Fnatic takes the lower bracket series 2-1 over Team Empire and the Russian squad are now eliminated from the competition this time around.
The journey is over this time around for the runner-ups of last season's StarLadder. This time they will have to settle with 4th place and the $1000 to go with it. Fnatic on the other hand, after a convincing series, moves on to the lower bracket final where they will go up against the losing team of tonight's other match.
The other match being ofcourse the upper bracket final between Virtus.pro and NoTidehunter. Both teams won their matches 2-0 yesterday and have been showing very promising performances. The match goes up at 21.00 CET tonight.
| Fnatic vs Team Empire | ||
 Fnatic | vs |  Team Empire |
Empire really likes their Treant, picking it up as their third hero and going for a push-heavy pick while Fnatic going for a more clash-heavy one. Also noticeable, N0tail taking the midlane as Puck while H4nn1 placing the support shaker, both excelling at their roles during this game. As soon as Trixi farmed Mekansm on the offlane, Fnatic starts forcing fights. They grab the advantage early on by devastating Empire in a clash, despite not having either Echo Slam or Chaotic Offering. Basically just Puck, Fatal Bonds as well as the Illuminate bring down Empire.
Fnatic rendering Empire hopeless in clashes
After that, ofcourse, Fnatic plays through on their advantage and this this time with the Ultimate combinations up and running. Empire tries to fight but mostly just dies while trying to reposition themselves. First game goes to Fnatic in a convincing manner.
It is unclear if Fnatic are switching roles or if H4nn1 really likes Earthshaker but the first three heroes from them were all seen last game, and with the same players operating them too. This time Empire is not playing around though, Vigoss is mad since last game and decides to punish Fnatic for it, shutting down Trixi in the midlane. Meanwhile on top lane, Blow swings his big angry Ruling Sword, giving N0tail a hard lane together with the support composition. Era's Gyro manages to find farm but the rest of his team are really falling behind Empire.
Ruling Blow swinging his Ruling Sword
Fnatic are getting cornered inside their own base, their heroes are all too underfarmed - all but one. Gyrocopter will have to try to farm up for the Rapier this game, it is the only shot of turning the game around. Empire forces down the bottom barracks before Era gets his rapier though, and once he has it, it's simply not enough. This game shows why Nature's Prophet is such a strong offlane hero since he scales so well into the late game despite having a slow start. Empire evens it out at 1-1.
Fnatic could tell the power of the Prophet and picks him up for themselves, although letting N0tail play him mid instead of offlane. Empire resurrects Scandal's solo mid TA this game aswell and Vigoss is sent to the safe lane vs Trixi's Devourer. Most likely something that surprised Empire as Vigoss gets destroyed in this lane. Sven isn't finding the farm needed on the toplane, so the carry stick gets transfered to Devourer. Scandal and Vigoss do what they can to deny this stick alltogether, going for ganks all over the map. A clash at the Rosh pit before minute 19 shows the power of a farmed Devourer though, Fnatic takes both the clash and the Aegis.
The deciding moment
The game enters a static phase, with none of the teams wanting to commit too much, afraid of making mistakes. Clashes tend to favour Fnatic slightly and they lead both the experience as well as the gold graph after 34 minutes. The problem for Empire is that Blow is having a very small impact, Fnatic manages to take him out rapidly using their lockdowns aswell as the sheer damage output. The game was favouring Fnatic because of the farm and clash advantage, and when Blow gets caught off guard and killed outside his base there is nothing stopping Fnatic from entering the base and winning the game.
All the Star Series games will be broadcasted live by TobiWan and Sheever. The Russian stream will be provided by StarLadderTV with v1lat and CaspeRRR and mtrx4u.
