TI8, I mean TI9 Day 3 Recap
Are we reliving the same tournament as last year? 
OG played the same three teams in the upper bracket two years in a row. Last year they beat Forward Gaming (now 
Newbee), then beat 
Shopify Rebellion, and now face off against 
LGD Gaming in the upper bracket grand finals.
One thing hasn’t changed though. OG still are spamming chat wheels, tipping, tilting, and outplaying their opponents all the way to, at minimum, a top three finish, with the potential to be the first repeat TI winners ever.
South America belongs and they don’t need your approval
For years fans and professionals alike were questioning whether South America deserved a spot in premiere Dota 2 tournaments. 
NoPing Esports shut down all doubt as to whether or not they belonged as they smashed through a tight series with Newbee. Now the question is, who else wants to face off against this Peruvian powerhouse?
One of the stories of TI9 is Hector’s play on Wraith King. Infamous plays so well around this player hero combination, making space in the mid game while Hector gets huge.
Apparently Newbee didn’t get the memo and decided to play against Hector’s Wraith King? Newbee never banned Wraith King in any of the three games and in the two games Infamous picked Wraith King, they won. Coincidence?
PSG.LGD are still undefeated in the main stage
In a China VS China showdown for the top Chinese team, PSG.LGD sweep 
Vici Gaming 2-0 to meet OG in the upper bracket grand finals.
This makes PSG.LGD undefeated in the main stage, sweeping 
Virtus.pro and Vici Gaming who had the 2nd and 3rd most DPC points this season.
Now we get a rematch of OG and PSG.LGD in the upper bracket grand finals. This will be the 3rd series these two teams play in the last two TI tournaments. OG won both series by 1 game last year. This year on their home turf, PSG.LGD want to prove that they’re the better team.
Team Secret hold on for dear life
The number one team in DPC points this season is 
Team Secret. They’ve looked dominant all year round, defeating every team in their path to their two Major titles. They entered this tournament as the favorites to win it all but were knocked down to the lower bracket by Evil Geniuses in the first round.
It’s not uncommon for the favorite team entering The International to underperform. In TI8, Virtus Pro were favorites to win it all and they placed 5th-6th. In TI6 OG were favorites to win it all and they placed 9th-12th. In TI5 Team Secret were heavy favorites and they placed 7th-8th.
Team Secret don’t want to follow this tradition of underperforming and managed to survive day three, defeating 
Mineski 2-1.
Next they play Infamous in a Europe VS South America showdown.
OG defeat Evil Geniuses for the 2nd year in a row
Did OG win, or did Enchantress win? In the three game series, the team that picked first won. That first pick was used on Enchantress each time.
These two teams faced off again for the 2nd year in a row in the exact same bracket matchup. Both teams didn’t change a single player and for the 2nd time in a row, OG came out on top.
It was a frustrating series for Evil Geniuses who won game one and looked poised to even their TI matchup against OG. OG had other plans and dominated games two and three.
Aster.Suma1L- might be frustrated by his team as his performance was unreal in every game. He went a combined 26 kills, 6 deaths, and 18 assists in the three game series. The rest of his team however went a combined 34 kills, 61 deaths, and 118 assists in three games.
Meanwhile OG continue their magical run for two years in a row. Many considered OG's run last year to be a fluke, but as they continue their magical performance in this TI, their impressiveness should be considered anything but.
Tomorrow three more teams will be eliminated. Veteran squads Team Liquid and Team Secret play young and up and coming teams in 
Knights and Infamous. Will the fresh blood banish the old guard or will Europe Dota prove they’re still the best?
Let's Go Liquid!
Great Dota to watch no doubt! The OG games are silly/intense to watch and so far the LGD and Vici games have been pure technical materpieces. I am surprised by INF making it and they are the true underdog story so far. Best of luck to all remaining in the next few days.
Due to time zone I get to watch the 1st match and last match of each day live....the rest on replays if I have time. Wish I could see more live....
Так то один из топовых интов по интересным картам. В каждой игре куча камбеков и хрен пойми кот победит.
Infamous vs Newbee were very painful too watch. Infamous is doing great kiting against Yawar's Sven and Hector performance was really outstanding. Trully an underated team. I always like underdogs team playing since their game are either getting stomped or they pulled some Deus ex machina an goes full anime win
PSG.LGD vs Vici Gaming is a very clean game indeed. No throne rush, no comeback (maybe net worth swing but still not that interesting) but it was proof that Papparazi can't win this game alone
Mineski vs Secret will be the best match in the day 3's performance, perhaps even the whole match. It's almost a David vs Goliath (eventually Goliath wins), the game is very hard that Secret had to ditch any Yapzor's other hero and goes for Rubick in all 3 game. 3 comebacks proven that Dota has no room for any mistake anymore.
The last but not least, OG vs Evil Geniuses was a very interesting clash. But the summary is RTZ slipped from the top carries into depth of 20 minute BF AM and proceed to farm for the rest of the game to bought BKB only to die easily afterwards (well can't blame him either, since no space created by S4 as well)