Ballstix & Miracle advance; Black & Zero head to lower bracket

The first day of GCWC began yesterday with impressive displays from some of the best teams in the world. They were not without faults, however. Certain teams in particular failed to bring their usual level of play to the table, most notably Ballstix and MVP Black. Nonetheless, we were left with a lot of nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat type of games worth watching.

Ballistix vs ZeroPanda

The first series felt to be a throwback to the China vs Korea faceoff back in Gold League S1; the ex-EDG members of ZeroPanda probably had PTSD flashbacks of Team DK's dominance that day. Still, it was clear the Chinese were more determined than ever to take down a Korean giant.

In Game 1 on Sky Temple, ZeroPanda came out swinging with a well-coordinated Stitches composition. The first five minutes were utter domination for the Chinese team as they picked off Ballistix members time and time again to win every teamfight. But BLX were the world champions for a reason. Keeping their cool and closing the gap through aggressive soaking, merc camp attempts, and split pushing, they managed to stay even on experience. A single mistake from Six’s Stitches in the late game was enough for the Koreans to to win a decisive teamfight and take boss. After that, it was as simple as pushing into ZeroPanda’s base for the win.

In Game 2, Ballistix used a beefy Zarya/ETC/Thrall composition to body ZeroPanda’s fragile Valla/Auriel combo. Except for one overextension in the midgame near ZeroPanda's top keep, BLX straight-up manhandled the Chinese powerhouse. Two keeps were down by 11:00, and Zero was on the back foot all game trying to find a way back. Alas, the Koreans showed no mercy.

MVP Black vs MVP Miracle

The second series was the two sister MVP teams' head-to-head. Every time these two teams meet, the games are always odd. They know each other better than anyone else; due to their extensive scrim history, it is impossible for the two to truly hide compositions or strategies from each other. That said, everything about this series was strange and absurd, from the maps to the compositions to talent choices to Rich playing zero impact Heroes every game. Everything.

For Game 1, Miracle chose Garden of Terror, the least played and most hated map in professional play. Black built an obvious Tracer composition, which Miracle tried to counter with globals and mobility... before rounding off with a surprise last pick Jaina who later picked Water Elemental. Most of the game featured back and forth play with each team trading members every teamfight. Of course, strange things continued to happen. Such as Rich’s Tassadar being destroyed by Zeratul.

During the late game, Miracle was able to deny Black from being aggressive with their garden terror by constantly threatening to backdoor; Black won a pivotal garden terror fight, but they just couldn’t get anything done with their advantage.

Both teams floundered around for another five minutes until Miracle made a huge mistake trying to base race terrors and not leaving Zeratul behind to VP the Core. In the most anticlimactic ending ever, Black just walked up to the Core and won.

The second map, picked by MVP Black, was Tomb of the Spider Queen. Again, it was a strange map pick for Black considering their strength on Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines; we can only assume they had a special strategy in mind. As it turns out, their double tank/Tychus/oops-we-forgot-waveclear composition was not particularly awesome, but it was indeed special.

Again, both teams took turns trading the lead back and forth until Miracle won a teamfight just before their webweavers spawned. The following boss push was easily enough for them to close out the game and tie up the series.

Considering the rest of the map picks, it was not surprising that Warhead Junction was the final map. Both teams looked completely lost during the draft, as if all of their planned surprises were gone and they were trying to come up with new ways to mindgame their opponent on the fly.

Miracle won the early game fairly convincingly with their Brightwing/Falstad double global, but Black began to pick up momentum as midgame teamfights continued. Yet experience gap from the double global continued to pay off: despite winning two fights in a row, Black found themselves still behind in levels compared to Miracle. When Miracle managed to sneak a boss on top of everything, Black appeared visibly shaken and proceeded to make several terrible mistakes.

Seeming to have engineered their cruise missiles in the wrong Korea, Black missed everything with their three nukes and subsequently lost the game.

Ballstix and MVP Miracle advance to play each other in the winners finals, while MVP Black and ZeroPanda drop down to the lower bracket.

Knockout Stage Day 2

The lower bracket teams play today - first off will be Dignitas vs Astral Authority, and following will be SPT vs eStar. After the two series conclude, the elimination match between ZeroPanda and the winner of DIG vs AA will be played as the last games of the night.

The VODs for yesterday’s games are available on GCWC’s Twitch channel.
Detailed tournament information can be found on Liquipedia.