The brackets are locked for Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017
After three days of games, the dust from the group stages for the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017 has settled. European team OG and Russian team Empire top Group A, while Chinese teams Invictus Gaming and Newbee emerged victorious in Group B. These four teams make their way to the Upper Bracket, with OG facing Newbee and IG facing team Empire.
Third-seeded teams for each group got the chance to pick which teams played which in the lower bracket. LGD.Forever Young chose to go up against Invictus Gaming.Vitality, leaving Team NP with Vici Gaming J. Team Liquid, who win in the fight for third with Team NP in a tiebreaker match, chose Team Faceless. That leaves an interesting last match, with TI5 champions (and DAC 2015 winners) Evil Geniuses going up against TI6 champions Wings Gaming.
The main event kicks off April 1st, at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai, China.
10:00 CST UTC+08:00: OG vs Newbee
13:30 CST UTC+08:00: Invictus Gaming vs Team Empire
17:00 CST UTC+08:00: LFY vs iG Vitality
18:30 CST UTC+08:00: NP vs VG J
20:00 CST UTC+08:00 Wings Gaming vs Evil Geniuses
21:30 CST UTC+08:00 Team Liquid vs FacelessFEATURED STORIES
The upper bracket round 1 and final will be played in a Best of 3. Barring the first round the lower bracket games will also be played in a Best of 3. The grand finals will be a Best of 5.
Best Shadow Fiend in the world
DAC 2017 also saw the return of a professional 1v1 tournament. Fans voted for the best of the best to compete in a 1v1, solo mid, Shadow Fiend-only tournament. EG’s Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, Team Liquid’s Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi, iG.V’s Zhang “Paparazi” Chengjun, IG’s Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei, Team NP’s Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao, Newbee’s Song “Sccc” Chun, and Wings Gaming’s Zhou “bLink” Yang. Players had to kill their opponents twice, or be the first to destroy a tower. Team Faceless’s Daryl Koh ‘iceiceice‘ Pei Xiang was originally part of the top 8, but gave his spot to Arteezy. Out of the eight competitors Arteezy has the most experience on SF professionally, with a 66.92% win rate in 133 games.
The first game saw fan favorites Miracle- and Arteezy clash head to head. Although Arteezy managed to get an early lead in last hits, Miracle- landed the first kill after hitting successful Shadow Razes. The second kill came 7 minutes later, where the two battled it out under Arteezy’s tower, but with Miracle- getting the kill with the help of the sustain from his 17-charge Magic Wand.
The second game was a bit shorter. Pitting Paparazi against big favorite SumaiL, Paparazi had a lot of pressure on him. The two players were neck and neck, with neither pulling a large enough a lead. Then suddenly both were at each other’s necks, with Paparazi getting the kill in an advantageous position. SumaiL then threw in the towel with a “gg.”
BurNIng and EternaLEnVy’s game also ended in a forfeit. The Chinese player went in aggressively at the beginning, almost getting the kill on EE. Both players then settled with last hits and denies. EternaL’s unconventional build with a Ring of Basilius was effective in messing up BurNing’s last hits by toggling the active on and off constantly. EE then went in for a risky dive between BurNIng’s tier one and two towers, but BurNIng saw the play coming and used the fog to his advantage, eliciting a “gg” from the Canadian EE. Interestingly, EE has a better all-time record on SF, with 18 games and a 72.22% win rate (the highest among the eight). BurNIng has yet to win a professional game on SF.
The last match was between Chinese pros Sccc and bLink. This game was the most one-sided out of the four, with Sccc getting an early last hit lead. Sccc’s SF experience played a huge role in the match, with 104 games played vs bLink’s 37. With Sccc pulling away in the lead bLink decided to go for a fight, which he lost, and called “gg.”
The second round will see Miracle- face off against Paparazi, and Sccc vs BurNIng. It will also start on April 1, and will be a Best of 1. The final round will be a Best of 3.
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