two only proved to be even more challenging for EHOME. Team Secret pulled ahead early, taking a 10-3 kill lead during the first 20 minutes, before switching to a slightly more conservative play style intended to preserve their lead. With the exception of CTY, EHOME struggled to find farm throughout the match, ultimately finding themselves thousands and thousands of gold in the hole. To make matters worse (for EHOME), EternalEnVy finally hit his stride with Clinkz, dominating the net worth chart and giving his team the boost they needed to secure a trip to the Upper Bracket.
Game One
Results: Team Secret Wins (40:40)
EHOME’s Line-Up: Faceless Void (old eLeVeN), Enchantress (LaNm), Phoenix (kaka), Lina (old chicken) and Sven (CTY)
Secret’s Line-Up: Chen (Puppey), Beastmaster (MISERY), Morphling (EternalEnVy), Invoker (w33) and Vengeful Spirit (pieliedie)
Game Two
Results: Team Secret Wins (34:32)
EHOME’s Line-Up: Night Stalker (old eLeVeN), Rubick (LaNm), Morphling (CTY), Disruptor (kaka) and Warlock (old chicken)
Secret’s Line-Up: Enigma (Puppey), Tidehunter (MISERY), Clinkz (EternalEnVy), Windranger (w33) and Lion (pieliedie)
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