Six teams remain in Shanghai, led by Team Liquid and Team Secret

— -- After three days of the Dota 2 Shanghai Major main event, we're left with only six teams. Team Liquid and Team Secret are set to face off in the upper bracket finals, and Evil Geniuses, MVP Phoenix, compLexity Gaming, and Fnatic are left to fight it out in the lower bracket. Four teams that won their way in from qualifiers remain, and none of them are Chinese teams.

With such a stacked remaining field, it's anyone's guess which team should be the tournament favorite. This has been Dota 2 at its finest -- contrasting styles, a high variety of heroes, an underdog narrative and the best quality of play anywhere. Day 3 has proven the intensity that this level of competition can produce, and the finals of this major are almost certain to bring it to yet another level entirely.

Upper bracket -- Round 2

Team Liquid vs. MVP Phoenix

The worst possible matchup for tournament darling MVP Phoenix was Team Liquid. From the stellar rotating supports, JerAx and KuroKy, to the utility player, MinDContRol, Team Liquid can fight aggression with their own brand of it. Without the trump card of speed and fighting prowess, MVP Phoenix was forced to fight a "traditional" game of Dota, and failed in that endeavor -- which should be unsettling for fans of the Korean team.

The first game ended in 17 minutes, with Team Liquid utterly outclassing MVP Phoenix in all stages of the game. From drafting, to the rotations from their two great supports, and team fights, Team Liquid checked every box on the list in their favor. It was a very fast tap-out, as nothing worked out for MVP Phoenix.

While the first game went at a lightning-fast pace, the second game was a slow crawl, full of fighting. MVP Phoenix drafted and attempted to play the longer game against Team Liquid's aggression, but it was not playing to its strengths in that strategy. Team Liquid simply played better from the earliest minutes through the end. It could have potentially ended at an equally early point to Game 1, but MVP Phoenix played just solid enough of a defense to lose at the 30-minute mark instead.

Evil Geniuses vs. Team Secret

A matchup that many considered a realistic candidate for the grand finals for the Shanghai Majors (and could still very well be, depending on the circumstances) met and exceeded all expectations. There were divine rapiers, massive team fights that extended past the commentator's limit, marathon and blitzkrieg games, and execution in all areas that make Dota 2 great.

Evil Geniuses shut down Team Secret's EternalEnvy, who was using Spectre, at the start of Game 1. EternalEnvy was nearly last in net worth, while middle laner w33 only gained levels in that middle lane and only Misery's Lone Druid was allowed to farm. Evil Geniuses built their lead through the static lane phase and superior pick-off heroes, Batrider and Sven, with lockdown in Dark Seer and Doom to take control of the early game.

The biggest factor in a comeback for Team Secret was the black hole and magnetize from Earth Spirit, as it helped them to eventually overwhelm every fight and take the map back. The biggest key in what would eventually be a Game 1 victory would be Evil Geniuses' ignorance of the Lone Druid, which allowed the key item -- radiance -- to control the game from then on.

Game 2 was a pushing battle with Evil Geniuses going all-in, while Team Secret only mimicked to avoid a team fight. Evil Geniuses snowballed with Lycan's mobility and superior structural damage to take map control, and a very quick victory to even the series.

Then, Game 3 happened, and things reached an entirely different level. In the draft, Team Secret went for high mobility and split push while Evil Geniuses prioritized team fight and an overall ball of death.

The downside to Evil Geniuses' draft? Sumail received zero support in lane, and their supports needed levels and items. Team Secret, behind w33 and Pieliedie's strong starts and rotations, took controlled neutral objectives, map vision and control, and early towers. Puppey's Nightstalker built a 20-minute Aghnamim's Scepter for the superior night vision but, because of multiple overextensions from EternalEnvy and a big Roshan pick-off of w33, Evil Geniuses brought back the game back to an even keel.

Despite the stronger defenses of Evil Geniuses, the split-push of Team Secret made every fight and trade a costly one (as a part of EternalEnvy and Misery's rat strategy). Even with EternalEnvy's best efforts to throw the game, it was eventually bad positioning from Arteezy that cost Evil Geniuses the rest of their barracks and forced the team to go for an all-in push. Arteezy led the charge but got zoned out and dropped both rapiers -- and eventually the game -- as Team Secret set a date with Team Liquid in the Upper Bracket finals.

Lower bracket -- Round 3

Alliance vs. compLexity Gaming

Though many believed this set would be an easy one for Alliance, compLexity Gaming proved that they're no pushover. They allowed Alliance their comfort picks in the draft, played the split-push game and took a couple of games into the later stages -- where they outplayed the veteran squad, and ultimately beat them. Underdogs often make for the best stories, and compLexity Gaming continues to march on in its journey in Shanghai.

Game 1 was a timing battle between compLexity Gaming's early lineup and Alliance's radiance timing. Though compLexity Gaming's early ganks were answered by Alliance's Chen rotation and Zeus damage, two big fights allowed them to control the map. Then s4 happened. Nuke after nuke and lightning bolt after clutch lightning bolt was all compLexity Gaming saw, as Alliance used two big buybacks and an aegis to crush through the base defense to take the first game.

Later, compLexity Gaming drafted an Earth Spirit to harass every lane for an early kill lead in Game 2, but the first team fight was all Alliance. Alliance would group up often, and picked off core or support alike to swing the gold lead in their favor, but one sunstrike from Chessie led to another Roshan for compLexity Gaming and a stalemate into the midgame. Alliance were forced into their split-push and kept the damage to a minimum. Finally, after a double-damage rune, compLexity Gaming forced a fight in the enemy ancients and wiped out Alliance completely (including two deaths on AdmiralBulldog) and crushed through two free barracks. From there, compLexity Gaming played it safe and went for mega creeps, forcing a Game 3.

An absolutely scorching start for compLexity Gaming, brought to them by Zfreek's roaming Mirana, punished the greedy laning configuration of Alliance. To counter the endless aggression and early fighting items of the compLexity Gaming's cores, Alliance grouped up and expended their impressive ultimates and flexed their team fighting execution to stem the bleeding. The two teams clashed multiple times in bloody fights, with neither side collecting a significant advantage.

The two big positives for compLexity Gaming were Chessie's Ember Spirit and the complete control of Roshan. Alliance's Spectre advantage showed itself once again in Game 3, with a huge buyback into haunt team wipe to push the game to an absolute halt entering the late game stage. The will to win for compLexity Gaming would not be denied, though -- their mindgames (baiting buybacks without losing anything), late-game execution (Roshan fights with a buyback Outworld Destroyer) and the absence of mercy would win them the series.

OG vs. Fnatic

What a series. Though Fnatic vs. OG was one of the most lopsided matchups on paper, the last set of the day did not disappoint. While the difference in individual skill and mechanical prowess on heroes was minimal, the overall team play and execution made all the difference for Fnatic. OG was one of the picks to go far in this tournament, and top-8 was nowhere near where they wanted to place.

But Fnatic would not be intimidated. They played long games, with strategies akin to Team Secret; objective and pick-off based, they did it all.

Some of the commentators liked the strong Fnatic draft for Game 1, but they chose to ban standard picks instead of following the playbook on how to beat OG -- prevent MoonMeander from grabbing a greedy hero, keep N0tail from a hero that doesn't require farming the middle lane, and keep high-impact/proactive support heroes out of play. Despite this potential blunder, Fnatic played to their style of prioritizing objectives and still executed a great plan to shut down the rest of OG, giving Miracle- free farm (much like how Team Secret won). The risk with giving Miracle- farm is, well, he's still Miracle-. Every big team fight came with track gold, and Miracle- finished them for OG. Fnatic took advantage of an overall gold spike to finish up the first game, despite the ridiculous threat of Miracle-.

Fnatic took the Sven for Game 2, and the pace decreased into a crawl. OG is a number of things, but a slow, passive, well-executed fight of Dota is not one of their strengths; Fnatic excel in that approach. With complete control of the late and uber-late game, OG did exactly what you'd expect it to do with their backs to the wall: They made a huge comeback. They had Fnatic pinned into their map for nearly 15 minutes, until a big fight spilled out and allowed the Southeast Asian team to even out the barrack count at two apiece near the hour mark of the game.

Finally, with one attempted push from OG, Fnatic took a huge fight in their favor with a double-ravage and a double-black king bar and warcry from Mushi's farmed Sven. But, just like the name suggests, it took a miracle to come back against Fnatic's huge 20k gold lead -- and they got it when Fly miraculously dodged the ravage pick-off from Fnatic and Miracle- cleared the entire enemy team and opened up their base. One buyback and death from Sven with a divine rapier and Game 2 was finally over.

Fnatic seemed to have short-term memories at the start of Game 3, as Ohaiyo and DJ combined to rotate and wreak havoc in the first 10 minutes of the game as Nyx and Chen, respectively. Despite Miracle- and his prowess with Anti-Mage, Fnatic punished the greedy OG draft with non-stop rotations and pick-offs courtesy of Spectre's haunt and Nyx's Assassin.

Fnatic would go on to take every outer tower before the 20-minute mark, Mushi farmed a radiance on his Spectre, MidOne had the highest net total and Ohaiyo's Nyx Assassin was one-shotting anyone not named Miracle-. This was Fnatic's game to lose. Two barracks by 28 minutes, a Chen at near 10K net worth and Miracle- continuing to stand as the only one farming well for OG helped Fnatic take firm control of the game -- and they'd ultimately end the hopes of one of the tournament favorites on their way to a huge victory.

Looking ahead

The penultimate day of the Shanghai major features four sets, and by the close of Day 4 of the main event only three teams will have a chance at winning the title and the first-place prize of over $1 million. Here's what's in store: