TI10 Group Stages Day Four Recap: T1, OG Book Upper Bracket Slots While EG Gets Knocked Down
TI10’s Group Stages has finally come to an end after an intense series of matches. Day four, as most have anticipated, had a ton of nerve-wracking games with upper bracket spots in the playoffs on the line. Even more crucially, some other teams were fighting to avoid being eliminated, bringing out their best Dota 2 gameplay. Quincy Crew went head-to-head with SG e-sports in a deciding elimination series, SEA underdog Fnatic scored 2-0 against Team Secret, and T1 piled on Thunder Predator’s misery in today’s bloodbath of matches.
The International 10 Group Stages Day Four recap
Group A
Group A was an intense show. Invictus Gaming, who hadn’t lost a single series so far, confirmed its Upper Bracket slot, and three more slots remained. A few teams were in contention to grab the coveted Upper Bracket placing including OG, Virtus.Pro, T1, Evil Geniuses, and Team Undying. Team Aster and Alliance were already confirmed to settle in the Lower Bracket for the playoffs. The day started with Virtus.Pro going head-to-head against Team Aster, and the Russian team obliterated its opponent. The first game was a walk-in-the-park for VP and the second game witnessed a 20-1 stomp against a struggling Team Aster. With a 2-0 result, VP secured the second UB slot.
OG was up against the top seed of Group A, Invictus Gaming. In an intense first match, the game saw OG leading the early phase. However, JT-’s Earthshaker turned a few significant fights with his Echo Slam to bring IG back in contention. But OG then outwitted them in a crucial fight; with a smart positioning from SumaiL’s Templar Assassin and a fate sealing Reverse Polarity by OG’s Magnus, IG tapped out of the game in 41 minutes. In the second game, IG did not spare mercy for the defending champions. Flyfly on his Sven, partnered with IO was a duo that OG could not handle. The team was picked off constantly throughout the game and with a huge net worth gap, IG closed the game to end the series with a score of 1-1.
Evil Geniuses had its final battle of the group stages against its North American counterpart, Team Undying. For both teams, the Upper Bracket slot was on the line and it required either one of them to score 2-0. In the first game, iceiceice on his Tidehunter executed timely Ravages that secured valuable kills and expanded EG’s control over the map. The game ended in 25 minutes as Undying failed to find a solution. In the second match, a back-and-forth game occurred. EG led the early phase, but with Saberlight’s Dark Seer dropping beautiful combos together with his allies, the game turned to Undying’s favor. In an intense 48 minutes game, Undying settled with a 1-1 score, which stopped EG to get the coveted Upper Bracket slot.
Interestingly, the tie of both teams caused SEA’s T1 and Europe’s OG to confirm their Upper Bracket slots. If EG had won 2-0, T1 and OG would have had to go into a three-way tiebreaker against EG with one of the three dropping to the Lower Bracket.
Just the day before, one of Undying’s players, Saberlight was under the spotlight for an old statement he made regarding the SEA region. But with his team indirectly helping T1 to secure the Upper Bracket, T1 and SEA fans rejoiced and handed praises for Undying.
Group B
Group B delivered to fans more wholesome underdog runs. SEA’s Fnatic went against the European powerhouse, Team Secret. The first match of the series was smooth for Fnatic, as they managed to come on top of most teamfights and killed off Secret’s cores. The second game was even better for the underdogs. With its position one player, Raven on Riki wreaking havoc on Team Secret. The European team simply failed to stand up to Fnatic’s aggression and called ‘gg’ in 35 minutes.
Both Quincy Crew and SG e-sports were on the verge of elimination as they went into their final series of the group stage against each other. In the first match of the deciding series, Quincy Crew was consistently a step ahead, steadily racking up a net worth lead and eventually ending the game in 45 minutes. In the second game, the squad of SG e-sports played their hearts out. Throughout the game, QC has the gold advantage. However, SG e-sports managed to grab valuable pick-offs and later demolished QC’s base. However, in the deciding teamfight, the North American team preserved and turned the tables, wiping the cores of their opponents who did not have buybacks. Ultimately, it sealed the fate of SG e-sports, who became the second team dropping out of The International 10 after Thunder Predator’s elimination earlier yesterday.
On the other side of the table, PSG.LGD, who has never seemed stronger, stomped the Chinese all-star lineup, Elephant. In the first match, Elephant had a significant lead, controlling the map and securing Roshan on its carry Ursa. But like many of LGD’s games this tournament, they turned the tables around with clever map movements and pick-offs to come out on top with a net worth lead, ultimately charging to the opponent’s base and ending the game in its favor. Game two was the shortest match of the tournament so far, which witnessed LGD coming out on top of every teamfight and its Chinese counterpart tapped out after only 16 minutes of the game.
Before the day started, there were tons of possibilities that a tiebreaker might occur. Surprisingly, the turn of events led players and fans to a simpler path where no teams score the same. The playoffs setup is now complete and we can look forward to the commencement of the Main Stage. With the elimination of Thunder Predator and SG e-sports, only 16 teams remain.
Eight teams that made it into the Upper Bracket are as follow;
Invictus Gaming
Virtus.Pro
T1
OG
PSG.LGD
Team Secret
Vici Gaming
Team Spirit
Eight teams that will play in the Lower Bracket are as follow;
Team Undying
Evil Geniuses
Team Aster
Alliance
beastcoast
Quincy Crew
Fnatic
Elephant
The brackets of The International 10 Playoffs have also been revealed.
Participants and spectators will have a one day break before the Main Event begins on 12th October at 3:00 PM SGT.
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