Day 4 (Final Day):

The fourth and final day of the Dota 2 Asia Championships is now over, bringing us the moment we all have been waiting for the past few weeks, the Grand Finale for the Dota 2 Major. After witnessing one of the greatest finals in the history of Dota 2, a champion was crowned, the team that seemed pretty adamant on winning the tournament since the beginning.

LGD vs Virtus.Pro

After losing to Mineski in the Upper Bracket final, LGD was set to compete for one final time against the only non-Asian team, Virtus.Pro who have had quite a run in the tournament’s Lower Bracket. The final fight between the two Dota 2 giants was expected to be one of the best one we have seen so far and that is exactly what happened.

The first game kicked off with Virtus.Pro taking the lead. This was quite expected as VP were the stronger side of the two. However, everything started to change from the next game onwards as in Game 2, it was LGD who came out on top, bringing the tournament’s semi-final to a tie. With Game 3 kicking off, all eyes were on LGD as it was on their shoulders to knock out the only non-Asian team remaining. That being said, the Chinese team handled the pressure brilliantly. After a remarkable final game which lasted close to an hour, it was VP who called GG, granting LGD the final win and a place in the DAC 2018 Grand Finale.

The Grand Final: LGD vs Mineski

It was time for the moment everyone had been waiting for since the last few days as it was time for the DAC 2018 Grand Finale. And with LGD and Mineski both having incredible runs so far, the match-up between the two was expected to be a cracking affair. Furthermore, with a best-of-five format set for the final, everyone was excited to see what the teams had in store for their fans.

Mineski was the stronger side as it was them who previously sent LGD to the Lower Bracket. Surprisingly, Game 1 went in the favor of LGD Gaming. Game 2 on the other hand, was very different as Mineski proved it to LGD that they still had a lot left in them.

In Game 2, Mineski completely annihilated LGD Gaming with a score of 29-6. This meant that with one win each, both teams still were in the fight. In Game 3, LGD made a comeback and after a difficult match-up, LGD gaming came out as the victors. It was do-or-die for Mineski as LGD Gaming was just a win away from winning the DAC 2018. Mineski had to fight back.

At the start of the fourth game, it was Mineski who seemed to be more focused on winning. With a final score of 30 for Mineski and 13 for LGD, Mineski tied the Best-of-five match-up, forcing both teams to compete for the final time in Game 5.With two wins each, it was anyone’s game. The winner of this final round would be crowned the Champions of DAC 2018.

The final game kicked off with both teams fully motivated to take home the coveted trophy. Plus, with this being the final game, both teams were playing to their strengths. The two finalists were playing with all of their heart, making only planned, strategic movements. However, it was quite obvious who wanted the win more. And after a final fight which went in the favor of Mineski, LGD was forced to call GG, giving Mineski the final win and hence, the title of the DAC 2018 Champions.

Day 3:

The third day at the Dota 2 Asia Championships started with 6 teams. By the end of it, only 3 remained as the rest were defeated by their counterparts in the process.

LGD vs Mineski

The upper bracket final matchup was between LGD and Mineski both of which came into the match undefeated. Mineski had been playing out of their minds and LGD on the back of their experience were outshining every other team.

But the showdown between the two teams was quite unexpected as perceived. The first game of the series seemed like a walk in the park for Mineski who dismantled the Chinese squad in under 30 minutes. Coming into the second game, their morale was an all-time low and Mineski had all the confidence in the world. However, LGD with their superior draft and their backs against the wall did all in their power to take down the SEA powerhouse.

The game went back and forth for the first 50 minutes of the game with LGD having a huge lead. However, Mineski played it cool and tried to farm their cores and looked for opportunities. And that is what they got around 57 minutes and allowed them to completely turn the fight. From there on, Mineski started to snowball and in a matter of 10 more minutes they pushed high ground and took the game while securing their Grand Final place at Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018.

Virtus.pro Vs Vici Gaming

The first match of the day was a best-of-one match between Virtus.pro and VG. The two strongest teams at the event had to face off in one game survivor with the losing team exiting from the event. Virtus.pro had advanced in the lower bracket after a win against EG in the previous round. On the other hand, there was VG who dropped to the lower bracket after a 2-1 defeat against Mineski. At the end of the game, it was Virtus.pro who got the better of the Chinese powerhouse and defeated them with a 25-19 score.

Liquid Vs TnC

The second best-of-one lower bracket match was between TnC and Liquid. TnC has been one of the most surprising teams at the event and Team Liquid was performing as expected. Being a best-of-one, TnC caught their opponents off guard a drafted a bit different than expected. Team Liquid didn’t get a chance to come back and after a huge deficit, Liquid eventually tapped out with a 16-34 scoreline.

Virtus.pro Vs TnC

Dismantling Liquid in the previous round, TnC’s next opponent was Virtus.pro. And while the latter seemed like the obvious winner, the match was completely not as expected. Right from the start, Virtus.pro was heavily bullied by TnC. The team’s comfort picks didn’t do much and the fire power of TnC was just too much to handle. The game didn’t go long as expected and with their core Gyrocopter down near 40 minutes, Virtus.pro called it game.

The second game was when Virtus.pro seemed awake. Their picks and laning strategies allowed them to quickly take control of the game. Heavy plays from their support Tusk created more problems for TnC to come back. After a heavy beating and the scorecard doubling up in kills favoring VP, TnC saw it coming and tapped out to take it to the final game.

The final game of the series was when both teams went back to the drawing board and went for their comfort picks. Right from the start TnC started to go aggressive on their lanes trying to limit the farm on VP cores. And they were successful in doing so most of the time. Good plays from VP’s tusk once again allowed VP to save their cores when it really counted.

The game then went pretty slow for both teams with TnC having a slight advantage. VP in turn got the game to their side by taking out two heroes and capitalising it with a Roshan kill. The next big fight again came near the Roshan pit where VP once again on the back of spectacular plays from Tusk were able to take down 3 heroes of TnC. Immediately afterwards VP went for the high ground push and took down two lanes of racks.

Retreating backward VP got the Roshan as well as it was looking nothing but bleak for TnC in a matter of 2 minutes. One more high ground push and it was nothing to hold on to and TnC tapped out saying goodbye to their run at DAC 2018.

With this match, VP has moved on to the lower bracket final where they will meet LGD with the winner taking on Mineski in the Grand Finals of DAC 2018.

Day 2:

The second day of Playoffs is over at DAC 2018 and some of the teams expected to reach the podium have already been sent home packing.

Going into the playoffs, we saw the NA powerhouse Optic Gaming and EG taking on Mineski and LGD. Meanwhile, there was the toughest matchup of Virtus.pro and Team Liquid whereas TnC had the tough opponent in the form of Vici Gaming.

At the end of Day 1, we saw a surprising result as EG, VP, Optic and TnC found themselves in the lower bracket. This meant that all four teams were on the brink of being out of the event and only 1 game was the deciding factor for their stay.

This has been something that was addressed by a few teams as the constant change of formats might catch a few good teams off guard. Team Secret was among the teams that were already out and more were to follow.

The match between EG and VP went as expected and despite EG’s hard-fought battles and countless tries, the team was not able to take out the EU squad. Similar was the case in the match between Optic and TnC. TnC never had a tough time taking out the aggression from Optic and PPD’s draft magic wasn’t enough to counter TnC.

With this, both NA teams end their run at DAC 2018 while TnC and Virtus Pro advance to the second round of the lower bracket.

In the upper bracket, the winning teams from Day one LGD, Liquid, Mineski, and VG went toe to toe to move to the round 3. Surprisingly, Liquid was not playing quite as expected and fell short of LGD’s heavy aggression. Although the match took 3 games to decide, the last one seemed like a walk in the park for LGD who literally shattered Liquid’s hopes of winning and ended the game with a 33-8 scoreline taking it in only under 30 minutes.

The last game of the day was a match between Mineski and Vici Gaming and was considered to be one of the most evenly balanced game. The first game of the series was a quite run from both teams as they prefer farm over fights. Once they had the necessary items, team fights started to break on every corner of the map. Mineski seemed to have the upper hand every time based on their huge firepower and wombo combos. Vici Gaming showed chances of hope but it wasn’t enough and eventually tapped out to take the revenge in game 2.

The second game of the series saw an unorthodox Void pick from Vici Gaming caught Mineski off guard. Although the SEA team had two hard hitting cores, they didn’t have an answer to the chronos and heavy tankiness of VG’s underlord. Despite Mineski taking the lead majority of the time, the team couldn’t go high ground and shatter Vici’s defenses. VG on the back of some really good Chronos timed up with their combo allowed them to take out Mineski with ease. Even a Divine buy on Mineski’s side wasn’t enough to deal the required damage and Vici Gaming eventually forced the match to a game 3.

The third game saw some really good picks from both sides. VG relied on their Terrorblade and Shadow Fiend while their was Mushi on his signature OD. Right from the start Mineski had the kill advantage while VG was trying to get their cores beefed up. The game went late and even with a lead Mineski did not feel confident in going up high ground. A good fight at Roshan tried to go high ground. Good timings from their offlane Tide hunter allowed them to line up 4 four stuns and ultimately led them for the barracks. Knowing the inevitable, VG eventually tapped out and have headed towards the lower bracket where they will face Virtus.pro.

With this eight teams move forward at the Dota 2 Asia Championships, equally divided into the upper and lower bracket. Two more teams would be making their way home tomorrow while the winners will live to tell the tale. And as we speak, the schedule for Dota 2 1v1 matchup is also underway with eight mid players starting off in the quarter finals. So stay tuned as we bring you more from the event and which players move on to the semi finals for the prestigious 1v1 championship.