The International 4 Main Event Day One Recap
What an amazing start to the main event of The International 4. Day one involved the upper bracket with three best of three series between four of the best teams in the world. It also ended up giving us one of our grand finalists. But first lets recap the intro to the event.
First off we have the always-entertaining panel that kicked off with James “2GD” Harding, Stats-man Bruno, Godz and Merlini who looked really nervous to start with but after a while returned to his normal self. The panel was brilliant as ever, the running panel MMR game offered some comic relief and as expected Bruno’s suit was incredible. Oh and Kaci is back everyone, which is great news.
Obviously the only way to kick off TI4 is to bring out Gabe Newell and have him welcome everyone to the event (which you can see in the video above). A series of videos detailing the event and the teams followed until we were ready to kick off the day with the first series of NewBee vs ViCi.
Match spoilers to follow. If you don’t want spoilers then stop reading and check out the VOD’s for yesterdays games.
Our first best of three saw ViCi who took first place in the group stage take on NewBee who dominated the 2nd bubble bracket to gain a place in this match. The first game saw a fairly common draft style with the most notable hero being a Chen for Banana. A failed attempt to ward the enemy jungle cost ViCi the first blood and from there it was all-downhill. NewBee comfortably dominated the game, forcing ViCi to call GG at the 14-minute mark, making this the 2nd shortest game of TI4.
Game two was a more even affair and included some incredible AA ultimate’s from Fy, combined with a massive gold lead at the 30 minute mark ViCi managed to take high ground and win the game.
Game three saw a Lifestealer pick for NewBee, something that we haven’t seen much of since TI3. Fortunately it worked out for NewBee as Hao managed to go 15-3-4 on the hero and secured the win at the 36-minute mark. Meaning NewBee advance and ViCi head to the lower bracket.
The 2nd best of three involved the two teams which many had picked to face off in the final, DK and EG. Fortunately a loss wouldn’t eliminate either team. Game one got off to a flying start as EG picked up an Ursa and Enchantress, with the Ursa playing a position 4 support (I know, crazy stuff!). Two and a half minutes in the Ursa Enchantress combo managed to take down Roshan. Despite being down on kills DK managed to keep in the game and apply some pressure to EG’s base. Some sneaky plays from both teams late on resulted in a very tense situation where one mistake could end the game. As DK started to push towards the dire base EG made the brilliant decision to run down mid and try to take the base as DK had no TP’s / BoT’s remaining. The decision worked and EG managed to take the first game.
The 2nd game was more of a standard affair. DK picked up a Faceless Void but some incredible plays from Zai on the Silencer made almost every Chrono redundant. After 35 minutes DK was forced to call GG meaning EG advance whilst DK head to the losers bracket.
The last Bo3 of the day saw NewBee take on EG, the winner would advance to the grand finals on Monday. Game one saw NewBee again pick up a Lifestealer and again it worked out quite well. EG did manage to grab a Naga Siren but NewBee were effective in shutting it down and denying it farm. EG managed to stay in the game for around 50 minutes but were eventually overpowered by NewBee and thus lost game one.
With a 1-0 lead in the series NewBee went for an unconventional draft including a Spectre and Natures Prophet combo. EG went just as crazy picking up a Beastmaster along with a greedy Wraith King and Enigma support duo. NewBee dominated the game throughout, some easy towers and a gift of a Roshan gave them a significant lead during the mid game and NewBee used this to force the GG at 36 minutes. This meant that NewBee took the series and advance to the Grand Finals where they are guaranteed at least 2nd place and at least $1.4million in prize money.
In terms of which games to watch, you should check them all out if you have the time. If not the DK EG series is worth a look and if you want one game in particular check out EG vs DK Game 1.
The International Continues today with the start of the lower bracket, who goes through today? Let us know in the comments below.
