Dota 2: MDL Paris Major | Day 5 Recap
| Tags: Dota 2
| Author Eliana Bollati
The first day of the main event in Paris is officially over. The lower bracket eliminations continue, and we saw four teams head home today. Complexity Gaming, Mineski, Pain Gaming, and Keen Gaming all said goodbye to the main stage.
If you missed out on catching the games live, here are a few of the highlights.
LGD.PSG advance to the next round
In our first series of the day we saw LGD.PSG face-off against Complexity Gaming.
Game one was over quickly as the Chinese team set a brutal pace from the outset of the laning phase. There was never a moment in this game where LGD did not have the lead in net worth; their kill lead was also impressive throughout. They stacked up 29 kills by the games end. Giving them a 24-kill lead over Complexity’s 5 kills.
LGD secured victory at 24 minutes. This was an outstanding game for Maybe on Batrider. He ended the game 10/0/9.
CoL came into game two strong during the laning phase. Limmp’s Lina pick did a good job of putting pressure on Maybe’s Storm Spirit. But LGD were out for blood. They took the first Roshan at 16 minutes, and by 21 minutes they had a clear lead in both kills and net worth.
Complexity tried to bring it back, but there was just no stopping LGD. They closed out game two at 27 minutes, scoring themselves a spot in round 3 of the lower bracket tomorrow.
Virtus.pro take out Mineski
Next up on the main stage was Virtus.pro vs. Mineski.
Game one saw VP take the lead throughout the laning phase, but things started to get closer as the mid game approached. Virtus.Pro only had a 5-kill lead over Mineski, and Ahjit’s Morphling was farming well. As the game neared 30 minutes, Ramzes overtook the gold lead and VP were pushing for some rax.
Unable to defend against the unbreakable offense Virtus.pro were putting out, Mineski called GG on game one at 35 minutes.
Game two was a similar affair. Virtus.pro took out first blood. Mineski managed to secure a small kill lead at the start of the laning phase and take out VP’s bottom TI tower as the game approached 10 minutes. It was not enough to slow the pace of Virtus.pro, however. The CIS team’s indomitable assault earned them a 5k lead in the net worth by 27 minutes. Two minutes later they were pushing the mid T3 tower and taking the rax.
Mineski was unable to repel the assault, and VP took out game two. They’ll face LGD on the main stage in tomorrow’s opening match.
Pain Gaming unable to subdue Liquid
Things were looking quite good for Pain Gaming in game one of their series against Team Liquid. They secured themselves a strong kill-lead during laning. Things were looking shaky for Liquid as Pain Gaming racked up the kills, with Leo’s Anti-Mage responsible for more than a few of them. He was bouncing around the map, playing a very aggressive early game on AM.
But even though Pain dominated in kills, Liquid was in control of the net worth. As soon as Miracle’s Medusa came online, things started to turn.
At 23 minutes, Liquid was pushing the high ground and taking the mid rax. Ten minutes later, Liquid had the game in the bag.
They weren’t planning to stop there, either. Liquid came into game two strong, Kuroky’s Chen pick helped them a lot in the early phases of the game, providing a literal army of creeps to help soak up the damage from Pain.
Although the South American team fought valiantly, at the end of the day, it was Liquid who took the win. Miracle scored 24 kills for his team overall in this series. MinD_ControL also had an excellent series, (despite being a bit of a sacrificial lamb in game one), he ended with 33 assists across both matches.
End of the line for Keen Gaming
Our last series of the day saw Vici Gaming and Keen Gaming battle it out for a chance to progress to the finals.
Game one was undoubtedly the Vici show. By 11 minutes they were 5k ahead of Keen in net worth, with a 5 kill-lead to boot. Vici averaged one kill per minute during the early phases of the game. They had 23 kills on the board at 23 minutes, while Keen had only managed 10.
As the game continued, Vici opened up Keen’s base, taking out T3 towers. Keen did their best to come back from the stomping, but it was not to be. At 33 minutes Vici were well and truly pushing the high ground. Two minutes later Keen called GG.
Game two saw a much closer early game, but both Ori’s Sniper and Yang’s Centaur Warrunner were dominating with the highest creep scores during the laning phase, helping their team gain a comfortable net worth lead.
Keen started to come back a little at around 10 minutes. Pulling ahead in the kills for a short time. However, Vici’s offense was overpowering. They pulled ahead in kills again and maintained their gold lead. At 24 minutes Vici went for the Roshan, got themselves the aegis, and started their push for the base.
Game two ended 30 minutes in with a Vici victory. They’ll face off against Team Liquid tomorrow in the next round of the lower bracket.
We only have one more day of games until we move into our finals. Which team will take out the Disney dream? Tune into the official MDL Disney Twitch tomorrow to find out!
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Eliana is a freelance editor & journalist from Australia with a passion for esports and video games. An avid player of video games for the better part of three decades, she began following professional esports circuits during the 2010s. She brings both a player and longtime fan perspective into her commentary on the professional scenes.