The International 6 Main Event Day 3
Defending champion Evil Geniuses proved that it’s still the team to beat in the International 6 as it sent down EHOME to the Lower Bracket after an historic two-game match in the Upper Bracket Round 2 at Key Arena in Seattle.
The American team looked far from its best early in Game 1 but terrific item strategy from Sumail’s Mirana and Universe’s mastery of Faceless Void’s Chronosphere allowed EG to become the first team in Valve’s tournaments to win a match despite losing all its barracks.
EHOME showed backbone and grit in Game 2 when it fought evenly with EG despite a disheartening and draining first game, but the Chinese squad ran out of steam against Universe’s Void and Sumail’s Medusa and now will need to go through other teams in the lower bracket to reach the grand finals.
EPIC MATCH FOR THE BOOKS
Game 1 looked as though EHOME got it in the bag after a furious start saw the Chinese squad kill Roshan in 14 minutes and destroy all of EG’s tier two towers two minutes later.
But EG fought back and evened the momentum in the mid-game with its Chronosphere and Mirana’s Ethereal Blade-Dagon combo working together perfectly for a number of stealthy pickoffs and even team fights.
EHOME could have finished the match before the hour-mark as their Timbersaw was ready to initiate a clash and Warlock has its Ulti, but EG coolly displayed championship poise under immense pressure and not only defended their base, but also killed EHOME’s cores.
The Chinese squad launched another strong push near the 70th-minute mark and their sieging crumbled all of EG’s barracks to give EHOME Mega Creeps, but the final push was a Pyrrhic victory for EHOME as the clash that saw nine buybacks ended with only EG heroes standing, and the American side were free to push all the way to the Dire’s base.
Without Warlock’s Golems and with Void equipped with a Divine Rapier, EG was able to win the last team fight and they were left unobstructed to destroy the Dire’s Ancient and end the 76-minute match that will definitely go down as one of Dota 2’s best.
DAY 3
Earlier in the day, Fnatic swept Alliance in their best-of-three Lower Bracket Round 2 match to reach the next stage and face Liquid, who beat NewBee in the other LB R2 match. Both Fnatic and Liquid are guaranteed a Top Eight finish and $500,000.
Chinese team Wings Gaming outclassed Korean side MVP Phoenix in their Upper Bracket Round 2 match. Wings will face EG for the first berth in the grand final and a guaranteed $3.3 million.
EHOME and MVP, who are now in the Lower Bracket, will face the winners of the TnC-vs-Digital Chaos match and Fnatic-vs-Liquid clash, respectively, in the next round.
