Techies Take Over Day Two of TI4’s Main Event
The biggest story coming out of day two was the reveal of Techies in Dota 2. For those not in the know, Techies are a hero from the original DOTA mod but are yet to feature in Dota 2. The All Star match, which pitted team rOtK against team XBOCT, allowed the selected players to have a bit of fun and Valve took the opportunity to show off Techies within Dota 2 for the first time. Arteezy played the hero, and failed miserably. We can expect to see Techies added properly within a few weeks.
Perhaps the 2nd biggest story of the day came at the conclusion of the All Star Match. The winning team won some cheese and proceeded to take bites out of it until the crowd started a “Kaci” chant until she finally took a bite. Im joking of course, this want the 2nd biggest news of the day but it sure was funny.
On the proper tournament front our first Bo3 saw NaVi take on Cloud 9. Game one saw a standard draft apart from the first Lina pick up of the event coming from NaVi. The game stayed relatively even during the early game, but at 26 minutes a failed Roshan attempt cost NaVi dear, a few bad fights later and NaVi were forced to call GG giving C9 a 1-0 advantage.
After a hard defeat all eyes were on NaVi to see if they could mount a comeback. Game two saw them execute some unexpected lanes, which gave them an early advantage. Some nice Sun Strikes from Dendi on the Invoker saw them further their advantage throughout the mid game. At 19minutes NaVi managed to take the mid barracks which resulted in a GG call a few minutes later.
Game Three saw a draft which seemed to suggest NaVi had a significant upper hand however some incredible early aggression from C9 saw them take a large early lead. The Track kills coming from the Bounty Hunter allowed C9 to snowball incredibly quickly and resulted in them taking a relatively easy win and thus take the series 2-1. NaVi are eliminated from TI4 whilst C9 advance.
Our 2nd and technically final best of three of the day saw IG take on fellow Chinese team LGD. Many had marked this down as a simple win for IG but LGD clearly hadn’t read the script. A somewhat uncommon Centaur pick along with a Skywarth Mage and Invoker gave LGD some incredible kill off potential which they used to their advantage. Some big fights around the 15 minute mark cost IG dearly and give LGD a big enough lead to take the high ground at 25 minutes and force the GG call moments later.
The 2nd game saw a dominant early performance from IG as they picked up 5 kills before LGD managed to take even one. Multiple pick offs and well executed fights saw IG comfortably take control of the game and take the victory in around the 30 minute mark.
The third and final game in the series saw LGD again pick up the Centaur and boy are IG regretting not banning it now. A fairly even early game was skewed by multiple tower denies from LGD to give them a slight advantage. Some impressive plays from Rabbit on the Centaur saw LGD take many of the mid game fights and gain a unassailable lead which lead to the victory at the 43 minute mark. LGD surprisingly takes the series 2-1 and advances to the next round.
Next up we saw the first game from the ViCi vs Cloud 9 series, the next two games will be played on day 3. The draft saw Cloud 9 go fairly safe whilst ViCi picked up a Dazzle and Bristleback, two heroes who haven’t seen much play recently. The game started off very slowly, after 14 minutes there was only 5 kills, and a few towers down. The game continued in this vain, as there were very few fights whilst ViCi took towers. Finally around 20 minutes proper fights started to break out and even then they were still conservative affairs. A few small wins saw ViCi take a lead but at one point it seemed like a base race would decide our winner until C9 came back to defend. Some big fights around the Roshan pit cost C9 and resulted in ViCi taking the game. ViCi hold a 1-0 advantage going into day 3.
We then saw the first game from the DK vs LGD series; again the other two games will be played on Day 3. Just a heads up here, this game is certainly a contender for game of the tournament. It’s a long one but certainly worth a watch so if I were you I would stop reading and go watch it. If you don’t want to watch it or don’t have the time then the short version is that that DK managed to secure a early lead which they carried right through the game. DK managed to take two lanes of rax but LGD managed to hang on and produce an incredible comeback to win the game. That’s all I’m saying, seriously go watch it, its incredible. LGD now have a 1-0 over DK heading into Day 3.
The games to watch are obviously the previously mentioned LGD vs DK game and you should also check out the All Star match as its great fun.
