The second Major of the 2019-2020 DPC is finally here! The Leipzig Major brings together 16 of the best teams in the world that will have to fight over the course of a week in Germany. Apart from the jaw-dropping $1,000,000 prize pool, they will compete for 15000 DPC points.
Having said that, the first two days of this event are entirely the Group Stage. Although many people don’t like having so many games over the course of two days, the organizers stuck to standard DPC format for the event.
Let’s take a look at what happened during those two frantic days of games and who prevailed.
Day 1 – Vici Gaming vs Team Secret
There were a couple of interesting series yesterday and today. But if you only have time to go back and watch just one, it has to be the matchup between between Team Secret and Vici Gaming. Both of these teams were considered to be among the biggest favorites for this Major. That’s why the clash between them was so important.
Even though Vici Gaming played better in the first two games, they ended up losing the series. Game one was a very close brawl as both teams were neck and neck the entire game. Even though Vici’s Drow and Vengeful combo should’ve prevailed, it was Secret’s cheesy Arc Warden that was able to come on top.
Unlike game one, the second was just a beatdown from the Chinese powerhouse. After securing themselves a solid start, they gave Secret absolutely no chances of recovery and quickly made their way to game three.
Despite the shaky performance, Team Secret has risen from the ashes and absolutely demolished their enemies. Despite the fact that Vici had some glimmers of hope, the Europeans were just way too strong. In the end, they took the series with a 2-1 score and delivered the first loss for Vici Gaming in a while.
Day 2
Fnatic vs Nigma, The Best Match at the Leipzig Major so far?
The first amazing series of Sunday was between the SEA powerhouse and the Bukovel Minor Champions. Nigma started very strong yesterday after securing themselves a hard victory against the other SEA force right now – TNC Predator.
Game one between these two was pretty one-sided as Fnatic played nearly flawlessly. They’ve decided to roll-out a classic Medusa draft which is very strong if it gets a solid early on. Despite the strong start, Fnatic couldn’t really find a way to push Nigma thanks to Miracle’s Phantom Lancer. He bought a Divine Rapier and defended the base for nearly 30 minutes.
In the end, Fnatic also got themselves a Rapier and went into a direct clash with Nigma. However, the damage from the EU team was just too much as they ripped through Fanatic’s lineup and securing themselves a lead in this series.
After Fnatic saw the power of Phantom Lancer, they’ve decided to pick it for themselves in game two. As a result, the SEA team got a very solid start and secured themselves a decent team. However, once Nigma’s Slark came to play, things completely changed.
Slowly but steadily, the Europeans gained full control of the game and eventually secured a second win in the Group Stage.
Losers’ Match – Vici Gaming vs Chaos Esports Club
After the unfortunate loss for the Chinese team, they had to fight for their survival at the event against Chaos Esports Club. Even though the NA team had a very solid performance prior to this tournament, things didn’t go as well for them here. Things went from bad to worse after their loss against beastcoast.
As expected, Vici Gaming had absolutely no trouble in this match. They’ve controlled both games since the very beginning and never gave their opponents any glimmer of hope. Even though Chaos Esports Club tried to bounce back a couple of times, Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun and his team-mates didn’t allow it.
Following the loss, Chaos Esports Club will be fighting for their survival in the Lower Bracket.
Decider Match – Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses
The last series that was definitely worth watching was between Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses. Both of these teams are considered to be among the best at this tournament, which made this series very interesting to watch. What’s more, this is the Decider match, which means the loser will go to the Lower Bracket.
Team Liquid had a very solid start in game one but it only lasted so long. After a very messy fight, Evil Genius completely turned things around and slowly suffocated their enemies. Although the Europeans tried to bounce back, their efforts were futile.
Despite the unfortunate loss, Liquid didn’t give up and absolutely demolished their enemies in the second game of the series. In fact, they needed just 22 minutes to deliver their knock-out punch and push the series into a final game three.
The last game of the series saw two different approaches from the teams. While EG had two very strong cores, Liquid emphasized more on a “4 protect 1” start around Faceless Void.
Even though Liquid was leading in terms of kills, they didn’t have any significant networth advantage. However, after winning a couple of very crucial team fights, they started to slowly gain a significant lead. Unfortunately for Liquid, after a couple of minutes of back and forth action, EG’s cores became very strong. As a result, they were able to tank the Chronosphere -> Ice Blast combo, which was the main damage source from the EU team.
After the victory in this series, EG secured themselves a spot for the Upper Bracket.
Conclusion
Be sure to watch this amazing event in just two days when we will see the first matches of the playoffs. Until then, follow DartFrog on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch for the latest Dota 2 news.
