Heartbreaks and Heart-shaped eyes!! As we head into the final few matches at TI11 Singapore, those are the two emotions, fans will see the most. Heartbreak for teams that are eliminated from the event and love for the teams that survive for another day. The TI11 playoffs is taking place at two venues – The Suntec City and The Singapore Indoor Stadium. But on the last day of the Suntec City were all elimination matches. One of those matches saw two Chinese teams face each other – PSG.LGD vs Team Aster.
One of the most consistent orgs in Dota 2 esports, LGD, surprisingly, has never won a TI. They have come close, very close indeed, on multiple occasions. But the win has eluded them so far. And this year, they had an early fall to the lower bracket after losing versus Team Secret in their opening playoffs series.
Xiao8 had a plan and it was a surprise for their local counterparts. PSG.LGD went with a Riki position 1 pick, a pick that surprised everyone at the venue. Rikimaru is not a hero that is common in Dota 2 esports and more recently, he has often been picked as a support (or an initiator with his Aghanim’s Shard).
PSG.LGD had a strong laning phase with Disruptor clearly controlling the pace of the game in the early-mid games. With Primal Beast on one side and a Disruptor as the support, it was really difficult for Team Aster to possibly get anything going for themselves.
PSG.LGD marched ahead, even diving behind the enemy Tier 2 towers to get kills. Team Aster’s Drow Ranger was often found running for her life as Ember, Riki and Disruptor always had excellent positioning.
But once Team Aster got a few kills, they started clawing back into the game. Even though technically Riki is a hero that can scale really well into the late game, the hero often is impacted by several other factors and often falls behind in the late game.
By the 35 minute mark, the game had completely turned on its head. Team Aster’s Lina and later Drow Ranger were simply dealing too much damage to the PSG.LGD heroes. Riki went for a Skadi to attempt to get some stats, but it wasn’t enough for LGD in this TI11 elimination match.
TI11 is taking place in Singapore featuring the best Dota 2 teams from all over the world. The TI11 playoffs will crown one team as the undisputed champion of Dota 2 esports – but it could still be anyone’s game. Dota 2 fans can catch up with the TI11 livescore here.
