On the penultimate day of The International 6, only five teams remained to play for the Aegis. For one direct invite and four qualifier squads, a loss at this stage of the tournament meant missing out on thousands and even millions in prize money.
In the lower bracket, the lone Korean and SEA teams faced off for a spot in the top four. MVP Phoenix and Fnatic have a history with each other, with MVP winning the lifetime LAN record. In this lower bracket match, though, Fnatic were the ones who seemed to have the upper hand. In Game 1, Fnatic held the net worth edge for the entire game, allowing Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung's Tinker to control every lane and secure a one-win advantage. Game 2 was more of the same, with MVP failing to find initiations or favorable trades. Fnatic closed the series out 2-0, eliminating MVP Phoenix and moving on to the top four.
Evil Geniuses and Wings Gaming met in the second series to decide who would earn the upper bracket berth into the grand finals. A Wisp-centric draft in Game 1 gave EG an early advantage in kills, but the net worth was constantly in Wing's favor, and the Chinese team's "deathball" strategy won out to give Wings the first win. EG switched gears to an Alchemist for Syed "SumaiL" Sumail Hassan and an effective Nightstalker for Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora in Game 2, but the Wings Huskar draft proved unstoppable. In 23 minutes, Wings secured the Game 2 win and a guaranteed slot in the grand finals, while EG drops to face a lower bracket team for another chance at Wings.
The team EG would face was one of the two Cinderella stories meeting in the lower bracket semifinals. Fnatic, who'd had an unbeaten record at the main event, struggled against Digital Chaos in the first match, where a surprise last-pick Slardar proved to be a stroke of genius for DC. DC ended Game 1 with a 44,000 gold advantage, and in Game 2, the draft again proved disastrous for Fnatic. A pocket Chaos Knight pick for Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok and Aliwi "w33" Omar on his signature Invoker proved too much to handle. Digital Chaos took the series 2-0 and will move on to face EG for a shot at the grand finals.