Hopes Crushed, Four Teams Say Goodbye - Bali Major Day 2

The second day of the Bali Major Playoffs was full of chaos and surprises. PSG.LGD came out of the TI Final rematch against Team Spirit, the last South American hope knocked Shopify Rebellion out of the tournament, BetBoom’s hopes were shattered by Azure Ray, and 9 Pandas are the last CIS team in the Major. Here’s a detailed recap of what happened!

PSG.LGD vs. Team Spirit

PSG.LGD, a powerful competitor, was knocked down to the Lower Bracket by Team Liquid. The Chinese team looked to maintain their chances in the Bali Major against Team Spirit.

Team Spirit drafted very well around Yatoro’s Bloodseeker in the first map of the series, while PSG.LGD went for a Marci Carry pick in the hands of shiro. Though the game was very close in the first 20 minutes, Team Spirit eventually ran away with a free game for Yatoro. The Ukrainian Carry ended the game 16/1/10, an excellent performance.

PSG.LGD isn’t known for their Huskar, but the Chinese team picked him in the second phase to shut down Larl’s early Ember Spirit pick. Overall, PSG.LGD played a clean, as the team could make enough space for shiro’s Naga Siren to have an enormous amount of net worth to equalize the score.

In the final game of this do-or-die match, the new addition to PSG.LGD, niu, had a stellar performance on his TImbersaw, who dealt with Yatoro’s Naga Siren pick very well. Unfortunately, the road ends here for Team Spirit, as PSG.LGD wins the series and secures their spot at The International.

Shopify Rebellion vs. Beastcoast

Unfortunately, the last two teams to carry the torch for the Americas region had to eliminate each other in the Lower Bracket. Beastcoast was the stronger team this time, sending Arteezy and his team home early.

Game 1 of the series felt like it should have been Shopify Rebellion’s win, as the North American squad won the laning stage and had a 6,000 net worth lead at 18 minutes. However, Beastcoast could still turn the game around and snowball their way to a 36-minute win.

We’ve had many entertaining Dota games throughout the Major, and Game 2 must be placed on that list. Shopify Rebellion won the laning stage again, but a few misplays allowed Beastcoast to get back into the game. The rest of the game was extremely back-and-forth, with many exciting team fights and buybacks. Beastcoast was up 12,000 gold in the 44th minute, but the entire game came down to one final team fight at the Radiant triangle, where Abed could clean up the fight and win the game for Shopify Rebellion.

In the final game, Shopify was clearly the better laning team, building up a 5,000 net worth lead at minute 11. The game seemed very hopeless for Beastcoast, but once again, Shopify Rebellion threw their early lead. Parker and DarkMago were able to snowball their way to a series victory and an invite to The International.

BetBoom Team vs. Azure Ray

BetBoom versus Azure Ray wasn’t a matchup we expected to see today, as the Eastern European roster was supposed to be in the Upper Bracket. However, after receiving a technical loss against Tundra Esports, BetBoom had to play Azure Ray for their tournament, and TI lives with Resolut1on as a stand-in.

Somnus surprised BetBoom with a niche Outworld Devourer pick, a hero we haven’t seen in the meta for a long time. The game remained relatively close until Azure Ray blew the game open at the 27th minute. Lou’s Naga Siren remained untouched throughout the entire game and helped the Chinese team secure Game 1.

Despite having a stand-in, BetBoom could still punch back in Game 2, where they absolutely demolished Azure Ray throughout the game. The map ended with a kill score of 40-5 in favor of the Eastern European team and ended at 33 minutes.

Like every other series on Day 2, they all went to three games. In the decider game, BetBoom was able to come back off of a poor laning stage to build up an 8,000 gold lead at 26 minutes. Azure Ray brought the game back to even but then lost hold and was down 18,000 gold in the 43rd minute. It looked like BetBoom would advance in the tournament, but a horrendous fight for BetBoom allowed Azure Ray to propel themselves back to the lead and pull off a massive comeback. 

This loss meant BetBoom was eliminated from the Bali Major and could no longer make it to The International through a direct invitation. A tragic end to their run after receiving a technical loss.

9 Pandas vs. Team Aster

The final series is the third China versus EEU matchup this day. This series is way more important to Team Aster as they have yet to secure their TI invite, while 9 Pandas already have. 

The first map was a very close affair, being extremely back-and-forth throughout the game. It looked like 9 Pandas were finally in control of the game in the 26th minute, but Team Aster showed resilience and bounced back, winning the game at 42 minutes.

Team Aster looked good at the laning stage in the second game, killing off RAMZES666’s Alchemist multiple times. However, kiyotaka’s Storm Spirit was having a good game and bought his Carry enough time to recover. Team Aster couldn’t punish the greed from 9 Pandas, and the net worth lead kept growing and growing for the CIS squad. Eventually, MieRo’s Enigma could land Black Holes on multiple core heroes to help 9 Pandas win the second game.

9 Pandas finished the reverse sweep in the third game after winning the laning stage convincingly. Team Aster didn’t have enough damage to kill off the core heroes on the 9 Pandas side and had to tap out of the match and tournament at the 43rd minute. The Chinese team will have to go through the regional qualifiers against Xtreme Gaming and Invictus Gaming.