The Summit 3 LAN Finals: Day One
The Summit 3 begins today with Philippines’ very own Rave to go up against Vici Gaming (VG), which is considered to be the best Dota 2 team in the world at the moment. They are placed in the so-called “Group of Death” along with Evil Geniuses (EG) and Cloud 9 (C9).
The other matchup is going to be EG versus C9, with the winner of this match to fight against the one who takes the Rave-VG showdown. The losers of both matchups will face each other in the lower bracket of the group stage.
So how does the group stage work?
Basically, the group stage format is adapted from a popular bracketing system used in the Global Starcraft League (GSL), which is considered to be one of the most cutting-edge tournaments in eSports.
To make it easy to explain, it is a double-elimination format with two teams going through and two teams getting eliminated. If a team loses twice (once in the upper bracket and once in the loser bracket), then they are eliminated. Likewise, if a team wins once and loses twice, the same result applies.
However, if a team wins twice in a row or wins twice and loses once, then that team goes to the next stage of the tournament.
Rave vs. VG: David vs. Goliath
Game 1: A Show Of Domination
Rave picks a burst-damage lineup, while Vici Gaming goes for a standard teamfight draft. Photo: Trackdota
Rave will surely want to forget about this game as Vici Gaming simply dominated it with style. At the 2nd minute mark, Chen “Hao” Zhihao’s Gyrocopter, along with most of the VG gang, picked off Mark “Cast” Pilar’s Lion as well as Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross’s Lina near the tier 1 bottom tower.
It took five minutes and two more kills on the board for VG before the Filipino squad finally gets a kill on the board when Xie “Super” Junhao falls down; however, it did not do anything to change the course of the game as the Chinese team kept on winning clashes convincingly.
The VG squad gets their first set of barracks on the Radiant top lane, 24 minutes into the game. Considering that it is hard to breach a base before the 30th minute mark, the Chinese have clearly showed that they are clearly in control of the match.
One minute later, the Korea-based Filipino side finally won a teamfight convincingly; however, VG decided to barrel through the middle lane afterwards and with heroes falling left and right inside their own base, Rave simply called it quits.
Game 2: The Io-Tiny Show
Draft for Game 2. Once again, the Philippine side puts their trust on the Phantom Lancer. Photo: Beyond The Summit stream
The Chinese squad picks one of their staple hero combinations in the form of Tiny and Io. The former is a hard hitter that can take down heroes and buildings with apparent ease, while the latter gives the sustainability that Tiny needs in order to be able to do the task at hand. Rounding up the support cast for the Chinese squad are Beastmaster, Lina and Dark Seer.
Meanwhile, Rave places their faith once again on the Phantom Lancer, a hero capable of getting things done during the later phases of the game. With a draft centered around this hero, the Filipino squad aims to have a shot during the later phase of the game.
Both teams immediately start the match with lots of action as Ryo “ryOyr” Hasegawa’s Bristleback falls down to Lu “Fenrir” Chao’s Lina on the top lane. Then, it simply became a bloodbath as both sides exchanged kills all over the map.
However, from the 10th minute onward, Vici Gaming just took the hot seat as they controlled the tempo of the match, finding kills whenever they initiate on any of Rave’s heroes on the map.
By the 19th minute, Vici Gaming breached the base, getting the bottom set of barracks in the process. The Filipino team, upon seeing that all hope is lost, simply tapped out a minute later.
Rave players just chill it out while drafting. Photo: Beyond The Summit stream
After two sub-30 minute games, Rave goes to the lower bracket of their group, while VG awaits for the winner of EG and C9 in the upper bracket final.
With reports from Juan Carlo Candido “Jucasa” Saquin and Aileen “Chaos” Cerudo
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