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Dota 2 Arlington Major Day 6: PSG.LGD, OG, Spirit, Aster through to semis

Day 6 of the Dota 2 PGL Arlington Major saw the Playoffs kick off with the first round of upper bracket matches, where PSG.LGD, OG, Team Spirit, and Team Aster emerged victorious. Pictured: PSG.LGD XinQ, OG bzm, Team Spirit Mira, and Team Aster Monet. (Photos: PSG.LGD, OG, Team Spirit, Perfect World Esports)
Day 6 of the Dota 2 PGL Arlington Major saw the Playoffs kick off with the first round of upper bracket matches, where PSG.LGD, OG, Team Spirit, and Team Aster emerged victorious. Pictured: PSG.LGD XinQ, OG bzm, Team Spirit Mira, and Team Aster Monet. (Photos: PSG.LGD, OG, Team Spirit, Perfect World Esports)

Day 6 of the Dota 2 PGL Arlington Major saw the Playoffs commence with the first round of upper bracket matches.

Chinese juggernauts PSG.LGD, Stockholm Major champions OG, The International 10 (TI10) champions Team Spirit, and Team Aster advanced to the upper bracket semi-finals after they defeated BOOM Esports, Entity, Outsiders, and Fnatic, respectively.

With those results the four teams have guaranteed themselves at least a Top 6 finish as well as US$25,000 and 515 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) points in winnings.

Those DPC points were also enough to earn Team Spirit and Team Aster coveted direct invites to The International 11 (TI11) in Singapore, Dota 2's marquee million-dollar world championship tournament.

Meanwhile, BOOM Esports, Entity, Outsiders, and Fnatic drop down to the lower bracket and will have to fight to stay alive in the Arlington Major.

They will face Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, Royal Never Give Up, and Beastcoast in the first round of the Playoff elimination matches across Days 7 and 8.

Here's a breakdown of all the matches in Day 6 of the Arlington Major:

Upper bracket quarterfinals:

PSG.LGD 2-0 BOOM Esports

Chinese juggernauts PSG.LGD kicked off the Playoffs by stomping Southeast Asia's top seed, BOOM Esports, in a quick 2-0 sweep.

PSG.LGD star carry, Wang "Ame" Chunyu, led the way for his team in a 33-minute game one victory. He put on a clean nine-kill, 14 assist performance on Faceless Void as PSG.LGD simply ran over their opponents and finished the series opener with a 31-11 kill lead.

While BOOM Esports put up a better fight in game two, it wasn't enough to avoid getting swept.

PSG.LGD didn't let up as they secured the series victory in just under 40 minutes and with a 37-15 kill lead. Both Ame on Ursa and Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang on Kunkka notably notched double digit kills, with Ame scoring a series-high 17 kills against two deaths while NothingToSay had 11 against just one death.

OG 2-1 Entity

The second match of the day saw a clash between two Western European powerhouses.

OG, who are gunning for a second-straight Major championship with two-time TI champ Sébastien "Ceb" Debs standing-in once again, faced a rising squad in Entity with TSM FTX offlaner Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek standing-in for Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko.

Entity had a flying start to the series, as they handily won a 27-minute game one with a 32-10 kill lead despite OG sneaking their signature offlane Huskar strat for Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf through the draft.

OG then bounced back in a 42-minute slugfest in game two, with Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov on Puck notching 15 kills and 11 assists against five deaths to pace his team's 32-27 kill lead to force the series to a game three.

The series decider had an unusually slow start, with First Blood only being drawn at the 9-minute, 45-second mark and both teams only having seven total kills before the 18-minute mark.

That worked out in OG's favour, as Artiem "Yuragi" Golubiev's Alchemist was virtually uncontested as he farmed up the items he needed to spearhead his team's midgame deathball.

Despite Entity's best efforts to get back into the game, OG bulldozed them to force a 30-minute GG call and secure the 2-1 series victory.

Bzm had another game-high in kills to close out the series, notching 11 against two deaths to pace OG's 27-11 kill lead.

Team Spirit 2-1 Outsiders

The third match of the day, a showdown between regional rivals Team Spirit and Outsiders, is definitely the best series of the Arlington Major thus far.

Not only were both squads fighting for a spot in the semifinals, the winners would also secure an all-important direct invite to TI11. It was only fitting that this match went the distance, with two games almost reaching the hour mark.

Game one was the longest game of the day, totalling 59 minutes and 54 seconds of action. Outsiders were in control from the laning stage onwards behind a stellar performance from offlaner Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin on Timbersaw.

Despite valiant efforts from Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek on Void Spirit and Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk on Ursa to mount a comeback for Team Spirit, Outsiders ground out a hard-fought victory to open the series.

Game two was the reverse of game one, with Team Spirit taking control from the get-to and Outsiders only managing to draw things out to 56 minutes before admitting defeat.

Yatoro led the way for Team Spirit in forcing the series to a decider, notching 13 kills and eight assists against four deaths to pace his squad's 35-24 kill lead.

After two exhausting games, Outsiders seemed to have run out of gas while Team Spirit found their second wind.

The TI10 champions came out swinging in the decider, shutting down their opponents in 38 minutes of action to secure the 2-1 series victory and, most importantly, a direct invite to TI11.

Yatoro on Terrorblade and TORONTOTOKYO on Puck notably showed out, combining for 11 kills and 15 assists without giving up a single death between them to pace Team Spirit's 24-13 kill lead in game three.

Team Aster 2-0 Fnatic

The final match of the day saw Chinese powerhouse Team Aster soundly sweep Southeast Asia's Fnatic.

Game one was a back-and-forth, 56-minute slugfest that ended with Team Aster emerging victorious.

While Du "Monet" Peng on Terrorblade led the way with 11 kills and 15 assists against just one death, it was Yu "Siamese.C" Yajun on Dazzle who deserved the MVP nod for keeping his teammates alive with one clutch Shallow Grave after another in the crucial teamfights.

Team Aster smelled blood in the water in game two, as they absolutely dominated the laning stage and never looked back. Monet on Alchemist had free rein to farm while his teammates ran a train on Fnatic all over the map.

In the most one-sided game of the day, Team Aster forced the GG call from Fnatic after just 21 minutes and with a lopsided 16-2 kill score.

With this 2-0 series victory, the Chinese powerhouse also secured a coveted direct invite to TI11.

Here's how the Arlington Major Playoff bracket looks like as Day 6 came to a close:

(Photo: Wykrhm Reddy)
(Photo: Wykrhm Reddy)

Day 7 of the Arlington Major will feature three of the four matches for the first round of the lower bracket.

The first match of Day 7 will see BOOM Esports take on Team Liquid, followed by Entity facing off against Evil Geniuses, and with the match between Outsiders and Royal Never Give Up closing out the day.

The fourth match of the first round of the lower bracket between Fnatic and Beastcoast will take place on Day 8 alongside the upper bracket semi-finals matches featuring PSG.LGD taking on OG and Team Spirit facing off against Team Aster.

The Arlington Major is the second and final Dota 2 Major of the 2021-2022 DPC season.

The tournament features 17 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world fighting for their slice of the US$500,000 prize pool and 4,570 DPC point pool.

More importantly, the Arlington Major is the last chance for teams to secure a coveted direct invite to TI11, Dota 2's marquee million-dollar world championship tournament.

For everything you need to know about the Arlington Major, check here.

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