After three days of teams taking almost every series to a full three games, the fourth day of the MarsTV Autumn finals was over in the blink of an eye. All four series ended with a 2-0 score, and except for the Team Secret vs. OG games, no single match lasted longer than 40 minutes.
The day started off in the lower bracket with OG and Vici Gaming battling to keep themselves in the tournament. The performance from Vici Gaming was pretty disappointing, giving OG a decisive 2-0 win. After getting blown away by OG's Terrorblade timing push in Game 1, they started making careless mistakes in Game 2. A few hasty buybacks and an attempt to one-versus-four by Zheng "Ghost" Jie effectively crippled Vici Gaming's Huskar draft. OG was looking very strong across both games, although Gustav "s4" Magnusson's Game 2 Sand King performance was pretty awful. So far, OG seems like an excellent fit for Anathan "Ana" Pham. The team's space-creating playstyle has given Ana the space needed for him to really shine.
Next up in the lower bracket was Team Secret and LGD Forever Young. Clement "Puppey" Ivanov's new squad has looked good in comparison to Secret at The International 6, and they continued to deliver today. Their victory over LGD Forever Young was the day's second swift 2-0 win, with Game 2 clocking in at just under 28 minutes. All five Secret players demonstrated their clear experience advantage against Zhang "xiao8" Ning's latest squad, made from mostly newcomers. Although LGD has been looking good in Chinese leagues, and did manage to take second place in a difficult qualifier to play in these finals, there is still work to be done before taking the world stage.
The upper bracket finals have produced probably the best highlight reel of the tournament, Song "Sccc" Chun's Game 2 Invoker. This entire series was almost completely all about Newbee, who absolutely crushed Evil Geniuses 2-0 in their first professional encounter with new rosters. The only time Evil Geniuses held a lead across the entire series was when Newbee dove them under a tower too early in Game 1. The second game of the series was even more one-sided in Newbee's favor. There was a moment when Evil Geniuses started to rally, but Newbee had Bounty Hunter and were winning fights with Track. If you missed the games, at least watch Game 2 and keep an eye on Sccc. So far he is looking like a Chinese answer to superstar Amer "Miracle" Al-Barkawi, able to carry a game almost by himself if given the proper start.
The final series of the day was Team Secret vs OG, to decide who would play Evil Geniuses in the lower bracket final. This wound up being the longest and closest series of the day, but failing to break the formula of ending with a score of 2-0. Game 1 was another display of just how powerful Morphling can be if given space to succeed. OG won a major fight after 30 minutes of close contested play, and after that Secret simply had no answer to Ana's Morphling. Game 2 was an absolute slugfest, lasting over an hour and 15 minutes. With Ember Spirit on Secret and Naga Siren on OG, the game was bound to last a while, but OG managed to pull off a seriously impressive comeback. Secret's first tournament with the new roster ends with a fourth-place finish.
The final day of action will see OG and Evil Geniuses fighting for the chance to face Newbee in the grand finals.
