The Shanghai Major, the second of this year’s four Valve-sponsored events with multi-million dollar prize pools, is off to one hell of a start. Invited and qualified teams from all over the world began competing for a total prize pool of $3,000,000.00 last Thursday in Group Stage matches to determine their seeds for the main event tournament that is running from Wednesday morning through Sunday afternoon (Shanghai time, that is, which translates to Tuesday night through Sunday early AM for our Western audience).
The group stage followed the GSL-style, double-elimination format, which split the 16 teams into groups A, B, C, and D. The four teams in each group then competed among themselves for the two slots available to their group for placement into the upper bracket of the main tournament. This means that for each group, Team 1 plays Teams 2 in GSL Match #1 while Team 3 plays Team 4 in GSL Match #2. The winning teams from GSL Matches #1 and #2 then face off for Qualification Match #1, with the winning team securing the first upper bracket seed available to that group. Meanwhile, the losing teams from the original GSL Matches #1 and #22 battle head to head in a Losers Match that keeps one team’s hopes alive, while resigning the losing team to the lower bracket of the main event. However, the winning team of the Losers Match gets to advance to Qualification Match #2, where they will fight with the losing team from Qualification Match #1 for the final, coveted upper-bracket seed. After all is said and done, each Group is left with two teams that are seeded into the upper bracket matches and two teams that must try to make their way through the lower bracket, where a single-elimination format means that one loss sends your team home.
So, how did each group do?
Group A – EHOME, MVP Phoenix, Team Secret, CDEC Gaming
Thursday, February 25
GSL Match #1 – EHOME vs. MVP Phoenix
The tournament started out with long-standing Chinese powerhouse EHOME playing Korean underdogs MVP Phoenix. EHOME entered the Shanghai Major after an impressive performance at MarsTV Dota League (MDL) Winter 2015, a top-tier Chinese tournament that many people saw as a preview to the Shanghai Major. At MDL, EHOME won games in the Playoff series against defending TI champs EG (2-1), Vici Gaming (2-0), defending Frankfurt Major champs OG (2-1), and then once more bested EG in a 3-0 Grand Finals sweep. After this dominant performance EHOME was at the top of everybody’s list to walk away with 1st place and $1.1 million at the Shanghai Major.
In contrast, MVP Phoenix, a consolidation of the MVP.Hot6ix and MVP.Phoenix teams that played at TI5, had not played in many tournaments outside of the traditionally weak South East Asia region, and was not even able to make it into the playoff matches of the World Cyber Arena. A lack of any significant results heading into the tournament, along with a long-standing perception that Korean DOTA has never truly developed due to the strength of League of Legends in that region, seemed to indicate that MVP had drawn a short straw in being matched up against one of the primary favorites of the tournament in their very first match. It looked to many that this might be one of the shortest matches in the tournament.
Well that ended up being correct, but not at all for the reasons people expected. MVP Phoenix came straight out of the gate looking to draw blood from the Chinese Goliath, grabbing a beautiful First Blood at the 0:00 top rune fight, with MVP.MP’s Outworld Devourer setting up an Astral Imprisonment into a near frame-perfect Sacred Arrow from MVP.Febby on Mirana. This one-two combo would plague EHOME for the rest of the match, and was one of the main indications that MVP had shown up to play for real. At the end of the series, MVP Phoenix walked away with a shocking 2-0 upset, leaving spectators shell-shocked, having just witnessed one of the least-favored teams in the tournament sweep a long-standing Chinese powerhouse that looked to be on the upswing after besting every top team in the previous tournament.
Winner: MVP Phoenix, 2-0
GSL Match #2 – Team Secret vs. CDEC Gaming
Team Secret has gone through several iterations now, spanning its original line-up, the All-Star Secret 2.0 that so notoriously underperformed at TI5 and the now the current version, which has enjoyed some success since ex-Cloud 9 teammates EternalEnvy, Misery and pieliedie and then-unproven pubstar w33 (aka w33ha) joined the revered Puppey, the lone hold-over from the Secret of the past. Despite Secret’s success in the post-TI5 shuffle (they came away with First at MLG and Nanyang, and Second at the Frankfurt Major), they have been a bit unstable since the last major, finishing a very disappointing 9-12th at WCA and 7-8th at MDL. Given these inconsistent results, fans were anxious to see which version of Team Secret would show up to Shanghai.
When Secret was the heavy favorite for TI5, CDEC was simply one of the Chinese qualifying teams and mostly unknown or at least unproven. The team was relatively new, but was composed of some of the highest ranked veteran Chinese players. They went on to take TI5 by storm, making it all the way from the lower bracket to a Grand Finals Best of 5 against Evil Geniuses. However, since then the general consensus has been that CDEC has struggled to adapt to the subsequent 6.85 and 6.86 balance patches, and are still stuck in the 6.84 meta of TI5. However, the raw talent that was on display at TI was still there and if CDEC managed to update their playstyle, they could once again be a serious contender.
CDEC did set off with a good early draft in game 1, forcing a last pick Bristleback for Secret.EternalEnvy, a hero that does not quite mesh with his aggressive play style. CDEC was able to pull ahead 1-0 as a result, and once again it looked like Secret might not be up to playing in the dominant fashion that defined them in between TI and the Frankfurt Major. However, Secret.Puppey isn’t known as one of the most formidable drafters in the scene for nothing, and recognizing the problems from the first match, Secret was able to come back strong for the rest of the series. Teamfight control would be a focus for Team Secret for the remainder of the series, as they successfully snatched up the fearsome Enigma-Tidehunter combination with a complementary utility-focused Invoker pick in both games two and three. Team Secret would manage to take both of those games, assuaging Secret fans’ fears that this would once again be a tournament in which their team underperformed.
WINNER: Team Secret, 2-1
Losers Match – EHOME vs. CDEC
Having lost their initial series in Shanghai despite a home field advantage that has historically benefited Chinese teams playing in tournaments located in China, EHOME and CDEC faced off in the first Losers Match to determine which team would be resigned to playing from the lower bracket and which team would have an opportunity to play in the second Qualification Match for the upper bracket. After the first two matches of the Best of 3, EHOME and CDEC were tied 1-1, with everything coming down to the final game of the series. EHOME demonstrated some strong drafting throughout the tournament that ended up delivering them the crucial third game. Although the match went back and forth (with fans complaining of throws on both sides), EHOME’s fearsome late-game teamfight combination (notably, Faceless Void’s Chronosphere plus Warlock’s Golems plus Phoenix’s Supernova) ended up delivering them the 2-1 win and kept their hope of seeding into the upper bracket alive.
WINNER: EHOME, 2-1
Qualification Match #1 – MVP Phoenix vs. Team Secret
Having secured their spot in Qualification Match #1 with their 2-0 victory over EHOME, MVP Phoenix was set to match up against Secret, fresh off of their 2-1 victory against CDEC. With both teams having a significant amount to prove, this series that would determine the first upper bracket seed was a high stakes match for both teams, even with the loser having Qualification Match #2 to fall back on. Team Secret was looking to show that they were back on form and belonged among the elite teams of the tournament and MVP Phoenix set out to prove that their 2-0 sweep of EHOME was not limited to subpar play from their opponents or an unpredictable, but momentary fluke. And prove that they did, with a highly aggressive draft that saw the first Earth Spirit pick-up of the tournament and a one-sided stomp from MVP that forced Secret to GG out at only 18 minutes into the first game. They continued to apply tremendous pressure to Secret in the second game, with an unorthodox Leshrac pick that brought back 6.84 PTSD for some and MVP.Febby on Bounty Hunter grabbing multiple courier kills early on. After all was said and done, MVP had proven that Korean Dota is a force to be reckoned with, taking Secret 2-0 in a series that lasted for only 46 minutes in total. Undefeated in the Group Stage, MVP walks triumphantly into the first upper bracket slot of the Shanghai Major.
WINNER: MVP Phoenix, 2-0
Qualification Match #2 – Team Secret vs. EHOME
After an upset-filled series in Group A, we were finally down to the last match between Team Secret and EHOME. This match-up, which many thought would most likely take place in the Qualification Match #1 instead of #2, saw the two former group favorites battling it out for the last remaining Group A upper bracket seed. Game 1 had much to be excited about with Secret.Puppey securing a Chen pick that he has become famous for and EHOME securing 4/5 of the lineup that CDEC used to take Game 1 from Secret in the GSL Match #2. Secret managed to take the first game after 40 minutes using a heavy split push strategy that constantly forced EHOME’s lineup to break apart in an attempt to cover the entire map. The drafts for Game 2 saw Secret pull an about face, going for a formidable teamfight lineup that once again featured the Tidehunter-Enigma wombo-combo they used to secure their 2 wins against CDEC. EHOME, forced to GG at 34 minutes, was defeated in yet another 2-0 sweep and now must try to claw their way back up through single elimination matches in the lower bracket. Team Secret join MVP Phoenix as the second upper bracket qualifier for Group A.
WINNER: Team Secret, 2-0
