The China region of the tournament began last Tuesday and after three days of competitive DOTA the group stage games came to a close yesterday. The playoff spots for the upper bracket have already been filled with the top two teams from groups A and B. For the first round of the upper bracket playoffs, it will be PSG.LGD going up against Invictus Gaming (iG) and CDEC Gaming versus Royal Never Give Up (RNG).
Both PSG.LGD and CDEC come into the playoff with an undefeated team standing from the group stage with a 3-0 win-loss record making them the teams to watch and are expected to go toe-to-toe in the grand finals. Interested to see how these two teams performed in the group stage?
Let’s revisit the games where these 4 teams went up against each other in their respective groups.
RNG vs PSG.LGD (Group A)
RNG found early kills in game 1 with the outplays from Setsu’s Lina punishing Chalice’s Monkey King and SoMnus’ SF for over extending. RNG never let their foot off the pedal as Lina proved to be way too bursty going on a Godlike streak at the 22-minute mark carrying RNG to victory with 17 kills and one death.
In game 2 we saw a weird team composition from RNG, who went with a Tidehunter to go up against a Medusa in the midlane. True enough, Somnus’ Medusa dominated Tide and helped PSG.LGD take a win.
With the series tied, Setsu and the rest of RNG went back with the hero that got them the win in the first game, Lina, and asserted his dominance once again in the early game going on an unstoppable streak in just 8 minutes. Chalice’s Ursa had other plans though as PSG.LGD clawed their way back into the game by winning team fight after team fight. PSG.LGD outlasted RNG and took game 3 to secure first place for group A.
CDEC vs iG (Group B)
CDEC Ame’s Troll warlord fought everyone, including flyfly’s ursa in game 1. Srf’s tankiness and playmaking ability on his Mars gave his CDEC the edge during teamfights. In the end, the right clicks from Ame were just too much for Invictus Gaming to handle.
In game 2 Xm dominated the game and ended up with a (12/2/9) KDA. Ame’s PL just focused on farming until he got to the point wherein he was way ahead of everybody in terms of net worth and just became unkillable ending the game with 22K net worth and a (7/1/8) standing. James was also spectacular for both games as Rubick and Earthshaker. Both his spell steals and echo slams were on point which game iG a really hard time during team fights.
Predictions
The PSG.LGD (1.33) vs Invictus Gaming (3.19) match-up already had a preview from the previous ESL ONE held in Los Angeles, which went the way of iG. However, I am leaning towards the number one ranked team in China, PSG.LGD, based on their performance. In their most recent encounter in DPL-CDA Professional League last May 14, PSG.LGD had their way and swept iG 2-0. I find SoMnus way too good of a midlaner and space creator for Chalice to farm his items faster than the enemy team’s carry and dominate the late game with his right clicks.
CDEC Gaming (1.8) are only slight underdogs in this playoff matchup against RNG (1.79). These two teams play with a slightly similar style as both midlaners Xm and Setsu are the ones taking control of the early to mid-game while their hard carries Ame and Monet find their own space to farm. I believe that this match will be decided by as to which midlaner can rotate better and find the early picks. I am taking the underdogs CDEC here as I find James’ and Srf’s playmaking ability to be the x-factor in this match-up, especially with heroes such as Rubick, Earthshaker, and Mars who bring so much impact to team fights.
The playoffs are just around the corner, are there any teams that you think may pull-off a shocker and upset the favored teams? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
