Dota 2 News: The International 2018 Day 1 Review 

The Group Stage of the International has arrived with a lot of expected and unexpected events, upsets, shocks, unnecessary fps drops and updates (Just Kidding, Don’t slay me for saying the truth. I know some of you low end PC users can relate). This TI is no different than any other TI. Comebacks, one-sided games, huge upsets, predicted wins, absolute humiliation name anything you want to see in DOTA and you can find it all in this TI and we are not even through the group stage yet. The biggest, largest E-sports tournament with the largest prize pool and this is all you can expect. Before we Analyze the DAY 2 and head towards the action-packed day 3 let’s dive deeper into the group matches of DAY 1.

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#GROUP A SERIES 1

Team Liquid vs Fnatic [1-1]

The group stage of the TI8 started with a huge upset. The winners of TI7 Team Liquid seem to be struggling in their first game against Fnatic, relatively a minor team. Even though Fnatic was controlling the early game to early-mid game they seem to fall slowly as Liquid takes control. Ganks after ganks went wrong for them and Liquid came back into the game really fast. A few mistakes of Fnatic and Liquid showed why they are the TI7 champions. Fnatic and Liquid started the game 2 with a scoreline of Liquid 1 – 0 Fnatic and the game started in a similar manner with Fnatic controlling most or I can say pretty much the whole early game but this time Liquid had no answer to their domination. It was a total disaster and against the popular belief, there was no comeback this time. Fnatic defeated Liquid in a humiliating manner with a scoreline of Fnatic 39 – 1 Liquid. The series ends with a 1-1 score as a draw.

OG vs PSG.LGD [1-1]

This was a heavyweight match. OG is one of those teams that enter the tournament every year neither as a favorite nor as an underdog. The result of any OG game is unpredictable. While PSG.LGD entered TI8 as a clear favorite to win the championship this year. OG can be the King of Majors but PSG.LGD had a pretty good run through-out the whole DPC season. LGD owned OG in the first game as the match ended with a humiliating scoreline of OG 14 – 42 PSG.LGD. In the second game, OG managed to come back with a close win and make the series a draw as the game ended with a score line of OG 41 - 30 PSG.LGD.

EVIL GENIUSES VS VGJ.THUNDER [2-0]

EG the former champions of TI came back stronger this year as they snatched the series against VGJ.Thunder with a clean 2-0 victory. EG won the first game against VGJ.Thunder with a scoreline of EG 49 – 38 VGJ.T with Fly’s Phoenix, RTZ Clinkz and Sumail’s Alchemist. The 2nd game was humiliating enough for VGJ.T as the game ended with 41 kills for EG while just 14 kills for VGJ.T as Sumail finished 14-2 on his Mirana and RTZ finished 11-2 on his Spectre.

Invictus Gaming vs Mineski [1-1]

IG vs Mineski was really close according to me. Even the games had a really thin kill margin as the TI2 champions won the first game with a scoreline of IG 23 – 17 Mineski. And Mineski won the second game with Mineski 26 – 24 IG as Mushi finished with 15-5-8 on his Mirana.

The Group A series 1 ends with 3 draws and EG’s 2-0 victory.

#SERIES 2

PSG.LGD vs VGJ.Thunder [1-1]

PSG.LGD met VGJ.Thunder in the series 2 of Group A. While most of the fans assumed a clear victory for LGD, it turned out to be a draw. Like most of the matches in series A, we saw another draw. As LGD lost their first game to VGJ.T with a scoreline of PSG.LGD 28 – 40 VGJ.T, they won their second game even though the scoreline was similar, VGJ.T 40 – 29 LGD. The BO2 series ended as a 1-1 draw between these two teams.

Mineski vs Winstrike [2-0]

A lot of people were calling Winstrike the Wings Gaming of 2018 but as I said before in the “Year of China” article, Wings had pre-TI achievements but Winstrike has yet to prove them. It’s still not so wise to assume the TI run of Winstrike but the results did not shock me at all as Mineski snatched the series with a clean 2-0. As Mineski dominated both the games and won with a kill margin of 42-15 and 34-13.

Invictus Gaming vs Evil Geniuses [1-1]

IG vs EG is a perfect TI match. The champion of TI2 vs The champions of TI5. And it exactly went as it should be as the series ended with a 1-1 draw. EG snatched the first game with EG 30 – 10 IG score line and IG won the second game of the series with IG 38 – 25 EG kill margin. The first game of the series was really fun to watch as EG swapped roles and we saw RTZ playing Phoenix which is a Fly special hero while Fly playing Clinkz which is normally known as one the RTZ’s heroes.

Team Liquid vs OG [2-0]

Liquid met OG in the series 2 and snatched the series with a 2-0 victory. When we saw Miracle- Invoker in the very first game we assumed the result but what we did not assume was the bloodbath all over the map as the game ended with a score line of 60-50. Miracle finished with 17 kills on his Invoker, Matumbaman 19 kills on his Ursa and Mindcontrol joined the party with his 14 kills. Liquid won the second game as well with a score line of 47-31 as they won the series 2-0.

#SERIES 3

PSG.LGD vs Team Liquid [1-1]

Arguably 2 of the top 3 teams to enter this TI and what a series as it ended with a 1-1 draw. As LGD won the first game with 56-35, another MindControl Blood Seeker but it’s not going to work every time. Team Liquid came back in the game 2 of the BO2 series and snatched the victory with a 31-16 scoreline. Miracle finished with 12-3 on his Mirana and Matumbaman finished 10-1 on his Brood Mother.

Evil Geniuses vs Mineski [2-0]

Another clean sweep from EG. While most of the teams are finishing their BO2 series with a draw EG is clean sweeping them. EG won the first game with 36-22 and the 2nd game with 30-33 as we watched Sumail Strom Spirit and RTZ templar assassin snatching the game and the series from Mineski.

Fnatic vs VGJ.Thunder [2-0]

Another series where we actually got one winner and not a draw. Fnatic met VGJ.T in the Group A series 3 and won the series with 2-0. Fnatic won their first game with 24-11 as Abed finished 8-1 on his Visage. Game 2 had another Abed Visage but DJ’s Wind Ranger took the spotlight as he finished 11-1 on his WR snatching the victory with a 30-12 Kill margin.

Winstrike vs Invictus Gaming [2-0]

And another clean sweep as Winstrike won the series against IG with a 2-0 score. The first game finished with Winstrike 26-12 IG and the Game 2 with a Winstrike 39 – 23 IG scoreline. Iceberg finished with 12-2 on his invoker, Nongrata 14-5 on his weaver and Silent 11-5 on his Drow Ranger destroying IG in the game 2 with their Drow Line up.

GROUP B

#SERIES 1

We saw 3 clean victories and 1 draw in the Group B series 1 games. Let’s take a look.

Team Secret vs Team Serenity [1-1]

Team secret vs Team Serenity was the only draw in this series as Serenity humiliated Secret with a 42-14 in the first game and Secret replied with a 22-2 victory over Team serenity. Another BO2 series ending with a draw.

Optic Gaming vs Virtus.Pro [0-2]

VP entered the tournament as a clear favorite and as expected they snatched the series with a 2-0 victory over Optic Gaming. As No[O]ne and Ramzes666 seem to be unstoppable. VP won the first game by 44-29 kill margin as No[O]ne finished 16-7 on his Storm Spirit and Ramzes finished 11-5 on his Spectre. Game 2 was even a bigger disaster for Optic as No[O]one destroyed them with his weaver finishing 14-1 on his Weaver while Ramzes finished 12-3 on his Brood helping VP winning the 2nd game and the BO2 series.

Vici Gaming vs VGJ.Storm [0-2]

VGJ.S won the series again VG quiet comfortably. As the won the Game 1 by 20-7 kill margin and Game 2 by 35-27. Even though Paparazi was quite brilliant on the Weaver but that was not enough to win the game.

Newbee vs TNC Predator [2-0]

Newbee snatched both games and the series as the former TI finalists met TNC in the Group B Series 1. Kpii’s necro in the game 1 and Sccc’s storm with Moogy’s Clinkz secured the BO2 series for them.

#SERIES 2

Group B series 2 finished with two draws and two clean victories.

TNC Predator defeated Vici Gaming with 2-0, winning the BO2 series while VGJ.Storm whitewashed Team Secret in the other BO2. Newbee and Pain Gaming won 1 game each as the series ended with a draw between these teams. On the other hand, even though most fans predicted a clean win for VP they ended up with a 1-1 draw against Team Serenity.