EHOME and Mineski bomb out of the StarLadder Ukraine Minor

Although they weren’t the first teams eliminated, EHOME and Mineski suffered huge upsets at the StarLadder Ukraine Minor that knocked them out before the start of playoffs.

Those losses almost guarantee that EHOME will be knocked out of the 12th spot in the Dota Pro Circuit and lose their spot in The International 2019.

Team Anvorgesa has become one of the most dangerous South American stacks in recent events, so when they were matched up against a reeling EHOME team that had been soundly beaten by Alliance, the matchup seemed more favorable for Anvorgesa. EHOME managed to defend well in game one against AVGSA’s offensive battleplan, despite the match nearly getting away from the Chinese squad toward the end.

But that seemed to be the end of EHOME’s momentum. After coming close to winning the first match, AVGSA came out even more aggressive in the second game. They ran over EHOME in nearly half the time, not stopping their attack even when they were behind in kills.

In game three, AVGSA shifted their priority from securing kills to making sure each kill led to a downed structure. While EHOME was busy defending and trying to pick off supports, AVGSA sent their offensive frontline straight into lanes and dominated the map.

They managed to take the win despite being down in kills, effectively knocking EHOME out of the event. Now EHOME’s only chance to make it into TI9 is by hoping for some miracle at EPICENTER that lets them keep their ranking, or by making it in through qualifiers.

Mineski, on the other hand, had no favorable spot in the DPC rankings to defend after their poor play recently. Their poor play continued at the Minor, with Team Sirius crushing the Southeast Asian squad in a 2-0 sweep.

Sirius more than doubled Mineski’s kills in both matches, denied them all but four tower kills, and wrapped each game up in 25 minutes. This will likely be the last big event for this iteration of Mineski, especially since they are known to blow up their roster after sustaining multiple big losses in a row. They will now rely solely on the Southeast Asia qualifiers as a last-ditch chance to make it into TI9.

Matches at the StarLadder Ukraine Minor continue at 2am CT, when Sirius tries to topple Alliance. The two top placing teams at this event will travel to Moscow, Russia to compete in the EPICENTER Major.