With two top four teams in Group C, it was only a matter of time before Vici Gaming or Virtus Pro claimed the top spot of their EPICENTER Major pool. For Vici, the path only had one bump, while VP had a much harder time climbing the mountain.
VP opened things up with a match against one of the representatives from the StarLadder Ukraine Minor, Alliance. From the start, Alliance showed they had the hot hand and were already warmed up for top competition.
Game one had Alliance hitting the lanes with confidence behind a Grimstroke and Juggernaut centric draft. They floored VP 31-12 in kills and went up 1-0 on the second-ranked team in the world.
VP threw a heavy counterpunch in game two, taking Alliance for everything they had in the early game and pushing into a longer run. It went down to the wire, but Alliance clutched it out at the last second at an even 30-30 K/D to move into the winners match.
That added to the list of top teams going down in groups, but VP had their chance at revenge later in the day.
Vici took on Foward Gaming and looked a little uncomfortable playing against the North American squad. Specifically, Forward were running a few odd heroes like Razor and threw the very formulaic Chinese team for a loop.
China is one of the most systematic regions in Dota 2, so one way other teams try to mess with Chinese teams is by using strategies that aren’t seen in that region. Forward tried and failed to pull something quirky off in game one, but Vici ran out a standard Grimstroke and Sven core with a Mars.
They tried again in game two and found something that worked by throwing together their own Mars and Sven, along with a Jakiro. That lineup seriously threw Vici off and Forward just ran them out of the lanes.
It still wasn’t a quick match, but with 43 kills, Forward won the battle and set up a decisive game three.
Vici played much more aggressive in game three and Forward looked like they went too deep into their hero pool. With both a Razor and Rubick, the more familiar Morphling and returning Mars couldn’t carry the load.
After clinching the 2-1 win, Vici went on to decimate Alliance while VP fought to knock down Forward.
Alliance had a few flashes, but Vici rolled easily to a 2-0 win and the top seed in Group C. VP, on the other hand, had a real brawl with Forward to see who would get one last chance at the upper bracket.
Both games were tight, holding within a few structures during lanes until VP pulled away in the mid-game. Even though Forward broke things open again in game two, VP showed that they weren’t going to be playing in the lower bracket this soon.
That assertiveness carried right into their rematch against Alliance. A 65-minute game that totaled 79 kills and 17 towers taken ended with VP plowing through the defensive and zone-heavy team Alliance had to take the 1-0 lead.
That led to Alliance falling apart against an Omniknight-led VP draft. The European squad couldn’t capture the magic again and will now be playing for their tournament lives and a potential TI9 ticket from the lower bracket.
Matches will continue on June 24 at 3am CT when VP clash with the top-ranked Team Secret in a matchup that’s happened several times in the grand finals this season.
