When two top Dota 2 teams meet, the matches are always intense. But in front of more than 200,000 viewers, Virtus Pro completely crushed OG in a decisive sweep that may have locked in their top seed for the playoffs.
OG came into the series just one game behind VP, but a few odd picks in their draft led to two games where the CIS team could do whatever they wanted.
Game one was a meta draft from VP with a Shadow Demon, Centaur Warrunner, and Grimmstroke, while No[o]ne went Necrophos and had a monster performance. OG played a position three Chen and tried to make the Earthshaker work, but outside of SumaiL’s Ember Spirit there wasn’t much going for them.
OG didn’t even get their first kill until they picked off Solo 11 minutes in, while VP had already taken a massive teamfight and opened the map for No[o]ne to start farming. The Necrophos went 13/0/15 and every player on VP had double-digit assists as they stomped one of the best teams in the world in an opening 36-6 route.
VP surprised viewers by taking back-to-back Axe-Techies to open their draft, though they rounded it out with Solo’s Grimmstroke and Troll Warlord that gave them a good mix of control and teamfight. OG battled back with a Monkey King and Batrider, but a Lone Druid for 33 was an odd final pick.
While SumaiL provided OG a lot of options with his Monkey King, there wasn’t much either side could do early as they tried to disrupt each other’s cores. It wasn’t until the two sides met in the Roshan’s Pit that VP really started to pull away after getting eight kills and push onto the Radiant side.
Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov’s Techies play actually came in clutch as VP forced some important buybacks early before making their final move and taking the game 40 minutes in. No[o]ne had another monster game on Queen of Pain, going 12/1/14 and almost doubling both of the top damage dealers on OG with 40,000 on his own.
This was the first time OG had lost a series 0-2 throughout the tournament and they are now squarely behind VP heading into the second half of the group stage. With this win, VP just needs to continue playing at this level and winning at least most of their games to keep the top seed in Group A as they head into a clash with Nigma on April 14.
