Team OG have secured themselves a seat in the final round of the International 2018, thanks to a nail-biting 2-1 win over PSG.LGD in Vancouver Friday.
OG came out swinging in the first match, aggressively shutting down and killing PSG.LGD’s carries. With Sebastian “Ceb” Debs playing Enchantress and the opposing carries down, OG was able to control the pace of the first game and ultimately win out.
Perhaps feeling overconfident after the first-round win, OG got caught out in game 2, as PSG.LGD were able to stop Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen’s Invoker after a strong opening. Lu “Somnus” Yao managed to recover from a rocky start to take control of the late game, and PSG.LGD would go on to a convincing win in Game 2.
With everything on the line, PSG.LGD fought their way up to OG’s very gates in the final match. Topson and Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka, playing Spectre and Earthshaker respectively, created room for OG to maneuver. PSG.LGD managed to break into OG’s base to take a barracks, but the resulting fight left only Yang “Chalice” Shenyi as Enchantress alive. With the rest of the team down, OG were able to roll into the PSG.LGD base and take down the Ancient for the 2-1 win, and a trip to the Grand Finals.
For their part, PSG.LGD will now head to the lower bracket to face off against Evil Geniuses, who defeated defending champions Team Liquid 2-0 Friday. It’ll be the winner of this match that ends up against OG in the final contest for the Aegis of Champions, and the International’s $11.1 million USD grand prize.
OG’s trip to the Grand Finals was a long one – after some disappointing early-season results and the departure of Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok from the team, OG lost eligibility for a direct invite to the International 2018. Instead, OG had to work their way up through open qualifiers to secure their berth.
The lower bracket final between PSG.LGD and Evil Geniuses is scheduled to begin today at 12:00 PDT, with the five-game Grand Final set to begin at 16:00.
Top image credit: Dota 2 official Twitter