Chinese squad, PSG.LGD, did not disappoint the hometown crowd in Shanghai, China to open up TI9’s Main Event games. They defeated and outplayed CIS powerhouse team Virtus Pro 2-0.
Virtus Pro surprised everyone by being the first team to pick Brewmaster at TI9. At the same time, they went with an unconventional Dazzle pick for Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko at the middle lane.
VP’s strategy relied on taking control of the early stage, hoping it would give them a decisive lead going into the late game.
But once Yang “Chalice”‘ Shenyi participated in team fights, VP was completely shut down.
PSG.LGD methodically nullified the enemy’s support heroes thanks to some amazing Ravages by Chalice. VP tried to catch PSG.LGD by using multiple buybacks, but this just put them at a larger deficit.
PSG.LGD was one step ahead of their opponents during the late game team fights; while VP’s Morphling and Earthshaker combination failed to make an impact in the game.
PSG.LGD’s path of destruction through the Dire base was unstoppable, and VP was forced to tap out of game one.
In game two, VP decided to go with the Terrorblade, one of Roman “Ramzes” Kushnarev’s best carry heroes; while PSG.LGD chose a Phantom Assassin last pick on Ame.
But yet again, Chalice’s Tidehunter was the key to PSG.LGD success. As both teams postured around the Radiant side of the map, PSG.LGD caught Ramzes’ Terrorblade with an opportune Tidehunter Ravage.
The same thing happened again later on. When PSG.LGD sieged the Radiant’s bottom set of Barracks, Xu “fy” Linsen caught Ramzes with a perfectly thrown Sacred Arrow. With no buyback on the Terrorblade, PSG.LGD was able to take down five Radiant Barracks.
Knowing they had to make a move, VP decided to go all-in with the Divine Rapier on the Terrorblade, but this failed completely. As soon as Ramzes’ Black King Bar wore off, he was easily taken down by PSG.LGD, which ended the game.
Check out our full TI9 Main Event coverage here, and don’t miss out on the Group Stage action.
