As many predicted, the opening series of The Chongqing Major was a heated battle between the two most recent Dota Pro Circuit event winners.
Virtus Pro, the winners of The Kuala Lumpur Major, and EHOME, victors of The Bucharest Minor, led the stacked Group A along with TNC Predator and Chaos Esports Club. And their matchup to kick off the event was a great way to start the competition.
The Chinese team showed out in game one, shutting down VP at every turn and picking up a quick 27-minute victory. The dominant performance was largely thanks to the masterful play of Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida and his record-breaking performance.
EHOME were unable to maintain that level of play going into game two, letting VP pick and choose whatever fights they wanted as they controlled the entire map. That ability to choose their battles allowed them to pick off any out-of-position EHOME players and return the favor with a 23-minute win to tie up the series.
Game three took each of the dominating performances from both teams and smashed them together into one big brawl. EHOME came into the deciding game hoping to control the map, but VP were looking to initiate conflict. The aggressive strategy took EHOME by surprise, and even though they got a few favorable trades, VP were clearly the better fit for teamfights. Despite a good late-game push from EHOME, VP took the series 2-1 in an amazing opening match for the event.
In the other Group A matchup, TNC outlasted CEC in the opening game before ripping through them in game two to finish a 2-0 sweep. That set them up in the winners match against VP, while CEC went to the losers bracket to face EHOME.
Again, VP were caught with slow feet in game one, letting TNC get the upper hand in the series early. But after that disappointing start, they went on to reverse sweep TNC in a fairly-competitive series.
Similarly, EHOME fell in their first game to CEC in an extremely close match, but then followed VP in sweeping their opponents from there. Games two and three weren’t even in question as EHOME outpaced CEC 54-11 in K/D in those matches.
With VP already securing the top seed in Group A, TNC and EHOME faced off for the last spot in the upper bracket from their group.
The series lasted two games and TNC highly contested anything EHOME put into practice, but it wasn’t enough. Eventually, EHOME succeeded in completing their first 2-0 series of the event and claimed their spot in the upper bracket, while TNC fell to the lower bracket along with CEC.
The next matches will begin on Jan. 19 at 8pm CT when Team Liquid take on The Pango to kick off Group C’s competition.
