Day 2 of the TI7 main event is over and it left many, many fans frustrated. Here are the game results from today’s Dota 2 action:

- Upper Bracket- LGD.Forever Young def. TnC Pro Team 2-0
- Upper Bracket- Virtus.Pro def. LGD Gaming 2-0
- Lower Bracket- Team Liquid def. Team Secret 2-1
- Lower Bracket- Team Empire def. Evil Geniuses

But how did we get there? What were the ups and downs of Day 2? And what does the bracket look like heading into Day 3 of The International 2017? Read on and find out.

LFY vs. TNC

After a dominant Day 1 for Chinese Dota, Day 2 kicked off in style with a strong performance by group stage LGD Forever Young. Facing fan favorites TnC Pro Team, it showed that it was still hot after its amazing run through the group stages.

Game 1 saw LFY, for the most part, get the better of TnC. A few big plays from Timothy John "Tims" Randrup’s Naga Siren and Carlo "Kuku" Palad’s well-farmed alchemist Alchemist helped swing the game back in their favor for a time, but LFY’s poised play and consistently strong initiation allowed them to battle back and claim victory.

The second game, however, saw LFY live up to their favorite status in a big way, as Xie "Super" Junhao went out of control early as Bristleback. While TnC was able to stall out their first game against LFY, there was no stopping this snowball and the Chinese squad would take the series with gusto.

This writer repeatedly wondered if LFY was capable of holding up on the main stage. Their performance here, however, suggests that they are here to stay.

VP vs. LGD

Virtus.Pro had the resume to be a favorite at TI7... but few gave them that kind of respect. They need to be on offense! Their defensive play isn’t up to scratch! They can’t play from behind! Well, that may or may not be true. But when VP gets the elbow room to take an early lead, they don’t really need to worry about any other potential deficiencies in their game.

Case and point, their series with LGD Gaming. In both games, they managed to turn early kills into offensive momentum into unstoppable tower-destroying force.

In Game 1, a strong laning phase was followed with heavy pressure on towers, which afforded space and time for Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev’s Sven to get farmed and, eventually, topple LGD. This rout rattled the Chinese squad, and was followed by a similarly lopsided win for VP, this time with an aggressive Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko Venomancer and RAMZES Faceless Void.
The victory by Virtus Pro actually halted an upper bracket sweep by Chinese teams. With LFY, Newbee and Invictus Gaming all advancing to the upper bracket semi-finals, a win by LGD would have guaranteed a spot in the grand finals for the country, and likely could have made it an intranational affair.

VP, however, looked formidable to the point where they could easily push their way into the grand finals of consecutive Valve-sponsored tournaments.

Team Liquid Rally, Send Team Secret Home

Team Liquid was the favorite to win TI7 according to many analysts and when they dominated the group stages, those endorsements seemed to be validated. Then the main event started with Invictus Gaming knocking Liquid into the losers bracket. Just like that, the team that was supposed to be the best in the world was fighting for their life. Worse, they were set to fight for their life against EU rival Team Secret.

Liquid fans were biting their nails after Game 1. A roaming Spirit Breaker played by Clement “Puppey” Ivanov terrorized the entire liquid team, netting kill after kill and allowing ranged heroes amped by Zheng "MidOne" Yeik Nai’s Drow Ranger to control the map from start to finish.

Whether Liquid was woken up by that loss or whether Secret couldn’t give them a new look to keep them off-balance, KuroKy and co. roared back, taking Games 2 and 3 with strong performances by Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi and Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen, respectively.

With that, Secret was sent home with another disappointing finish at TI. And with that, the first of two fan favorite teams were sent home.

Empire vs. EG

Team Empire has been gelling with substitute carry Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok. The solid CIS squad has looked more and more like a world-class team as TI7 progressed. But are they actually a world-class team? Or are they just over-achieving? That was the question as they faced off with Evil Geniuses and they showed the world that they are, indeed, one of the best in the game right now by taking the series 2-0.

While both games went fairly long, they followed the same trajectory. After competitive early games, EG struggled to stifle Resolut1on’s farm-heavy Sven, allowing him to run rampant during teamfights and deal unsustainable amounts of damage. They managed to hold on for a time off big plays by Syed Sumail Hassan and Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora, but ultimately succumbed to the cleave in both games.

It was a brutal blow for western fans, who have now seen many of their favorites wash out early, or sent into the treacherous lower bracket ahead of schedule. The NA dream now rests solely with Digital Chaos, with OG and Liquid standing as the final European teams.

The TI7 Bracket After Day 2

Above, you can find the TI7 bracket after two days of the main event. The lineup of games set for Day 3 is as follows:

- Upper Bracket: Invictus Gaming vs. Newbee
- Upper Bracket: LGD.Forever Young vs. Virtus.Pro
- Lower Bracket: TnC Pro Team vs. OG
- Lower Bracket: LGD Gaming vs. Digital Chaos

All four of those are compelling, competitive matches that, generally speaking, pit the teams with something to prove against the established elites. Naturally, we’ll be here to cover the action tomorrow night, so make sure to check in.