Today we saw the biggest upset of the tournament with favourites OG being knocked out by SEA Open Qualifier winners TNC. Although that was the main story of the day, all other series were meaningful to the progression of the tournament.
Fun
For the most meaningful game of today, watch the OG vs TNC G2 (Match ID: 2560377671)
Meta
1. Shadow Demon
As today progressed, Shadow Demon fell down the priority list a bit. For the first series of the day, EHOME vs Alliance, SD Mirana was the opener for EHOME in both games. By the second series, EG vs Newbee, SD was third picked in both games. For the final series, SD was, in no particular order, a second pick, a first ban, a third ban and ignored.
2. Elder Titan
Congratulations to EHOME vs Alliance Game 1 (Match ID: 2559987699) for being the first game of the main event to completely ignore ET. Both teams picking around Alliance’s second pick Drow, the ET level dependency and strong lategame were probably factors which led to ET being ignored. Don’t expect this to happen very often in the rest of the event. In all other series today, ET was first phase picked or banned.
Standings
First off, I have to say that I have been completely wrong about TNC. I predicted they would be a threat only if they made it to the upper bracket, but they have placed in the top 8 already starting from the lower bracket. I also thought that OG would easily beat them, but we can all see that I was obviously wrong there.
Secondly, I wrote that LGD and DC should be evenly matched. Unfortunately, LGD could not show the same flashes of brilliance that they did yesterday and were handily dispatched.
On a final, more general note, MVP Pheonix is the only ‘establishment’ team to be performing excellently. The some of the best performers of TI so far have been EHOME (Wildcard qualifier), EG (Open Qualifier) and TNC (Open Qualifier). At this point in time, I have to say that it looks like EHOME could pull off another CDEC this year, although I think that they might win.
Doter Dotar 