The second day of The International 2017 group stage competition showed results not unlike the first. The teams on top stayed there, for the most part, and the teams struggling to break even continued to flounder. On the other hand, Group A showcased some of the most surprising upsets of the tournament thus far, while Group B had the highest caliber talent go head-to-head Friday in Seattle.
Group A
LGD Gaming lost its place atop the standings by the end of Day 2 thanks to an incredible upset by Invictus Gaming Vitality, which entered Day 2 in eighth place but came out fifth by day's end. The young Chinese team punched well above its weight class by stunning LGD 2-0 in a complete rout. Though LGD has been formidable thus far, Invictus Gaming Vitality outdrafted LGD in back-to-back games to secure the sweep. Invictus Gaming Vitality also secured a draw against Team Secret thanks to Xu "Sakata" Zichen's Storm Spirit earning 16 kills and dealing a staggering 57,900 damage to the enemy team.
Team Liquid managed to snatch first place in Group A from LGD by fighting the dominant Chinese squad to a draw in one of the last matches of the day. After an unconventional draft saddled Team Liquid with a Game 1 loss, the team managed to regroup and fall back on its standard Lycan strategy to even the series and finish Day 2 as king of Group A.
Group B
LGD.Forever Young started the day by fending off Virtus.pro in a drawn out, low-kill affair in Game 1 only to turn right around and sweep the Russian powerhouse team in a blisteringly quick 15-minute game. While this was taking place, OG caught a lucky break against Newbee as the two teams fought to a draw. In Game 1, Newbee's Song "Sccc" Chun put on a show with Morphling, racking up 19 kills and only suffering one death as Newbee choked out OG's map control to slowly win the game. During the drafting stage of Game 2, Newbee accidentally randomed a last pick Alchemist, having been a bit too careless with its drafting time. OG's lineup was perfectly equipped to deal with an Alchemist, so OG graciously took its newfound boon and earned the draw with a Game 2 victory.
In one of the final series of the day, Virtus.pro delivered a soul-crushing defeat to OG. In Game 1 of the series, VP countered OG's split push lineup by simply grouping together and barreling down a lane, often forcing OG's split pushers to retreat and join a fight in disarray or face losing too much for too little in return. In Game 2, VP dominated the lanes and managed to shut down OG's comeback attempt late in the game with relative ease. Over the course of the game, VP killed OGs' carry, Johan "N0tail" Sundstein, 20 times before OG finally threw in the towel.