TI8 Main Event: Day 5 Recap
Liquid eliminated Team Secret in an emotional sweep, OG continues their redemption tour to secure a top 2 finish, EG survives the lower bracket and will face the last Chinese hope, PSG.LGD, on the final day. Finally, Valve announced a new hero, Grimstroke, who is now available to play.
Elimination Match Team Liquid vs. Team Secret
This was a match between two teams captained not only by legendary Dota vets, but longtime friends and former teammates from TI championship team, Na’Vi. Liquid.gh was the MVP of game 1. Despite his team having few answers for MidOne’s Storm Spirit, he was on point with his Earth Spirit’s stuns and silences to lock the elusive hero down.
The series showcased two things. One: the importance of vision. Here, Secret’s vision allowed Yapzor to initiate with a Blink-Echo on the highground, shorting Liquid’s smoke. And though this 5-0 team wipe helped Secret even up the game, Liquid later found a pickoff on Yapzor that opened up the game.
Second, it’s how well Liquid fight as a team. In the next clip, Secret gets the jump, but a quick Glimmer Cape by Kuroky counters the follow up.
Liquid works incredibly well as a unit, able to maximize the synergy between their spells. They seem to rarely layer stuns, and they’re individually skilled enough to execute when the moment comes.
Miracle lands a perfectly timed Blood Rite off Storm Spirit’s AegisGame 2 featured one of Miracle’s signature heroes, Invoker. He started off with an unorthodox 2/0/2 Quas/Exort build that transitioned into Quas/Wex, but who are we to doubt what the masters does. Miracle grabbed kills on the sidelanes with early rotations, and Liquid rolled to a smooth victory.
Liquid commits to a risky teamfight after losing their Wraith Knight, and with their heroes still trickling into the lane.It was a bittersweet end to Team Secret’s run, but they’ll take home $1.1million with their 5th-6th place finish.
Upper Bracket Semifinals: OG vs. PSG.LGD
Team OG knocks the final Chinese team, PSG.LGD, down to the lower bracket in the best 3 game series of the main event so far.
The series ends with the climactic defense of OG’s ancients in a 2 vs. 5 scenario. Ana’s Terrorbalde and Topson’s Arc Warden against the entirety of PSG.LGD. They stall just enough for their teammates to revive, and Jerax punches in the Echo Slam.
Only watching the final minutes of game 3 would be doing yourself a disservice due to the quality of both games 1 and 2. The games were fiercely competitive and filled with individual plays, including this one from Topson:
Topson’s Pugna deletes AmeThe series included some of OG’s usual shenanigans, like chain healing with Pugna’s Life Drain and IO’s Tether. And Topson flexed his Invoker by picking up a Meteor Hammer, which eventually became ineffective in the later stages of the game.
Despite a rough start, Maybe’s Storm Spirit comes back onlineThe series came down to the final minutes. We’ll get to see them both play again on the final day.
Elimination Match: EG vs. Team Liquid
It was a contrast of styles between EG vs. Liquid on the main stage. Liquid thrives fighting together as a fluid unit, while EG likes to engage in guerrilla warfare.
EG constantly splitting the mapThey aimed for the small victories and short term objectives. EG would cut lanes to buy time for BKBs, or bait a gank on the sidelane so Liquid wouldn’t be able to group up. They were just biding time until they were ready to fight.
Miracle initiates on rtz, who instantly reacts with Enrage and BKB. The move baits Liquid to follow up, which lets EG pull off the combo the crowd has been waiting ever since Storm Spirit picked up his Aghanim’s Scepter: AoE Electric Vortex into Terrorize and Chain Frost.
Game 2 again featured Cr1t’s Dark Willow, whose performance in this game will probably earn a few bans on the final day. He took over his lane and shortly after grabbed solo kills all around the map.
Even though the game was fairly even in net worth, Liquid needed to gain more with their Brewmaster and Viper from the early and mid game, especially against a Spectre.
The fight that started EG’s snowballTeam Liquid, just a few steps away from becoming the first back-to-back TI champions, had one of the strongest two year runs in Dota. They’ll take home $1.7 million with a 4th place finish.
Grimstroke Announced
There’s a new hero, and you can play him right now. Grimstroke at first glance seems like a support hero that’s completely broken. We’ve put up his hero page up and will be tracking his statistics in the coming days.
Первый?
Describe "broken".. I havnt played him yet.plz
You made a mistake, it wasnt anas terrorblade it was anas spectre.
liquid completely outdrafted outthought and outplayed by lgd first in the upper bracket and here by eg...they need to seriously consider other strats and be more flexible in their game style because they were totally outmaneuvered here...first ever signs that ive seen that hint at kuro maybe being outdated in this drafting approach and style of play
Ana picked spectre