Dota 2 Arlington Major Playoffs Day 5 Recap

We wrap up the action from the penultimate day of the tournament.

With the tournament in its death throes and no more DPC action until at least well after TI, the Arlington Major’s final days will be the last bits of top-level Dota we’ll get to see for a while barring the Open Qualifiers. That being said, this Major is living up to its hype, and will be leaving us with some incredible memories and thrilling highlights. 

The second-last day of the tournament saw three matches take place — all with plenty of impact. In the first series of the day, favorites for the final OG edged out South American Beastcoast. The second game was a rematch of the TI10 finals with PSG.LGD taking on and destroying Team Spirit. The third and final match of the day saw another Chinese side, Team Aster, break hundreds of thousands of hearts by taking out OG.

As usual, let’s take a look at the most thrilling series of the day.

Beastcoast vs OG 

The team that had taken 5-6th place in the Stockholm Major a few months ago was back and looking to better their record this time around, while OG were keen on continuing their run. Although the Peruvians couldn’t make the best of their opportunity, they put up one hell of a fight against the 5-time major winners.

Game 1 

Picks of Razor, Earthshaker, Ursa, Invoker and Oracle were guaranteed to facilitate OG’s trademark aggression. Beastcoast tried to answer with Marci, Rubick, Pangolier, Batrider, and Bloodseeker. 

Right from the start, OG took charge. They set the pace and thanks to some amazing play by Sebastian “Ceb” Debs and Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov, piled up a massive lead. Beastcoast made plenty of attempts to come back, but OG were simply too good.

Eventually, OG’s lead became just too great, and the European giants killed the game off in the 37th minute. 

Game 2 

Inarguably one of the best games of the tournament so far, this battle saw the two teams at their best. It was Beastcoast’s turn to take the trio of Earthshaker-Ursa-Razor, except they added Enchantress and Brewmaster. In response, OG went for Timbersaw, Zeus, Bloodseeker, Enchantress, and Marci.

It was the Europeans who took the early lead courtesy of their better early game. However, the Peruvians (and one Bolivian in Adrián “Wisper” Dobles) caught up soon, and a battle of wits and skills ensued. If OG won one fight, Beastcoast would win the other. Neither team could gain a decisive edge, and the kill counts kept rising. 

Beastcoast finally managed to build up a significant lead after the 30-minute mark, and they took full advantage of this to sideline their opponents. After a few more skirmishes went their way, they were able to even out the series.

Game 3

Beastcoast’s draft in this game was a bit all over the place and lacked enough lockdown, with a Venomancer, Templar Assassin, Chen, Ursa, and Clockwork. OG played to their strengths with an Ember Spirit, Timbersaw, Arc Warden, Nyx Assassin, and Elder Titan. 

This was Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov’s game. He dominated it from start to finish, ending the game with stats of 27-0. Beastcoast put up a good fight, but they were simply outclassed by a man at the peak of his powers.

After the mid-game it was pretty much all OG, who slowly ground Beastcoast down to finish the series in the 45th minute.

Team Aster vs OG

Invigorated by their win earlier in the day, OG were all set to give Team Aster a strong fight. The Chinese team, however, wasn’t going to be a pushover.

Game 1 

OG’s first game draft had killer teamfight potential with Puck, Earthshaker, and Monkey King, and great heal with Enchantress and Abaddon. Aster’s lineup involved decent puckoff potential on top of some teamfight with Troll Warlord, Enigma, Tiny, Pudge, and Dazzle.

Aster took an early lead and simply kept putting pressure on OG. As the Chinese side’s heroes got fatter, OG’s heroes began to struggle and couldn’t find the space to farm.

By the 36th minute, Team Aster was heading into OG’s base. The latter said GG soon after, choosing to save themselves from further suffering rather than drag the game on and on.

Game 2 

In Game 2, it was Aster’s turn to pick good teamfight heroes in the form of Faceless Void, Snapfire, Chen, Storm Spirit, and Dawnbreaker. OG’s reply came in the form of Wraith King, Elder Titan, Pangolier, Winter Wyvern, and Razor. 

Aster made the best of their heroes to take the lead early in the game, but couldn’t hold on to it for long as OG came back with some flashy plays. Despite holding on to the kill lead for a long time, Aster gradually began losing ground. 

One big push from OG in the 35th minute made it obvious that Aster had no chance, and the latter folded as soon as they realized this.

Game 3

In the final game of the day, OG once again focused on teamfight with Puck, Razor, Juggernaut, Tusk and an Enchantress. Healing was a large part of their game plan. However, Aster’s picks of Winter Wyvern, Faceless Void, Nyx Assassin, Zeus and a disruptive Brewmaster countered this well, with heroes falling quickly instead of being healed back up after a beating.

This was another topsy-turvy game with teams going at each other’s throats every now and then. However, Aster had Lin “Xxs” Jing, and he was on fire for this match. No matter what OG tried, they kept getting the short end of the stick as Aster just played brilliantly. 

Despite a few battles going OG’s way every now and then, Aster managed to keep ahead. The game nevertheless seemed to be balanced on a knife’s edge. Eventually, the Chinese team managed to kill off almost every OG hero, and the European side gave up shortly afterwards.