Vici Gaming win ONE Esports, look like early TI10 favorites

Steven Rondina Published 22/12/2019

Vici Gaming are the champions of ONE Esports’ inaugural event.

The Chinese squad took first place at the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore, defeating Evil Geniuses 3-0 in the grand finals. The victory gives Vici Gaming the $200,000 top prize and their fourth prominent live tournament victory of 2019.

Game one revolved around Vici Gaming carry Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun. Playing safelane Magnus, he reared back and farmed throughout the early game. Once he had an Echo Sabre and Power Treads finished, Vici Gaming started fighting around him. That move paid off big, and put EG into a defensive stance.

Evil Geniuses was still incredibly scary in the late game, courtesy of Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and his Phantom Lancer. While he managed to become six-slotted, a fully kitted Eurus complete with Aghanim’s Scepter and Moon Shard buffs proved to be too much for EG.

EG seemingly returned to form in game two. The team jumped out to an early kill lead, which allowed Arteezy and Abed “Abed” Azel L. Yusop to top the net worth charts. The net worth difference between the teams hit five figures after 24 minutes, but a team fight loss for EG cut that lead in half. Another several minutes later made it evaporate completely.

Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang went wild for VG late, dealing enormous amounts of damage with his Viper that was empowered by Eurus’ Drow Ranger. That rally saw Vici Gaming advance to match point with a comeback victory.

The final game saw things start fairly normally until an explosion of activity in the mid game. The two sides were fighting almost non-stop. As the game dragged on, Eurus’ Slark proved to be the most powerful hero on the map.

Though Evil Geniuses had a strong composition built around big ultimate spells, Eurus’ ability to constantly be ready for a fight made him an omnipresent threat. This led to kill after kill for Eurus, an output EG just couldn’t match. He tallied over 50,000 hero damage, a number that almost beat out the combined total of Arteezy and Abed. He also helped Vici Gaming lock up a series-ending victory.

Vici Gaming looking like early favorites for TI10

While it’s still early in the season, Vici Gaming have the look of an unstoppable force in this early stage of the season. The Chinese squad has been incredibly good over the last few months, which led them to the grand finals of the MDL Chengdu Major.

Though the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore had no real stakes for the Dota Pro Circuit, it was still a stacked event that forced Vici Gaming to face off with many of the top teams in the world. Evil Geniuses wasn’t the only top Dota 2 team Vici Gaming beat, as they topped Team Secret, Gambit Esports, and MDL Chengdu Major winner TNC Predator in order to earn a spot in the finals.

Vici Gaming isn’t giving themselves a chance to slow down, either. They’ll be keeping busy in the China Pro League Season 1 ahead of the DreamLeague Season 13 major.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

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