ESTNN Esports Logo

Dota 2: MDL Chengdu Major – Day 4 Recap

| Tags: | Author
Dota 2: MDL Chengdu Major – Day 4 Recap

The fourth day of the MDL Chengdu Major is over! Similar to the previous days, we saw some pretty amazing Dota 2 games at the highest possible levels. Sadly, we had to wave goodbye to two teams that we definitely didn’t expect to leave so soon.

Let’s take a look and see what happened in both brackets.

Upper Bracket

Vici Gaming vs. Fighting PandaS

The first series of the day was between the Chinese Powerhouse and Jacky “EternalEnvy” Mao’s team. Both of them played very well during the groups and definitely deserved their spot here. Unfortunately, it seems like Vici Gaming was just too powerful for the young team to take down.

Both games were pretty one-sided as Vici Gaming completely ripped through the competition. In the first one, the Chinese “stole” J.Storm’s famous Gyro + Warlock combo that absolutely demolished PS’s lineup. Although Fighting PandaS tried to bounce back, their efforts were absolutely futile. They’ve got only three kills in the entire game.

Despite the abysmal performance in the first game, FP improved a little bit in game two. In fact, their midlane Outworld Devourer even won his lane, which gave the NA squad a glimmer of hope. However, the other two lanes were utterly overrun by Vici Gaming, which sealed FPs faith. Their Bristleback was the man of the match as he snowballed out of control and secured his team a spot in the Semifinal of the Upper Bracket.

After the loss, Fighting PandaS will play against beastcoast tomorrow in the Lower Bracket. Needless to say, the team that loses will have to pack their things and go home.

Evil Geniuses vs. Invictus Gaming

Historically speaking, EG always performed very well against their Chinese counterparts. It seems like the tradition is still alive as Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and his team-mates had a walk in the park against the Summit 11 Minor Champions – Invictus Gaming.

The first game of the series started with various solid lead from the Chinese. Although they’ve won the laning stage, as soon as the first team fight was on, they completely crumbled. The North American powerhouse definitely outplayed their enemies and quickly recovered from the laning stage. To make matters worse, iG made yet another mistake after an unsuccessful swindle which was the last nail in their coffin as EG secured the first game in this series.

With their backs against the wall, Invictus Gaming emphasized a lot on burst damage in game two. This was very strange because EG opened the draft with a Chen, a hero who is capable of getting tons of magic resistance. As you can imagine, that’s precisely what happened.

Similar to game one, iG got an early lead but it only lasted so long. As soon as Chen came online and Artour got some farm, the situation for the Chinese turned grim. After 45 minutes if intense action, Evil Geniuses delivered their knock-out punch.

Sadly, the Summit 11 Minor Champions will have to fight for their survival against Fnatic tomorrow.

Lower Bracket

Team Liquid vs. EHOME

Unfortunately, we have to see one of the two teams going home. The Chinese ended up here after a mediocre performance in their group. Luckily, they were able to survive the deadly Bo1 against Team Spirit.

On the other hand, after a series of poor performances before this tournament, Team Liquid finally seems to be on the winning wave yet again. Despite that, they’ve lost against J.Storm yesterday in an absolutely epic series.

The first game between these two powerhouses wasn’t that interesting to watch. Both of them emphasized heavily on farming and it wasn’t until very late in the game that we started to see some intense action. Although IGs Sven was the most farmed hero on the map, TL kited him very, very well. In fact, he was barely able to land any punches, which gave the European team a considerable advantage. Slowly but steadily, they’ve got mega creeps and after getting the aegis, the throne was down.

With one game advantage on their side, Team Liquid looked very dominant in game two. They’ve secured an early lead and kept it until the very end. Of course, EHOME’s poor performance also helped the EU powerhouse. It seems like the Chinese need to really think through what happened at this Major because they couldn’t “unleash” their full potential.

Alliance vs Team Aster

The final series of the day was also the most anticipated one. Both teams played pretty well so far, which made the outcome here unpredictable.

Game one was very even for the most part. However, once Alliance got the lead, they didn’t make any mistakes. Slowly but steadily, the European team was able to deliver their knock out punch and looked forward to game two.

The second game of the series was an absolute blast to watch. First, the European powerhouse had an excellent start and secured themselves a big lead in the mid-game. In fact, many viewers thought that the game was over at one point. However, after a couple of mistakes in a row, the Chinese managed to bounce back and completely overrun their enemies. Alliance tried to defend against mega creeps for over 10 minutes but in the end, they’ve lost.

Despite the loss, the European powerhouse played perfectly in game three. Their Drow start got a solid lead early on that resulted in a lane of rax just 18 minutes in. With their backs against the wall, the Chinese tried to delay the game as much as possible. Having Void, Sniper and Jakiro in the same team means that if they get enough farm, Alliance would have no chances to survive.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t hold their ground enough to be able to make a comeback.

Despite their fantastic performance, Team Aster is out of the MDL Chengdu Major.

Dota 2: MDL Chengdu Major – Day 4 Recap
Zlosterr
Zlosterr has been a fan of esports for many years and mainly focuses on Dota 2. He has more than five years of experience writing Dota 2 content for numerous platforms. Besides being a passionate fan of the game, he's also played for various amateur teams.