Manila Major: Day 2 Recap
Four sets of matches have been played today, with two of them occurring in the upper bracket and the remaining sets being played in the lower bracket. compLexity and Alliance are now eliminated from the Spring Dota 2 Major, while Newbee and Fnatic continue their run in the upper bracket along with MVP.Phoenix and OG. Natus Vincere and Team Liquid advance to the next round of the lower bracket, while Digital Chaos and LGD will fight in order to continue their run in the tournament.
Newbee defeated Digital Chaos, 2-1, thus ending their map streak. DC looked strong throughout their series despite having to face one of the tournament favorites. As for the Fnatic-LGD matchup, the Chinese side just could not find a way around their SEA opponents despite maybe and agresif playing out of their minds due to the clutch performances of Zheng “Miduan” Yeik Nai and Djardel “DJ” Mampusti, who showed a wonderful performance on the Enigma during their second game.
In the lower bracket, Team Liquid showed American side compLexity a master class after handily beating them, 2-0, thus paving the way for the most awaited series of the day in the form of Natus Vincere and Alliance.
Dubbed the El Clasico of Dota 2, these two sides had a head-to-head record of 28 games apiece before this matchup. The first game saw crowd favorite Daniil “Dendi” Ishutin on the Windranger, while Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg picked up the Broodmother for himself. After a closely contested map, Alliance take the lead as they capitalized on the mistakes that the Ukranian side did during teamfights.
Meanwhile, in game 2, Alliance got the Naga Siren for themselves, while Na’Vi decided to deal with it using Ditya Ra’s Huskar. The game lasted more than an hour before a succession of favourable engagements for the Ukrainians allowed them to take the driver’s seat, beating the Swedes despite the Naga Siren having a full inventory and lots of chances to split-push all over the map.
The third game just saw all-out aggression from the Na’Vi side as both sides picked up their signature heroes. In the end, better teamfight execution from the Ukrainians as well as ingenious usage of the upgraded version of the Boots of Travel allowed them to take the game, close out the series and eliminate Alliance from the Manila Major.
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
