Virtus Pro blow up OG with Techies at ESL One Los Angeles Online

Virtus Pro outclassed OG in the second round of the upper bracket at the ESL One Los Angeles Online today, sweeping the two-time The International champions 2-0. The first game was a clinical showing from the CIS team, while the second was a haphazard showing from both sides thanks to one of the most obnoxious heroes in Dota 2, Techies.

Game one was all VP. The CIS team had little hiccups during the laning stage, but off the back of no[o]ne’s Death Prophet crushing SumaiL’s Invoker in the mid lane, VP swiftly took charge. Any semblance of control that OG possessed quickly careened off the cliff, as VP’s mobile cores dominated every teamfight both teams participated in. 

Having seen how potent Saksa’s Pugna was yesterday, VP placed particular emphasis on preventing him from executing freely. A multitude of disables like Eul’s Scepters, silences from Death Prophet and Earth Spirit did just so. All three of VP’s cores finished with double digits in kills and combined for just four deaths en route to a straightforward victory.

If the first game was mechanical efficiency, the second was chaos incarnate. It wasn’t helped by VP picking up Sniper and Techies, two heroes notorious for their high ground defense capabilities, and OG’s draft practically consisted of three off-laners and no hard carries.

While OG tried to be aggressive, their run-at-you playstyle was heavily deterred by the safeguards set in place by Sniper’s innate long range and Techies’ minefields. OG played the Techies matchup well, but VP’s Zayac showed masterful command over his placements of mines and still caught out stray OG heroes.

VP faced similar problems and failed to push out on the opposite side of the map, but had one hero that made a big difference: Nature’s Prophet. Solo played the Prophet as a hard support, but the passive state of the game allowed him to farm. He used the extra funds to become an aura bot, freeing up his cores’ item decisions.

With Solo having so much farm, even the weakest hero on VP’s side proved impossible to bring down for OG’s carry-less lineup that was increasingly getting out-scaled. It was the spear that broke, while the shield held strong.

VP capitalized on the opportunity to buy a Divine Rapier on no[o]ne’s Sniper and obtained the Aegis for him. With VP finally able to engage in offensive posturing, OG were powerless under the might of the Divine Sniper.

VP are the first team to enter the grand finals of the ESL One LA Online, guaranteeing themselves top two and $38,000 in prize money. The CIS squad has been on fire throughout the tournament, and the OG win marks their ninth series win in a row at the event. A 10th one will mark them champions, along with a hefty $60,000 prize purse for their efforts. OG drop down to the lower bracket finals and will await the winner of Chicken Fighters and Vikin.gg. 

This victory also marks VP’s third win with Techies at the tournament. The Goblin Techies is usually relegated to a meme pick, like OG picking it after clinching the group stage at TI9, although the hero has had periods of legitimate competitive relevance. It was especially prevalent during TI5, where the hero went 7-1, and notably had to be banned throughout the grand finals by CDEC Gaming against Evil Geniuses’ Aui_2000. 

With how well Zayac has been playing on the hero, Techies might see another heyday as more teams attempt to pick up the hero. For now, it’s a potent drafting weapon for Solo, and any crew that meets VP in the finals will need to be on their guard.