This article is part of our Dota 2 Recap series.
The second day of the Summit has wrapped up, and as a result, the upper and lower brackets have been set.
The first series of the day was OG vs. Digital Chaos. Both of these teams have been operating somewhat under the radar since The International 6. OG has played more than Digital Chaos though, since they added three new players to the roster and needed to get some practice. Their results have been underwhelming as a whole. They failed to qualify for ESL One Genting in a close 3-2 series loss to Virtus Pro, although OG did take third place at the MarsTV Autumn League finals. Digital Chaos has played no official matches except for three series in the MoonduckTV Captain's Draft tournament, which has a limited bearing on actual competitive play. Their lack of official practice seriously showed, as OG were able to take a very solid 2-0 win. Digital Chaos looked like a team out of practice, still trying to figure out their drafts and gameplans. The Game 2 support Naga Siren and offlane Puck game was a clear example of this, where Digital Chaos tried to do too much with their picks. OG were focused on playing pretty standard (or at least as standard as it gets in this patch), and it paid off for them. Digital Chaos will head to the lower bracket to face Faceless in a best-of-three.
The second series of the day was perhaps the most hyped up matchup of the entire tournament. Evil Geniuses has looked extremely strong ever since they added Andreas "Cr1t" Nielsen and Artour "Arteezy" Babaev to the roster after The International 6. Playing in multiple tournaments and qualifiers since the new roster additions,they have only lost to Newbee, EHOME and Team NP (in a best-of-one) over this period. Team Faceless has been on a similar tear through the Southeast Asian region. Since the team's formation two months ago, they have maintained an insane 86 percent win rate according to Dotabuff. The first game of the series was extremely close for 30 minutes, until a massive teamfight win for Evil Geniuses blew Faceless out of the game. With a one game advantage secured, Evil Geniuses went for the age-old Pugna pushing strategy to try and finish out Faceless in style. Faceless were having none of it though, and with Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang leading the charge on Nyx Assassin, they managed to even out the series. Game 3 was another very close game, although Evil Geniuses were definitely in control throughout the majority of it. It took them four Roshans and 45 minutes, but Evil Geniuses did win Game 3 to close out the series. Faceless will drop to the lower bracket where they face off against Digital Chaos to see who will continue through the tournament.
The final series of the day was the upper bracket matchup between Evil Geniuses and OG. Both teams looked good in their earlier matches, although Evil Geniuses' series against Faceless did go all three games, while OG won their contest in two. In the first game OG went for the Alchemist pick that EHOME used to crush Evil Geniuses at the Northern Arena Beat Invitational. Anathan "Ana" Pham piloted the Alchemist extremely well, but he was also backed up by a lot of powerful teamfights. Evil Geniuses looked in control for the first 10 minutes of the game, but they let Alchemist farm for five minutes and started getting crushed in fights by Tal "Fly" Aizik's Warlock Chaotic Offerings. In Game 2, OG went for the Drow Ranger first pick, and gave Evil Geniuses a lesson in how to run it. With a Dragon Knight and Puck protecting him, Johan "n0tail" Sundstein was able to rip through Evil Geniuses' heroes. Even Warlock's Chaotic Offering wasn't enough to swing fights for Evil Geniuses in the end. OG will advance to the winners' final to face the fearsome looking Virtus Pro. Evil Geniuses drops down to the lower bracket where they await the winner of EHOME vs Team NP.
