Dota 2: DreamLeague Major Day 3 Highlights

Day three of the DreamLeague Major is now behind us. We saw two teams head home today, and our upper and lower brackets are beginning to take shape as we move towards the finals.
Let's take a look at how the action played out on the main stage in Stockholm.

EHOME and Navi say goodbye to the Major

Our first elimination match saw North American team J.Storm come up against Ukraine boys Natus Vincere.

The game started off well for Navi. They took first blood at five minutes and were leading the kills and net worth initially. But things started going downhill for them at the fifteen minute mark, as J.Storm took the kill-lead.

This was an outstanding game for Moo on Lifestealer. He played his role perfectly, securing twenty kills for his team and dominating the net worth throughout the late game.

Navi did their best to come back, but as the game neared forty-minutes they found themselves with two rax down. J.Storm pushed the advantage, closing out the game at forty-three minutes and securing them a spot in round two of the lower bracket.

Next up we saw China’s EHOME face SA team, Infamous.

EHOME have had some ups and downs throughout our season so far and this game was definitely one of their downs.

Infamous came in strong straight from the laning phase, applying plenty of pressure to EHOME’s line-up. Mo0z and Papita scored three kills under the top tier 1 tower at just six minutes in. By 14 minutes, they’d earned themselves a 7 kill-lead, which just didn’t stop growing.

EHOME only managed to secure 6 kills throughout the thirty-minute game. Although XinQ tried to take some duels in the early game, but it wasn’t enough to stop the slaughter from Infamous. They ended with 22 kills, eliminating EHOME from the competition.

LGD knock out Mineski

With the elimination matches out of the way, we moved on to round 1 of the upper brackets. Our first series saw PSG.LGD face Mineski in a Bo3.

Things started out fairly even in game one. Both Mineski and LGD were playing cautiously, concentrating on pushing lanes and gaining farm. Ahjit’s Ember Spirit was leading the net worth and things looked promising for Mineski, who seemed to be looking to finish quickly and avoid LGD’s powerful line-up in the late game.

But LGD played like a well-oiled machine. They took Roshan at twenty-minutes and used the momentum to push into Mineski’s tier 2 towers. This was the beginning of the end for Mineski. At twenty-four minutes, LGD pushed the rax, taking the fight to Mineski’s base. GG was called at 28 minutes, and LGD took out game one of the series.

Game two saw LGD playing to win. They took out first blood on Kpii’s Viper pick. This was the beginning of a strong laning phase for the Chinese team that saw them taking the lead in both kills and net worth.

Mineski did their best to push back, but LGD’s game was relentless. At thirty minutes, LGD were once again attacking the high ground and pressuring mid rax. With no where left to hide, Mineski found themselves cut down in their base one by one. LGD secured game two in 35 minutes.

Ame was definitely the standout player for LGD in this series. He had had zero deaths across both games and took out 26-kills.

Secret’s Winning streak comes to an end

Our final upper bracket match saw Team Secret take on Vici Gaming.

Secret were the clear favourites heading in to the series, their performance has been more than on point this season. They came into this match after a string of victories, undefeated by any of the other teams they’d faced at the Major so far.

But that was all about to change, as Vici came into this series playing to win. Things did not go in their favour initially, and game one was definitely Secret’s game. Nisha’s life stealer led the net worth throughout and MidOne’s Outworld Devourer was a force to be reckoned with, leading the kills with a total of 11 for his team. After holding out for forty-six minutes, Vici Gaming’s defence crumbled and the first victory went to Team Secret.

Game two looked like it would be a similar story. Again, we saw Secret leading the kills and net worth from the early stages of the laning phase. But as the game pushed past the twenty-minute mark, the advantage began to swing towards Vici.

Ori’s item picks on Medusa helped him fight into Nisha’s Anti-Mage. Out surviving the Secret core whenever they went head to head and helping to mitigate the threat AM posed for his team.

By thirty minutes, Vici had a two rax advantage and things were looking very shaky for Secret. Vici secured themselves the victory in game two after taking Roshan and pushing Secret’s high ground at thirty-seven minutes. The game was in the bag then, with GG called at 38 minutes.

As game three opened, Vici showed us they really did mean business. They came in strong and fast right from the opening of the laning phase, leading in the kills and with Paparazi sitting at the top of the net worth.

As Vici ramped up the aggression, pushing towers in the early game, it started to look like Secret were on the ropes. A team fight around the Rosh pit at 20 minutes saw Secret start to turn things around, but the come back was short lived.

Paparazi’s Morphling was melting everything in his path, and Vici took out the mid rax at around twenty-eight minutes.

Secret held on, despite the pressure. Attempting to push back, smoking up and searching for pick offs. But there was just no stopping Vici. Fade’s positioning with his shadow blade made it easy for Vici to separate Secret and catch them out, one by one.

After forty-two minutes of brutal punishment, Vici took home the win with 39 kills to Secret’s 18.

Day four of DreamLeague will be starting soon! Don’t forget to tune in on Twitch so you don’t miss any of the action. Keen for more Dota 2 highlights and esports news? Follow us on Twitter for all the latest news, or check out our YouTube for daily video updates.

Images courtesy of DreamHack