This article is part of our Dota 2 Recap series.
The second day of the MarsTV Autumn league has concluded, and the brackets for the main event are now set. All things considered, the brackets look a lot like they would have if they tournament had been played with teams' previous rosters. The only major exception is Team Secret's position in the upper bracket.
After a rough loss to Newbee on Day 1, Team Secret bounced back in style. They took a very convincing 2-0 win over LGD Forever Young and kept that momentum going through a 2-1 win over MVP Phoenix. It looked like this new iteration of Secret was going to be another team written off due to teamwork issues, but any missteps against Newbee were ironed out prior to Thursday's games. They have a serious challenge ahead of them facing up against Evil Geniuses, but this will be a much closer game than it would have been two months ago.
LGD Forever Young had another rough day, losing their second series and finishing at the bottom of Group A. Despite having three of the longest playing veterans in the scene, Zhang "xiao8" Ning, Yao "Yao" Zhengzheng and Xie "Super" Junhao, this team looks uncomfortable and awkward.
MVP Phoenix wrapped up a difficult group stage with a loss to Secret, putting them directly into the lower brackets. While this new MVP Phoenix roster shows a flicker of life, and QO is still doing his thing, they have struggled to find the same cohesion that used to let them draft five melee heroes and still win.
The rest of the matches went as expected. OG were able to claim the second upper bracket spot for Group B with a convincing 2-0 win over iG.Vitality, even tossing in a Bloodseeker pick just to spice things up. Although the game was a bit of a stomp, with OG taking a 20,000+ gold lead by the end, the Bloodseeker pick was very strong against iG's Slark and Earth Spirit.
The final two teams in Group B, iG Vitality and Vici Gaming, round out the lower bracket. Vici has had an especially disheartening event so far. Despite playing well in both of their series, they lost 1-2 after winning Game 1 and now find themselves last in the group.
With the brackets set, the upcoming days will be the first true test for the new rosters. Newcomers to the professional scene like LGD Forever Young's Du "Monet" Peng and OG's Anatham "Ana" Pham looked out of their depth, and it will be up to the veteran players among them to ensure that calm heads prevail.
