The first day of the main event of the Dota 2 Championships: The International 2016 is already behind us and there have been plenty of upsets. Team OG has already fallen from the upper bracket after losing their best-of-three to the rabid MVP Phoenix squad. Vici Gaming Reborn fell victim to the Cinderella story Filipino squad, TnC Gaming, in a knockout best-of-one and Na’Vi was knocked out of The International 6 by Team Liquid in another lower bracket best-of-one. However, the biggest shocker from The International 6 so far has to be Team Secret’s early exit. Even with an all-star lineup and a history of success, Team Secret managed to tie for last place in The International 6.
However, the biggest shocker from The International 6 so far has to be Team Secret’s early exit. Even with an all-star lineup and a history of success, Team Secret managed to tie for last place. Here’s what Team Secret member Artour “Arteezy” Babaev had to say about the loss.
Good luck to my friends in the tournament still. nothing really to say except I'm sad
— Artour Babaev (@Arteezy) August 9, 2016
This is the second year in a row that Team Secret has left their fans disappointed and fallen short of their perceived ability. Last year’s squad was touted as the tournament favorite heading into TI5, but fizzled out and finished tied for 7th/8th place.
Secret managed to pull out a convincing 2-0 win against Team Liquid in their final group stage match to regain some face. However, the damage of an eight-game losing streak solidified their position in the lower bracket against another underperforming powerhouse, LGD Gaming.
The match against LGD in the lower bracket started with an interesting draft that was purposely crafted around the late-game. Secret went with Alchemist and Terrorblade as their core heroes and LGD went for Ember Spirit and Juggernaut. Here is the full match:
The laning stage went poorly for Team Secret for the most part, they were mainly focused on farming lanes while LGD made an effort to move around the map and take objectives and kills. At the 27-minute mark of the game, LGD was leading Secret in kills by a sizable margin, 15-3, but Babaev’s Alchemist was leading the net worth race by a staggering 6k and Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao’s Terrorblade was on par with the LGD cores.
As the game progressed, LGD continued with their aggressive presence by shrinking Secret’s vision by taking objectives and claiming the aegis multiple times, slowly chipping away at their defenses for an additional 30 minutes in a back and forth affair with buybacks becoming the main focus of the game.
After killing EternaLEnVy in the bottom lane, LGD looked to push the advantage. During the siege, EternaLEnVy made a crucial positioning mistake after buying back into the game and dying. The 4v5 advantage of LGD proved to be too much, and Team Secret finally threw in the towel at 69 minutes — dashing their hopes of continuing in the tournament.
However, LGD proved that they were up to the task and looked sharp in all phases of their game. They’ll be playing against Digital Chaos in a lower bracket best-of-three match tonight. We’ll see if they can be the dark horse of the tournament and make it all the way to the grand finals.
Stay tuned all week for more match highlights from The International.