Though five of the six Dota Pro Circuit regions have concluded their runs, China is still wrapping theirs up. Technically only their fifth week overall, Week Seven of the DPC sees China headed towards the end of the current season with four critical matches.
Emo and the rest of the undefeated iG are looking to secure their spot in the Major playoffs. (Photo courtesy DreamHack)
This week saw Invictus Gaming continue their dominance within the league. Elsewhere, Aster kept themselves in the hunt for the top spot. Meanwhile, Elephant and Vici Gaming struggled while EHOME and PSG.LGD locked horns in crucial mid-table battles.
Now, only one week remains until will find out who will represent the region in Singapore.
Invictus Gaming Resume Total Domination
As expected, frontrunners Invictus Gaming maintained their perfect record this week. A 2-0 victory against bottom feeders LBZS sees iG’s record improve to six wins and no losses. The series took just under an hour to complete, with the first map being the only remotely interesting contest. LBZS’ Yang “Ms” Yongjie looked like he was ready to take Invictus Gaming for a ride with his 7-2 Morphling. The former Keen Gaming player even assembled a 13-minute Ethereal Blade. But alas, iG star player Zhou “Emo” Yi had none of it, with his 11-1 Void Spirit taking over the game from the start.
The second map, on the other hand, was just a matter of execution for iG. Though Emo was the kill-leader once more, this time he was joined by offlaner Thiay “JT-” Jun Wen. JT- himself scored 12 of the team’s 39 kills as Death Prophet, while also pumping out around 6,000 points of building damage. Combined, they notched two-thirds of their team’s total kills.
Hu “Kaka” Liangzhi and his teammates exhibit no signs of slowing down this season. At this rate, they are likely to clinch the Major playoff spot without much trouble. They do, however, have two very skilled teams to contend with for the top seed — Team Aster and Vici Gaming.
Aster and VG in Heated Battle For Second
The two aforementioned squads are currently tied for second place at 5-1 apiece — though VG have one less map loss compared to Aster. Both teams came out of Week Seven smelling like roses, with Aster, in particular, having an easy time with the lowly Team MagMa. VG on the other hand had to face super team Elephant in their only match this week — but likewise swept their opponents 2-0.
Aster did not break a sweat at all against Team Magma, recording just 53 minutes of elapsed game time before putting them away in two matches. This result was to be expected of course, with Aster being the leaders in the region. MagMa on the other hand are more of a lower division roster at this point. They will likely be relegated next season as a consequence. Unless EHOME somehow bungle their match next week against LBZS and MagMa pull a miracle against Elephant, that is.
PSG.LGD and Elephant Hold Down the Middle
Both Elephant and PSG.LGD Gaming still finds themselves squarely in the middle of the standings. Unfortunately for Elephant, they were not able to improve their record this week thanks to their 0-2 loss to VG. That said, their win rate is still at least 50 percent, so things aren’t exactly dire just yet. They still have a chance to make the Wild Card stage in Singapore at this point. Things could very well turn out as such, as their final match of the upper division season is against MagMa. LGD on the other hand have to deal with VG — something that is much easier said than done.
Elephant will have the better matchup next week for sure, but we’ve seen great things from the LGD organization in the past. Whether or not those great things will surface in their final match is another thing altogether. Either way, the home stretch of the season in China should be exciting to watch.
EHOME on the other hand are looking a bit lost at this point. With a map score of 3-10, they are way behind the upper half of the pack, and are just slightly ahead of MagMa now. Certainly, a terrible place to be for former International finalists Jian Wei “xNova” Yap and Yang “Chalice“‘ Shenyi. Though they are likely to remain in the upper division next season, this definitely was not the goal for this team.
| PLACE | TEAM | WINS | LOSES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Invictus Gaming | 6 | 0 |
| 2. | Vici Gaming | 5 | 1 |
| 3. | Team Aster | 5 | 1 |
| 4. | Elephant | 3 | 3 |
| 5. | PSG.LGD | 3 | 3 |
| 6. | EHOME | 1 | 5 |
| 7. | Team MagMa | 1 | 5 |
| 8. | LBZS | 0 | 6 |
With just one more week remaining, things are all but set in stone in China. However, with some upsets potentially on the horizon in this final week, there’s still so much to play for.
