As is tradition at The International, two new heroes were announced. The first hero was Snapfire, a Keen folk auntie that bakes cookies and rides a dragon lizard. The second hero was Void Spirit, the fourth spirit following earth, storm, and ember. Not much is known about these heroes at the moment but more information is likely to follow once TI9 is finished.
Team Secret and Vici Gaming eliminated
The curse of the favorites continue. Team Secret and Vici Gaming were the most dominant teams during the DPC season. Both teams won two Majors and were top 3 in total points with Virtus.pro being 2nd. Now they’re scratching their heads wondering what they could have done differently after being eliminated on the 2nd last day.
Team Secret eliminated Vici Gaming in the first series of the day. It was a 2-0 stomp and both games lasted a total of 44 minutes and 84 seconds.
Game 1 saw Team Secret pull out the OG strategy and run Io carry on Nisha. Once Io got his Aghanim’s Scepter, Team Secret just ran at Vici Gaming until GG was called.
Game 2 had Vici Gaming ban Io and they tried their own cheese strategy with Alchemist. Unfortunately for them, Team Secret knew how to deal with Alchemist. They suffocated Vici Gaming, taking up all the farming space on the map and ended the game before Alchemist could get his items.
Team Liquid are still kings of the lower bracket
Team Liquid look very strong. In their first tournament with their new mid player w33 at Epicenter, they finished 2nd, losing to Vici Gaming 3-2 in the grand finals.
Now at their 2nd tournament together, they’ve made it to the lower bracket grand finals after defeating Team Secret 2-0.
The kings of the lower bracket have not lost a single game in the main event. They’re 9-0 in 5 series.
In a battle of the captains, KuroKy faced off against his former captain: Puppey and Kuroky came out on top. Puppey opened the series by first picking Io in game 1 with Kuroky responding by last picking Meepo. Puppey knew about w33’s Meepo since he captained w33 on Team Secret years ago but decided not to ban it.
In game 2 it was Team Secret that banned Io and Team Liquid first picking Alchemist. Team Secret responded with Bristleback, their counter that worked against Vici Gaming’s Alchemist.
Team Liquid managed to use their damage reduction strategy with Winter Wyvern, Kunkka, and Alchemist’s insane regeneration to win team fights all the way to victory.
Kuroky seems to have an answer for all the popular heroes teams are first phase picking at TI9. Enchantress, Io, Magnus, and Alchemist all have fallen against the mastermind Kuroky. Next they’ll face PSG.LGD who don’t pick these heroes, just their own style of Dota.
OG are fearless
PSG.LGD may have home court advantage but OG has the power of friendship, flowers, and memes.
The deafening Shanghai crowd could not intimidate OG at all – if anything the roars fueled OG’s motivation even more.
This epic rematch between OG and PSG.LGD was one of the most hyped series in Dota 2 history. Everyone was wondering if PSG.LGD could get their revenge or if OG would prove to the world that they’re the best team in Dota.
Game 1 started with PSG.LGD coming out strong, using their year long wait for this rematch and the roars of the Shanghai crowd to win a close game.
Game 2 was less close as OG used Alchemist’s early start to plow through PSG.LGD to even up the series 1-1.
Game 3 was a close back and forth game. OG used an Alchemist strategy but PSG.LGD did not roll over and die. PSG.LGD won team fights when they mattered but in the end OG had a superior draft and strategy. Anticipating a Slark counter to their Alchemist pick, OG picked Legion Commander which is a Slark counter.
Tomorrow is the last day of TI9 and a champion will be crowned.
Team Liquid and OG look to be the first team to ever repeat as TI champions. PSG.LGD are the last Chinese team remaining and want to put an end to their losing streak against OG when it matters, in the grand finals. They’ll have to go through Team Liquid first who haven’t lost a single game in the lower bracket.
There was a small edit in the section about Liquid VS Secret.
