mousesports against Virtus.Pro. Would VP be able to repeat the demonstration of improved teamplay which the team showed the day before? Winner would face NEXT.kz, that was known even before the game started.

Virtus.Pro already defeated mTw in the first round, would the Russians stop in the upper bracket semi final, or would they demolish mousesports? This match mousesports against Virtus.Pro is also the battle of the German carries: Kuroky on the side of Virtus.Pro against Black for mousesports.

Game 1: Clinkz after Bounty Hunter works!

Clinkz pick right after Bounty Hunter pick: You have to be very confident about your capabilities when you pick like this. It just looks like mousesports has this confidence. First blood in this first game did not happen until minute eight.

Against the fast-farming Clinkz, which grabbed a very fast Orchid's, Scandal even decided to get the, how syndereN called it "best game available": A Ghost Scepter. This game transforms into mousesports getting more and more team fights with the better end for them.

Although mouz has two heroes dependent on invisibility and Virtus.Pro has Bounty Hunter, the Russians get the bitter end more often. Overall, the question persists, why Virtus.Pro give Kuroky not the carry, as they successfully did in the game against mTw, but rather let blowyourbrain play Bounty Hunter and set Kuroky on Brewmaster.

TI'12 East Qualifiers
Virtus.Promousesports
‎BANS


‎PICKS




Game 2: You want to fly to Seattle? Handle this Divine Rapier!

mousesports started the second game with a laning that has been played by compLexity a lot. They combine the longest slow in the game, by Venomancer, with Dark Seer's Ion Shell on the top lane. However, the first two attempts of ComeWithMe and 1437 to get first blood got literally denied by Virtus.Pro.

Concerning Kuroky playing carries: This time he was sent wooding with Enigma. This is much more the initiating Kuroky we already saw in the first weeks of Virtus.Pro in May, but already in those games, it was mostly unsuccessful. Instead, it was Scandal playing the Shadowfiend.

After 10 minutes, mousesports showed Virtus.Pro how mobile its team with Dark Seer, Sand King, Storm Spirit and Queen of Pain is, with a double kill while defending the bottom tower. Overall, Virtus.Pro is able to get farm on Shadowfiend and Enigma despite the Radiant's pressure. mousesports has better mobility and ganking potential, but will they be able to turn this into a good late game against great Black Holes and a farmed Shadowfiend?

Minutes 20 to 26 are definitely worth watching. In a desperate try to get Roshan, both teams gather, but never all heroes, always only some of them, the rest is either dead or on the way back to the battlefield after dying. Roshan gets killed in the end, but the Aegis get's destroyed. Virtus.Pro, confused after not getting the Aegis they were betting on, lose three heroes for nothing and barely hold their middle tier 3 tower due to Shadowfiend buybacking as well.

Kuroky on Enigma has troubles to get the money for the so important Black King Bar, especially because of buybacking when necessary, but the main problem persists: mousesports has better initiation, but Virtus.Pro has better damage output and the black hole, for which mousesports cannot find a counter.

After three quarters of an hour, the game is tied at 28-28 with no barracks down yet. It has developed into a highly interesting, completely weird, action packed game. With Nightstalker even buying Abyssal Blade, but mousesports again and again catching Leshrac in the middle of nowhere because of Storm Spirits amazingly long initiation jumps.

Virtus.Pro baits mousesports to think VP is doing Roshan, instead they smoke up and catch 1437's Dark Seer on the way to Roshan. With the majority on their side, VP takes Roshan with Aegis and Cheese, push middle lane afterwards. They manage to take the melee barracks, but lose four heroes and the Aegis in the fight.

Mass Force Staffs, Aegis of the Immortal, Divine Rapier, Rebuy of Black King Bar. Divine Rapier changes its owned two times. You can't summarize the late game after the hour mark. You can only watch it! The two teams will meet again in a third match.

TI'12 East Qualifiers
mousesportsVirtus.Pro
‎BANS


‎PICKS




Game 3:

After such a 75 minute game, it is hard to go back to normal mode, but they teams have to. With a 1-1 map score, the third match decides alone which team continues in the winner bracket and which one in the lower bracket.

The setup of this game turned out totally different, though. In fact, this time the setup was much more asymmetric, since Virtus.Pro picked a very good mid-game pushing lineup, while mousesports decided to play with Dark Seer and Earthshaker, two very good counter-pushers.

In the early game, mousesports gained some hero kills, for the cost of farm and experience on the other lanes. Scandal with QoP did not only outfarm SingSing's Invoker in the mid lane, but also destroyed the tier 1 tower very fast. The huge flexibility of Virtus.Pro is expressed by this time Santa playing Enigma, Kuroky is back to the carry hero: Lone Druid in this case.

Kuroky and Scandal mark two different ways of being successful: Scandal started with a 10-0 score while Kuroky managed to get the most creep kills though dying four times within 20 minutes.

Once Scandal grabs his twelfth kill at minute 22, Virtus.Pro decided to go for Roshan, a major mistake against Dark Seer: mousesports get the Roshan kill, VP the Aegis, but all five heroes of VP die, including the loss of the Aegis of the Immortal.

A very nice smoke gank into the middle lane granted mousesports the time to focus on Lone Druid, a hero they need to commit a lot to in order to kill him, followed by two other heroes. This clear team fight win rewarded mouz with a tier 2 mid tower and Roshan.

While mousesports is getting two more tier 2 towers in trade for just some damage on tier 3 towers, Virtus.Pro adds some more questionable decisions. Especially Stanta buying a Linken's Sphere recipe before having the item complete and preventing himself from having buyback gold and missing two important black holes.

mousesports manage to tear down the middle barracks just before Kuroky completes the Assault Cuirass. Black with Mirana on the other side sacrifices his buyback gold to get Manta Style, Monkey King Bar and Butterfly to get huge right click DPS. Bottom barracks are mousesports's and the massive laning advantage forces VP to take a fight they can't win.

TI'12 East Qualifiers
Virtus.Promousesports
‎BANS


‎PICKS




mousesports proceeds into the upper bracket final against NEXT.kz, while Virtus.Pro faces zNation in the lower bracket. Both games will be played on Friday.

Check out more information about the games here!