Dota 2: MDL Chengdu – Day 7 Recap

All the action from Chengdu as our Major draws closer to the Grand Finals.

MDL Chengdu has provided us with plenty of fantastic Dota 2 over the last seven days. If you’ve missed out on any of it check out our daily recaps for all the latest highlights.

With the final day of competition looming on the horizon, let’s see how things panned out today in our upper and lower brackets.

Lower Bracket

Everything was on the line today, with another two teams facing elimination. Our opening series saw Invictus Gaming take on J.Storm to see who would move on to round 5 of the lower bracket.

J.Storm vs Invictus Gaming

Game One

J.Storm had the advantage during the laning phase in game one. But things fell apart for them quickly once things moved past the 10-minute mark.

Invictus were bringing their A-game in this opening series of the day. The Chinese team snatched control of the net worth by 12-minutes in and snowballed to victory.

J.Storm struggled to even get kills on the board as iG stomped them into submission. Closing out the game in 31-minutes with a 15-kill lead, 6–21. A beautiful game for Emo’s Templar Assassin, who ended with a KDA of 13/0/5.

Game Two

This was a much closer fight than we saw in game one. The laning phase was very even, and the kills were 7–6 as the game hit 14-minutes. By 18-mintues, J.Storm had a slight lead in the net worth and were five kills up on iG, 14–9.

But Invictus seemed more focused on objectives than kills. Just 10-minutes later, the net worth lead was back in their favour and they were pushing into the Rosh pit. J.Storm did not plan on going down without a fight, however. As the game pushed past the 30-minute mark, both teams were hard on the offensive. At 36-minutes the kills were 22–20, and iG had managed to force out three buy backs on the side of J.Storm to defend the push against their mid rax.

J.Storm’s defense was not enough however, and after a retreat and reset, Invictus came back in for the kill. GG was called at 39-minutes, with Invictus Gaming taking the series 0–2.

Upper Bracket

Our upper bracket finals saw TNC.Predator face off against Vici Gaming for the coveted slot in tomorrow’s Grand Final game.

TNC Predator vs Vici Gaming

Game One

Things were looking rough for TNC right from the start of game one. Vici were playing aggressive in the lanes, they had 8-kills on the board by the 10-minute mark, while TNC had just one.

Things just did not get off the ground for the SEA team in this game. It was 4–21 at 27-minutes, and it had been a full 10-minutes since TNC.Predator had landed a kill.

TNC were completely overrun. There was nothing they could do to stop this stomp by Vici. With a 26k net worth lead, this game belonged to China. At 28-minutes, with the score 4–26, TNC admitted defeat. A huge 22-kill lead for Vici Gaming as they take the first victory.

Game Two

First blood went to Vici in game two, but over all this was a slower start to our lanes. The kills were 3–5 at 12-minutes in, and Vici had a slight lead over TNC in the net worth. This game looked a lot more evenly matched than our first one.

A double kill for Eurus at 18-minutes brought the score to 4–9. However, things hit a bit of a stalemate, and by 23-minutes TNC had only found one pick off. Both teams were playing cautiously.

As the game passed 30-minutes, thing looked to be favouring TNC. Vici were still leading the kills, 7–13, but TNC had 5k net worth lead. The SEA team were showing a lot of control and dominance as the game moved out of its mid phase.  The kills were 13–14 at 43-minutes as TNC took another Rosh and another aegis on Armel’s Templar Assassin.

Although TNC had the advantage, they failed to really press it and close out the game. The score was a close 19–21 as the clock hit 60-minutes. Vici had only brought down the mid lane of towers, it was all they needed once they saw their opening. They shut down TNC at 63-minutes.

《#ChengduMajor》#VGWIN – After an astonishing display by our boys today, we take the series 2⃣:0⃣ vs. @TNCPredator and are now slotted into the Grand Finals of the MDL Chengdu Major! #VGFighting pic.twitter.com/quHj4Zn64Z

— VICI Gaming (@VICI) November 23, 2019

Our upper bracket champions at MDL Chengdu were undoubtedly Vici Gaming, as they took this series 0–2.

Lower Bracket

With our upper bracket champions locked in, it was time to return to the next round of our lower bracket and find out who would go on to face TNC in the LB final tomorrow.

Invictus Gaming vs Evil Geniuses

Game One

Invictus Gaming have been showing their aggressive side at this Major. The opening game in this series was no different. They took out first blood just before the two-minute mark with Emo’s Zeus taking out Abed’s Ember Spirit in mid.

In fact, Emo was having a fantastic time through the laning phase. The Zeus pick by Invictus proved to be an effective counter against Arteezy’s Night Stalker pick. He was having a very hard time getting farm, let alone finding early pickoffs.

The kills were clocking up on iG’s side of the board at the rate of about one-kill per minute. The score was 14–1 at 14-minutes into the game.

This was a rough game for Evil Geniuses, who just couldn’t seem to get anything off the ground. No matter what they tried, it seemed iG had their number. Invictus had secured themselves mega creeps when EG bowed out at the end of this 37-minute stomp.

This was a superb game for Emo. He went 9/1/18 on his Zeus pick. It was Abed who managed to secure all seven of EG’s kills this game, his KDA was 7/5/0. Arteezy and Ramzes both had a very unlucky game one. Arteezy’s KDA was 0/7/5 at game’s end, and Ramzes was 0/5/3.

Game Two

First blood again went to iG in our second game of the series. But this was a much closer game through the laning phase. The kills were 3–2 at nine-minutes in.

Still, Evil Geniuses were showing a lot more confidence and control in game two. They started to pull into the lead around the 14-minute mark. A big team fight in the radiant jungle around 19-minutes saw EG come out on top in the exchange. The kills were 7–14 and EG had a 3k gold lead.

As the game pushed on toward the 30-minute mark, Evil Geniuses had secured themselves a strong lead. By 35-minutes they were 8k ahead in the net worth and 11-kills up on iG.

Invictus did their best to hold off against the assaults on their high ground. But EG were the dominant force this time around. The kills were 16–36 at 46-minutes as EG pushed through the top rax and into the radiant base. Defeating Invictus to equalize the series 1–1.

This was a much better game for Ramzes, who did good work on Night Stalker helping to press his team’s advantage, he secured 13 of EG’s 35-kills in this game.

Game Three

Evil Geniuses had pushed this series to its third game. But the question now, was could they knock iG out of the running? It looked like they were primed to do just that. They took out the first two kills of this game, while Invictus didn’t take their first kill until close to the three-minute mark.

Cr1t was having some bad luck with his arrows on Mirana in this early laning phase. Wasting two rotations without managing to help his cores secure anything.

As the game moved toward the 10-minute mark, things were starting to look more promising for Invictus. They had a 2k net worth lead and Emo and flyfly were starting to look scary, even at this early stage.

At 17-minutes iG began their assault on the mid T1. It fell, and so did Arteezy, Abed and Ramzes. The kills were 15–4.

Evil Geniuses managed a pick off on flyfly bottom, an important kill for them. But they were soon punished for the aggression, with Abed falling yet again, bringing the kills 20–9. Invictus were pushing for Roshan at 26-minutes, securing an aegis for Emo and a 10k gold lead.

Over the next 10-minutes that gold lead ballooned to a mammoth 33k advantage in the net worth. At 37-minutes with the kills 36–11, it was all over for Evil Geniuses.

Invictus Gaming did what many thought they could not do. They knocked EG out of the Major and now go on to face TNC.Predator in the lower bracket finals.

Tomorrow is our last day at MDL Chengdu as we see our remaining teams battle it out for the grand prize. You can tune in to catch all the action live on Twitch.

Image via Mars Media.