image courtesy of Team Secret via Twitter
The Captains Draft 4.0 playoffs kicked off yesterday in Washington DC in a single elimination bracket.
Mineski who finished first in their group got seeded against the bottom team in the opposite group which was paiN Gaming. Unfortunately for the Brazilians, the playoffs didn’t turn into a redemption story as Mineski wiped the floor with them in two completely one-sided games featuring an absolutely outstanding Dark Willow performance in the offlane from Daryl Koh 'iceiceice' Pei Xiang.
paiN gaming were the first team to get eliminated from Captains Draft 4.0 and, in what can be regarded as a completely unexpected result, Evil Geniuses followed them shortly after. Unfortunately for the EG fans, their favorite team got pitted in the opening playoffs series against the Pro Circuit ranking leaders, Team Secret.
Matching everyone’s expectation, the Team Secret vs Evil Geniuses quarterfinals were much more contested and delivered three games hard to forget. Team Secret took the victory in game one with a pushing strategy revolved around a signature Adrian 'Fata' Trinks Razor and a Shadow Shaman for Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov. Evil Geniuses evened out the series with a fast pace game two where they pressured Secret from early stages with a Death Prophet – Juggernaut – Magnus core combo. Game three was action packed from the start to the end but Yeik 'MidOne' Nai Zheng stole the show with his mid lane Pugna.
Day one of Captains Draft 4.0 playoffs ended with Team Secret fighting to take revenge over Mineski who defeated them in the group stage. The series unfolded fast with Secret claiming a clean 2-0 victory for a spot in the finals. Dark Willow was available in the first game of the series but Secret had the first ban and took her out, leaving iceiceice with a Centaur Warrunner only option for the offlane. While Mineski had a rather squishy line-up, Secret went with a massive crowd control combo coming from Lion, Chaos Knight, Monkey King, Magnus and an Ember Spirit to take game one victory in a very convincing fashion. Game two unfolded in a similar manner, Secret taking out Mineski in 30 minutes with a killing machine Slark played by Marcus 'Ace' Hoelgaard.
Team Secret will have a day to rest and plan their strategies while the rest of the teams will fight for their chance to join them in the final act. Today’s action will kick off at 16:30 CEST/ 10:30 EST with the coL vs VG first quarterfinals followed by OG vs Team Empire. Winners of these two series will face each other at the end of the day.
