We are just one week away from the end of Tour 2, so it shouldn’t be surprising that we already know the names of some teams that will go to Division II.
Fortunately, we also know that OG became the first team that will attend the Stockholm Major.
Similar to Tour 1, the last week of this DPC event only consists of three series. Therefore, this week’s games were really important for most teams. There were a few surprising results, so let’s check some of the series you should’ve watched in Division I and Division II.
Division I
Team Liquid vs Nigma Galaxy
The first match in week 5 was the last nail in the coffin for Nigma Galaxy. Once the best team in the world, TI 7 winners were crushed in Division I. Their match against Liquid was the sixth loss in a row.
After picking Storm and Necro in the first game of the match, some people expected NGX to win because they had Tiny and Pangolier. Nigma had a good laning stage and even had a small lead at one point. However, Maroun “GH” Merhej and the rest of his team made many mistakes. This gave Storm Spirit a lot of power and allowed the hero to snowball.
Nigma was just one game away from elimination, so they decided to go “all-in” by picking Medusa and DK and focusing on the late game. Team Liquid was up for the challenge, but they’ve decided to trust Necro and Terrorblade.
While it is true that this game was more intense than the previous one, Michael “miCKe” Vu and the rest had the lead from the beginning. The team did not allow Medusa to get too big and always helped their TB have an advantage. It seems like this tactic worked because the team delivered their knock-out punch.
After losing this important series, Nigma Galaxy becomes the first team in WEU that will have to go to Division II for Tour 3.
Brame vs OG
Brame is one of the teams that are new to Division I. However, it is performing much better than expected and even won two matches. With that being said, the team had to face the leaders in Division I. As expected, Artem “Yuragi” Golubiev and everyone else was highly motivated because they were one win away from the Major.
What’s interesting about this series is that both teams used similar heroes in each game. Brame relied on CK, DK, and IO in both of them, whereas OG used bzm’s deadly Storm Spirit.
The first game was almost 50 minutes long and it was close because Brame’s roster was getting stronger and stronger as the game went on. Fortunately, OG won a very important fight and gave their Storm the Aegis. This allowed the hero to rip through his opponent.
After losing game one, Brame changed some of their heroes for the second one. Unfortunately, they’ve forgotten about Timbersaw, an incredibly strong hero against most STR characters in the game. After just 21 minutes of play, OG had an enormous lead. That’s why their opponents decided to use the GG call.
Team Secret vs Nigma Galaxy
The last match was a clash between some of the best Dota 2 players in Europe. Unfortunately, Nigma Galaxy lost all of their matches before that, so this series didn’t matter.
Despite their strong early game, Team Secret was unable to survive in game one and gave Nigma the lead in the series. TI 7 champions used an interesting draft around Dark Seer that allowed their Phantom Assassin to deal a lot more damage than usual. Despite focusing on the mid-game, Secret was unable to defeat their opponents and had to do better in game two.
After winning in the first game, Nigma failed to do the same in game two. Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi and the rest played pretty well, but they were always behind their opponents. In the end, Team Secret’s CK and Troll Warlord became too strong, even for the deadly Slardar and Juggernaut setup. Hence, we had the chance to watch game three.
Although Secret’s draft looked good in the third game of this epic series, Nigma didn’t give them any chances. Miracle and the rest secured more than a 5k net worth advantage just 15 minutes after the start of the game. This gave their Naga a massive lead that Secret was unable to deal with.
After 27 minutes of play and a substantial lead, Nigma Galaxy has played one of their best games in Tour 2. Sadly, they’ve already received a spot for Division II for Tour 3, so this victory won’t help them in any way.
Division II
Chicken Fighters vs CHILLAX
The battle in Division II kicked off with a match between CF and CHILLAX. Both teams have equal chances of getting one of Division I’s two slots. Therefore, the outcome of this event was important.
As expected, we witnessed a three-game deathmatch. Each of them was more than 40 minutes long, which explains why there were loads of epic fights. The last match was the most interesting one because CF had a solid start. Most people thought that the team would win, but Kunkka and Mars raised CHILLAX from the Ashes.
Goonsquad vs Into The Breach
We didn’t expect this series to be as interesting as it was, but Goonsquad’s success allowed the team to secure the first spot for Division I. Gustav “s4” Magnusson and his Swedish teammates haven’t lost a single match yet, which probably doesn’t come as a surprise. However, this match was not easy because ITB didn’t go down without a fight.
Game one didn’t start well for GS, but they’ve managed to bounce back. Despite playing against AA, CK and IO, several good Chronospheres + Macropyre were enough to secure several kills.
After winning the first game, the second one was epic and it lasted almost one hour. To be fair, Into The Breach would’ve won it if they didn’t have to play against Medusa. The deadly carry became too big to kill, even for the Void and Magnus combo.
This was a sixth consecutive victory for TI champion s4 and everyone else from his team.
