Day three started with the semifinals playoff, which saw the elimination of two more teams – Team NP and Wings Gaming. The last two teams standing would be Digital Chaos and Team Newbee in the grand finals, with a best of five series.
First, Digital Chaos took on Team Virtus.Pro in a best of three series. Team DC easily took game one and managed to maintain the aggressive momentum into game two. Ending the series with a clean 2-0 score, Digital Chaos moved on to the grand finals.
The second match of the day was between two Chinese teams, Newbee, and The Internationals 2016 champions, Wings Gaming. Newbee started off strong in game one, but Wings Gaming wasn’t ready to give up as they fought back in game two, tying the series at 1-1. Newbee then finished Wings Gaming off with its aggressive lane push and headed straight on to meet Digital Chaos.
In the grand finals of ESL One Genting, American team, Digital Chaos faced Chinese team, Newbee. Game one went in favour of Newbee as their Outworld Devourer pick nullified Digital Chaos’ Legion Commander pick. Overall, Newbee just had the better team draft.
Game two started with an explosive early game as DC went with the Ursa pick, which created a lot of space for Naga Siren to farm. As a result, Naga’s illusions pushed all three lanes for mega creeps, ending the match with a series score 1-1.
In game three, Newbee took the lead in the early and mid game by keeping w33’s Outworld Devourer in check. Things got worse when Digital Chaos’ members kept getting caught out, and Newbee capitalised on that, ending the match with a 2-1 score.
Digital Chaos’ strategy for game four worked really well as DC’s Resolut1on’s Slark went straight to hero hunting as soon as it got its Shadow Blade online. Also, MoonMeander pulled off some crucial Epicenters with their Sand King pick. DC won the match and the best of five series was tied at 2-2.
In the final match, Digital Chaos snowballed from start to finish with MiSery on Mirana and Resolut1on on Lifestealer. Newbee had no way to comeback from the gold and experience deficit, and the match ended with a score of 3-2 in the favour of DC. Team Digital Chaos will be going home with $125,000 (about RM560,000), while Newbee will be getting $50,000 (approximately RM220,000).
Being the largest Dota 2 tournament in Malaysia, ESL One in partnership with Genting has really brought the Dota 2 scene in SEA to a whole new level. ESL One Genting witnessed some of the best Dota 2 action in history, and we look forward to more eSports tournaments like this happening in Malaysia in the future.
