ESL One Berlin Major playoffs day 2: Arteezy is out

The second day of the playoffs of ESL One Berlin Major must have been hard to watch for North American, Chinese, and Eastern European fans.

Three top teams from these regions were eliminated from the tournament and will receive absolutely nothing for their efforts. These teams are Shopify Rebellion, Xtreme Gaming, and Team Spirit. In the case of Rebellion and Spirit, the disappointment must be enormous because they started the playoffs in the upper bracket.

Berlin Major playoffs day 2 results

Day 2 of the Berlin Major’s playoffs started with the match between Team Spirit and Team Aster.

Naturally, everyone assumed that Spirit would win, not only because they had dropped from the upper bracket and were the winners of The International 10 (with almost the exact same roster) but also because Aster were competing with a stand-in.

To be fair, that stand-in was Sumail “Sumail” Hassan, one of the best midlaners in the world. But the fact that he doesn’t speak Mandarin, combined with the fact that he’s not a natural member of the team, should have put Aster at a severe disadvantage.

At the highest level, Dota 2 is won through a superior strategy. And that is hard to achieve when you’re playing with stand-ins.

What’s strange is that Aster won the match with two nearly identical drafts: Keeper of the Light, Alchemist, Crystal Maiden, and Windranger. In game 1 they also used Axe, while in game 2 they used Doom. Each time, they had a very clean and precise way of making progress.

The match between Liquid and Xtreme Gaming nearly ended in disappointment for the Europeans, who lost game 1 and were in a difficult position after the drafting phase of game 2. But in the end, thanks to the individual skill of players like Michal “Nisha” Jankowski, Liquid managed to make a comeback.

The final match of the day saw Evil Geniuses taking revenge over Shopify Rebellion. Finally, EG proved to themselves that releasing their entire roster at the end of last season and moving to South America was a good idea.

The match ended after just two games and the drafts used by EG look deceptively simple. In both cases, they relied on heroes that used to be good a long time ago but are rarely played these days, such as Shadow Fiend and Centaur.

Rebellion responded with some weird picks of their own, including Techies and Troll Warlord. Both games ended in under 30 minutes with EG’s victory.

Header: ESL