Two home-crowd favorites took the stage in Boston, an underdog faced its greatest challenge yet and sister squads prepared to eliminate one another on Day 2 of the thrilling Dota 2 Boston Major.
Digital Chaos, who placed second at The International 6 in August, has struggled in recent months. You wouldn't be able to tell that in the team's opening match against Team Faceless though, where a Game 1 Luna pick for Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok helped the team take fast control of the match, participating in 12 of the team's 13 kills and securing a game one lead. Game 2 was closer to start, with Faceless finding key kills on DC offlaner David "MoonMeander" Tan, but Fominok once again played out of his mind, pushing the team forward to a 2-0 win and a secured spot in the top 8 at Boston.
EHOME and Team NP have greater history over the past couple months than most international teams; Team NP had eliminated the Chinese squad from both The Summit 6 and the Northern Arena BEAT Invitational, so it followed that EHOME came out swinging for Game 1 of their first-round matchup.
An unstoppable Timbersaw from Wang "old chicken" Zhiyong put NP on the back foot, one match from elimination. Team NP came back in Game 2 though, settling into more comfortable picks with Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao's Mirana and Warlock for Theeban "Rose" Silva, taking the series to the first Game 3 of the main event. On match point, Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling was put on a signature Naga Siren pick, and while Ling farmed up a storm at 788 gold-per-minute, Mao went full anime on Mirana, tallying up a 13/0/10 match and eliminating EHOME once again, 2-1.
Ad Finem was a team identified as a possible dark horse for the tournament, but in the team's first round matchup against Newbee, an upset would be a tall order.
The Chinese squad drew blood first, exacting a confident win on the back of Song "Sccc" Chun's stellar mid play as Outworld Devourer. Though a Bounty Hunter draft in Game 1 didn't gain traction for Ad Finem, the team went back to the stealth assassin for Game 2, where Verros "Maybe Next Time" Apostolos redeemed himself with multiple courier snipes and plenty of Track kills, spiking Ad Finem's net worth and beefing up Omar "Madara" Dabachach's Morphling, who closed out the victorious Game 2 at 15/0/7. With game three and tournament livelihood on the line, Newbee looked again to Chun for carry power on Timbersaw. Ad Finem's Dimitris "ThuG" Plivouris turned to Alchemist, and with constant illusion pressure from a Shadow Demon support, the Greek squad squelched Newbee with raw net worth once again, securing the upset and a spot in the top 8 at their first-ever Valve major.
The last series of the day pit two sister squads against each other, LGD Gaming and LGD Forever Young. The last two Chinese teams in the tournament would soon whittle that number down to one.
Though LFY was a bottom seed from the group stage, the team took the first game thanks to Vici Gaming sub Yang "End" Pu and some incredible Burrowstrikes from Yao "Yao" Zhengzheng's Sand King. LGD Gaming sought to fight back in Game 2, but veteran captain Zhang "xiao8" Ning's support Batrider set the pace early, punishing poor positioning and making space for Yang and Yao to make plays on Lifestealer and Slardar, respectively.
Despite Wang "Ame" Chunyu's best attempts to split-push and stall out the game, LFY never let up and took Game 2 in 35 minutes, leaving LGD Forever Young the last Chinese team standing in the Boston Major.