ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Day 1 Highlights

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ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Day 1 Highlights

Despite not being a DPC tournament, the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational gathered the absolute best teams in the world in Singapore to play for that mind-blowing $500k USD prize pool.

Having said that, Day 1 of this amazing event was a blast to watch. We saw some pretty amazing stuff, including the LAN debut of Lasse Aukusti “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen, who demolished Virtus.Pro.

Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting series of the day.

Team Secret vs Virtus.Pro

This was the opening series of the tournament and oh boy was it a joy to watch. Not only did we see MATUMBAMAN’s domination, but we also saw Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng back in action. As you probably know, he is standing in for Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat.

Even though Virtus.Pro tried some innovative tactics, Team Secret was simply the better team. In game one, Matu’s AP and Nisha’s Magnus were just on another level. Despite having Meepo, the CIS powerhouse had absolutely no chance to win any team fights.

With their backs against the wall, Virtus.Pro tired to make something happen in the second game of the series. However, little did they know, Matu’s Ursa had other plans. The Finnish superstar played one of the strongest games in his career and finished with 27 kills and one death.

TNC Predator vs Alliance

Although most Dota 2 fans expected TNC to win, it was Alliance that prevailed in this series. On paper, the SEA team had a very solid draft in game one. However, Linus “Limmp” Blomdin and Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov gave TNC a huge headache. Both of Alliances’ cores finished without a single death as they ripped through their enemies.

After the loss, the MDL Chengdu champions definitely played a little bit better in game two. Unfortunately, it was still not enough to stop the motivation of Alliance. Once again, their two cores gave their enemies no chance to do anything. The only person who had a positive impact from TNC was Armel Paul “Armel” Tabios but his Puck couldn’t really do much against Alliance.

Vici Gaming vs Evil Geniuses

Despite Vici being the stronger team in the last couple of months, they always seemed to struggle against Evil Geniuses. This was proved yet again after the NA champions decimated their enemies in both games.

The first one started relatively slow as neither of them wanted to make any aggressive pushes. However, as soon as EG got a slight advantage, they completely seized the game. Just a couple of minutes later, Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and co. already had over 10k net worth advantage and started to slowly pressure their enemies into submission.

Even though Vici played noticeably better in game two, it was still not enough to bring down EG. After a couple of very messy team fights, the NA squad was able to grab the lead and kept it until the end.

PSG.LGD vs Natus Vincere

Although this series looks to be very easy for TI 8 runners-up, Natus Vincere had other plans. This CIS team has been on the rise recently and this series proves that. After a very back-and-forth, action-packed game one, the Ukranian squad was able to deliver their knock-out punch. Their Templar Assassin and Weaver gave the Chinese squad a very hard time.

Seeing how strong their line up was, the Ukrainians decided to stick with it. In fact, the only person who played a different hero from their lineup was Pavel “9pasha” Khvatunov. Despite that, the Chinese legends were still unable to adapt to the situation. As a result, they lost the series without doing anything to stop Na’Vis march.

We can only hope that PSG.LGD will step up their games because their recent results have been dreadful.

Alliance vs Team Secret

This was perhaps one of the most anticipated series of the day. Two of the strongest European teams finally had to go head to head. Although people expected this to be a one-sided show by Secret, that was not the case.

Having said that, game one was a complete annihilation as Team Secret won in 22 minutes. Matu and Nisha proved yet again why people consider them as one of the most powerful duos in Dota 2 right now.

Despite the dominant victory, Team Secret failed to do the same in game two. It seems like Alliance looked fired up to prove that they can’t be taken lightly. Although the entire team played very well, one person definitely shined the most – Nikobaby. He played one of his signature heroes – Morphling. Despite being nerfed in the last patch, the Bulgarian carry still shined bright and secured his team the draw in this epic series.

EG vs PSG

This was one of the last series of the day and EG slew yet another Chinese team. Even though PSG.LGD definitely played better than last time, it was still not enough.

The North American team drafted Storm Spirit two games in a row, allowing Abed to shine. It seems like he is filling in the role of Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan very well.

Now, these TI 8 runners up have to win nearly all games tomorrow if they want to continue further. Needless to say, this is definitely not going to be a walk in the park for them, especially considering their current state.

Be sure to watch the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational tomorrow. We will have another epic day in the Group Stage.

ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Day 1 Highlights
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.