PSG.LGD complete two intense comebacks, defeat Team Secret to reach the grand finals at The International 10

PSG.LGD took down Team Secret 2-0 and secured their spot at the grand finals for Dota 2’s The International 10 today.

When two juggernauts clash, the battlefield is supposed to turn into a spectacle. LGD, however, looked highly composed and played the fringes, which worked to their advantage in both games as they swept Team Secret in a 2-0 performance. 

LGD played to their advantage and didn’t give the European team much in the way of openings to exploit, marking Secret’s first loss in the upper bracket of The International 10.

Neither team seemed to be looking for early engagements, which led to an advantage for LDG. Their playstyle and draft focused on getting Ame’s Tiny farmed up and building support around it, a strategy that ended up working. The mountain of a hero went 14/0/3 and dealt nearly 39,000 hero damage—more than half of Secret’s team total—on his own for a beyond Godlike performance. 

By the end of the game, LGD were purely focused on keeping Secret contained until they could optimize their items, find a chance to take Roshan, and then run through the finish line. Once they had a Swift Blink on Tiny and Aghanim’s Scepter ready for NothingToSay’s Puck, LGD cleaned up Secret in the last two teamfights. 

Game two was much more active early on, with both teams trading leads until Secret started pulling away around the 33-minute mark. Once they fell behind, LGD went back to what worked and focused on building their heroes up, drawing out the game until the Aegis of the Immortals expired on MATUMBAMAN before playing their cards. 

In two teamfights, LGD took Secret’s net worth lead from closing in on 20k down to just 5k off of one set of poor executions from the EU squad, with no buyback available on Matu’s Ursa as they approached the high ground. Secret tried to mount a defense, but they couldn’t deal enough damage to repel LGD, with Matu dying back and GGs being called. 

That win put LGD in the TI10 driver’s seat, with the early tournament favorite proving that they were worthy of all the hype and claiming the first spot in the grand finals. They are just one series away from possibly raising the Aegis of Champions after it has eluded them for so many seasons. 

Secret aren’t done yet, though. Their performance in the upper bracket finals was still strong and showed that they can compete with LGD at the highest level. Now, they need to survive one series in the lower bracket and make it back up to clash with them again in a best of five with the Aegis on the line.