Cover-Credits:
T1 began the second day of The International 10 (TI10)'s group stage on a high note by taking down Virtus.pro, who were quite in form, with a 2-0 victory. Throughout the series, T1 made superb decisions, seemingly reading Virtus.pro like a book. In the first game, Virtus.pro took the lead in the laning phase, but overconfident moves opened the door for the enemy's comeback. The second game, however, was an absolute drubbing by T1, as they outperformed their opponents in almost every aspect of the game. It was Karl "Karl" Jayme, the team's midlaner, who popped off in both of these games. While Southeast Asia (SEA) won its first series in TI10's group stage, Virtus.pro also suffered its first series loss.
T1 vs Virtus.pro: Match Recap and Highlights
Recap
In game 1, Virtus.pro again drafted its safelane Dawnbreaker for Nightfall. In just 25 minutes, the team had amassed an 8k networth lead, while 23savage's Medusa struggled to farm. In spite of this, T1 showcased its amazing combat prowess during teamfights, outplaying the opponents and ultimately taking the win in 40 minutes.
In game 2, it was the first time in four games that Virtus.pro deviated from the Dawnbreaker strategy. Unfortunately, the team also lost lanes this time. Karl outplayed gpk's Storm Spirit in the midlane and shined on Doom. Virtus.pro had their moves heavily countered as a stellar performance from T1 saw them take the game in 33 minutes.
Highlights
Here are some highlights of the series.
This appears to be another example of T1 having a rough start to tournaments, only to recover as the event progresses. This series saw them execute their strategy to a high level of efficiency. In addition to the teamfights, the individual gameplay, which had been lackluster the day before, also improved significantly.
On the other hand, Virtus.pro is now beginning to lose steam after a dominant start. While their laning has been one of the best in the tournament so far, their mid-game decision making has not been impressive as they have lost several leads. In the next series, they will regroup and attempt to change that trend.
So far, Virtus.pro has five wins in eight games while T1 has two wins out of six games in TI10’s group stage. Virtus.pro will now go up against Invictus Gaming while T1 will play defending champions OG. Both series begin at 9:00 PM SGT.
