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The International 10 playoffs are already in full swing and in a few days some teams already left the tournament. In the first and second rounds of the upper bracket, many games were very predictable, as some teams did not show the level of play corresponding to The International. Some games, on the contrary, took an unexpected turn of actions.
Eliminated Teams Round 1
Team Undying
These guys almost caused a sensation in the group stage. They were just a few points short of making it to the upper bracket. However, fate had a different outcome. Team Undying had to play in a best of 1 elimination roulette against Fnatic. Many casters and analysts pointed that the bo1 format depends primarily on the drafts of the teams. It’s very simple – the team whose draft is stronger will win. This does not always happen, but it happens quite often. It happened in the Team Undying vs Fnatic match as well. The team from Southeast Asia took an active Void Spirit to the mid lane and a confident honed strategy with Luna. At the same time, Luna received strong buffs, such as Press The Attack from an allied Legion Commander, who collected Aghanim’s Shard. Fnatic also took their signature Nature’s Prophet to the fourth position, which put pressure on all lines in early game. They won several matches in the group stage with this Furion.
Team Undying had a passive Naga Siren, which required a lot of farming. After losing the mid lane, Undying immediately showed their weakness. Fnatic successfully seized the opportunity and took the initiative. Team Undying offlaner Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek was unable to play normally his hero. His Night Stalker proved useless in the early stages of the game and failed to live up to his kill potential. He wasted at least two first nights.
As a result, the game turned out to be lopsided. Quickly seizing the advantage, Fnatic systematically reclaimed every area of the map without a chance and destroyed their opponents. This allowed the Asian team to win.
Team Aster
Team Aster had a tough road at the tournament. At the very beginning before the group stage, all of their team members were infected with COVID-19. Aster even had to replace their midlaner at the first day because White丶Album_白学家 was feeling too bad. As a result, Team Aster didn’t drop out of the tournament after all, even though they were one of the head contenders for a trip home after the group stage.
The North American Quincy Crew faced off against Team Aster in a bo1 elimination game. And who would thought that this game would be so spectacular? Team Aster decided to go with Fnatic’s blueprint, taking a combination of Luna and Legion Commander. They completed it with a save from Weaver with Aghs in the fourth position.
At first, Aster were able to impose successful battles. They took the towers, went ahead, and earned an economic advantage. The Quincy Crew could do nothing, but they had a plan B, which subsequently worked. The QC team picked Nature’s Prophet for the third position for Lelis. It was the Brazilian who was the star of this game for sure. He splitpushed the Chinese team in the signature Alliance style of 2013. Lelis traded tower after tower, flew to side lanes and connected with the team in fights. As a result, Rodrigo Santos soloed to win the game for his team. Of course, the rest of the team also contributed a lot to the win this game, but the main impact came from Lelis. As a result, the Quincy Crew capped off the game losing 15k gold and broke the Ancient of their opponent.
Beastcoast
The Peruvian team fell to Alliance in the first round of the lower bracket. The game was equal and had a crazy pace, typical of the Beastcoast team. The Swedes outplayed BC in small moments, which as a result affected the game. Yes, the game of Alliance looked more coordinated than their opponents, but the intrigue remained until the last.
The point of no return for Beastcoast was a mistakes of their core heroes. Their carry K1 walked the mid lane with no buyback. He died surrounded by all the Alliance heroes. This late in the game, Beastcoast simply could not defend their base without their carry. They left the tournament.
Elephant
The Chinese team faced Evil Geniuses in the first round of the lower bracket. Even before the start of the match, it was clear that EG were the favorites in this game. For the third time Luna appeared in the elimination game, this time for Arteezy.
Elephant’s game did not look coherent, the team players were dying one by one, and their actions were out of sync. Yes, Elephant players have really loud names. We can say that Elephant is a team of stars that never became a team-star. They couldn’t resist EG and left the tournament as well.
The Upper Bracket
The Fate of the Dragon
Analysts predicted that Invictus Gaming was the unqualified favorite in this game. The fact that Team Spirit reached the upper bracket is an incomprehensible result and a true miracle for the Eastern European region. Invictus Gaming were the strongest team in their group.
The first game was dictated by IG. The Chinese team controlled all the spots and placed wards in all available places. They had a very mobile draft with Io and Monkey King killing Team Spirit players in every part of the map. It seemed like the Spirit were close to lose this game, but at the key moment Team Spirit, losing almost 12k gold, pressed Smoke of Deceit. At that moment, Team Spirit were unbelievably lucky, because they found a double damage rune for Yatoro on the river. Team Spirit destroyed their opponents without a chance, having a DD rune on Morphling and just went to beat T4 towers, and then Ancient.
The second map began with Team Spirit domination on the lanes, but a few unsuccessful attempts at highground turned the situation around. The Chinese team was patient to the last and skillfully defended their base from enemy attacks. By the end of the game TORONTOTOKYO’s Shadow Fiend could not fight the enemy heroes and IG tied the series.
On the third game for Team Spirit, things started to fall apart. A bad draft combined with toothless play led Team Spirit to a one-sided game and an IG victory in the series.
Now Team Spirit have already knocked out Fnatic 2-0 without any chances in the lower bracket and are already ranked at least top-8 at TI.
The curse is lifted
The Dota 2 community has been joking about the curse on Team Secret that prevents them from ranking high at The International. Puppey and his team may have had an amazing season every year, but when they came to The International, they didn’t rank high. The highest result of Team Secret was able to reach was The International 2019. There Clement’s team took fourth place.
Now Team Secret easily defeated OG, and then outplayed Invictus Gaming 2:0. Despite the fact that the opponents of Team Secret did not take any game, they showed a decent game. Now Team Secret is already in at least third place. And who knows, maybe Puppey and MATUMBAMAN can take the champion’s Aegis over their heads again.
The strongest from China
The predictions of the analysts of PSG.LGD proved to be true. These guys are really crushing everyone in their way. It is worth noting that in the first round, their opponents T1 showed a good battle and took one game. I think this will make the team that meets T1 in the lower bracket fearful.
Going back to PSG.LGD, they handled Virtus.Pro 2:0. And if in the first map the Russian team offered zealous resistance, in the second VP looked like defenseless kittens.
By the way, VP outplayed Vici Gaming in the first round of the upper bracket.
SEA region’s last hope
After Team Spirit knocked out Fnatic, T1 remained the only team to represent the SEA region in the tournament. They lost to PSG.LGD in the upper bracket without looking weak. In the lower bracket, they faced off against Alliance.
The Swedes was the whipping boys for T1. Alliance had absolutely nothing to do neither in the first nor in the second game of the series. T1 simply destroyed Alliance, starting from the draft stage. Such a strong game can take an Asian team far.