Chinese Dota 2 fans can rejoice, for Team Tidebound just scored a huge win for the region by knocking Tundra Esports out of FISSURE Universe Ep.4.

FISSURE Universe Ep.4 Playoffs: Tidebound Secure Top 4

Despite being at a significant disadvantage versus Tundra in terms of recent results and talent on paper, the Chinese squad managed to sweep the BLAST Slam 2 champions two games to none in the lower bracket.

Game 1: Bach, the Maestro

The first game was an absolute masterclass by Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida (now going by the name “Bach) as Dark Seer, scoring 11 whole kills from the offlane position. Eleven! And this was with only one death, mind you. An astounding 14 minute Crimson Guard timing followed by a 17 minute Guardian Greaves allowed him to control the pace of the mid game, in a virtuosic manner that would make his namesake proud if he ever played Dota.

Tundra just couldn’t deal with the sheer pressure that Bach put them under from then on. Combine that with the fact that they practically lost every lane, and there was just no way for them to get the ball rolling in the first game. Tidebound’s net worth lead just kept growing out of control through the mid game and into the late game, ballooning to more than 30,000 gold at around 42 minutes.

Game 2: Aurel’s Air Superiority

The early goings of game 2 looked really good for Tidebound once more, as they jumped out to a small early lead thanks in no small part to Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang’s mid Riki. After killing Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov’s Puck in the one-on-one matchup, he got himself a 10 minute Diffusal Blade, which allowed him to just go around the map picking off all of Tundra’s heroes using Smoke Screen (Q).

Tundra kept up a bit with their faster farming heroes, but once the 20 minute mark rolled past, it looked like Tidebound had the game on lock. Sensing that Tundra were trying to grab the Aegis from Roshan at this point with their Ursa pick for Remco “Crystallis” Arets, Tidebound took advantage with their Sand King-Ancient Apparition wombo combo. This resulted in three free kills going their favor, which made Tundra’s situation look even worse.

But Tundra displayed the patience that won them two major tournaments earlier this year, which allowed their mid game-focused lineup to come online at the right time. Suddenly, Tidebound were on the back foot, with Tundra’s advantage ramping up into the 10,000 range and beyond. Indeed, they had to give up two lanes of Barracks, as they could not contend with the teamfight capabilities of their opponents.

Buy Divine Rapier = Profit

But this is when things took a huge, unexpected turn. Even though Tundra held a significant lead at this point, Tidebound hung around and tried another push towards Tundra’s side — this time with a Divine Rapier in tow on Guo “shiro” Xuanang’s Gyrocopter. Finding a huge pickoff on Martin “Saksa” Sazdov’s Tiny as they breached the middle lane high ground, the following teamfight was an unbelievable turn of events for them, which you can see in the clip above.

Combined with the Rapier-enhanced Flak Cannon (E) damage coming from shiro, Lin “planet” Hao’s incoming Ice Blast (R) landed on three other Tundra heroes, forcing them all to buy back instantly. But even with Neta “33” Shapira trying to get mega creeps by playing some good old fashioned rat Dota as Lycan, it just wasn’t enough. The buybacks proved meaningless in the end, as shiro’s damage output was just too much for Tundra to live through.

The Tide is High

This is a massive result for Tidebound, who are practically the only remaining active Chinese team in the world alongside Xtreme Gaming. XG placed a respectable 6th at PGL Wallachia Season 3 just two weeks ago, but China as a region can definitely do with a lot more results-wise. You know, like Southeast Asia.

Tidebound guaranteeing themselves at least a top 4 finish, without any sponsors, is a really big start. As for Tundra Esports, bringing Remco “Crystallis” Arets in after Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov went on break hasn’t proven to be the right decision just yet. Crystallis is a good carry player, don’t get me wrong — but he’s no dyrachyo. Hopefully this isn’t the start of a downward trend for them in terms of results, so we’ll have to see how they do at ESL One Raleigh.