After several teams were upset in the lower bracket earlier week, four of the top teams in the Dota Pro Circuit attempted to escape the same fate today at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major.
First, LGD Gaming, who lost to Team Secret in the upper bracket, faced Complexity Gaming. Complexity, despite needing to make a late push for The International 2019, still couldn’t put much together against LGD. LGD swept the series quickly, finishing the two games under 60 minutes. The win pushed them over 3,000 DPC points, effectively locking them in for TI9.
With Complexity eliminated, Evil Geniuses remains as the only team at MDL Disney to represent North America.
Virtus Pro shockingly lost in the upper bracket to a new-look OG, who was making their Major debut. The top-ranked team looked more than ready to get back to winning against Mineski, who changed their roster before the Major as well.
Virtus had a little trouble with Mineski early in both matches, but by the 20-minute mark of both games, they pulled away. By controlling the tempo, Virtus used their offensive firepower to power through Mineski.
Following back-to-back sweeps, Team Liquid had the most trouble keeping with the trend against paiN Gaming. The South American pushed Liquid to the brink early on in game one, but Liquid managed to pull out a win thanks to a string of well-executed plays.
Despite sticking around for a little bit in game two, paiN could not stop Liquid, who dictated the pace and eventually closed things out for another 2-0 win.
The final series of the day pit two of China’s best teams against each others. The rising Keen Gaming squad battled the miracle of the last Major, Vici Gaming.
Both teams evidently researched their opponents well, with both countering plays and forcing draws in lanes. Vici slowly stacked kills, though, leading to a game one victory.
Game two was much more open for Vici, who continually beat down Keen en route to the fourth consecutive 2-0 sweep of the day. With Vici’s sweep, zero of the eight maps broke 40 minutes of play time.
The matches continue May 10 as these survivors battle to make it into the top six, starting with LGD vs. Virtus at 3am CT.