Photo courtesy of Yamyam Villanueva Yui
LGD Gaming and Mineski triumph for a spot in the playoffs of StarLadder iLeague Season 4 Invitational Minor.
The final group stage day saw four teams bid farewell to their DCP points and hopes for a championship title. Infamous, compLexity Gaming, Team Kinguin, and Team Empire will need to seek points in other events in the remainder of the 2017-2018 Pro Circuit season. In the end, it was LGD Gaming and Mineski that were able to seize the coveted playoff spot and guaranteed TI8 points. They will now join top ranking teams - Team Liquid and Newbee in the final day of competition.
Group A:
The day started out with an unfortunate and disappointing finish for Infamous. The South American team crumbled under compLexity Gaming's team fight prowess and flawless performances by Swedish brother duo in the first game/ They then had a difficult time standing up against the incredible performance by Zakari "Zfreek" Freedman who had come in with key plays and savesto give coL a 2:0 sweep. For Infamous, their departure comes without landing a single win at the event.
Unfortunately for the North American team, they were not able to hold on to their momentum going into their final series of the day against LGD Gaming. An astounding comeback game 2 for coL was flanked by two one sided victories for LGD Gaming. The Chinese team were able to close things out in quick 30 minutes with a 22:1 score and then in 40 minutes in game 3 with a 30k gold lead. For the NA team it was the end of the road as LGD advanced to the playoffs to face off against Newbee in the final day of the event.
Group B:
Once again, Rostislav "fn" Lozovoi had a spectacular performance for Team Empire, while stand in player Alexander "Nix" Levin really showed talent and potential in the first match giving Empire the edge over the full Polish squad. As usual, Team Kinguin were not ones to easily roll over and accept a defeat. With their tough fighting spirit, the team was able to gain a victory in the second match and tie up the series to keep their tournament lives and playoff hopes. Hopes that were only crushed in the last game with a stellar performance by Maxim "yoky-" Kim in the third and final game as Team Empire seized the game and series win.
The final match up of the day saw Mineski run all over Team Empire in the first game with another stand out performance by Kam "NaNa/Moon" Boon Seng. Team Empire struck back, shutting down Mineski early on with another outstanding game by fn, helped by synergy and coordination by his teammates. The CIS victory brought the final series of the day to a third deciding game, giving fans around more fantastic Dota 2. The last match was a quick 26 minute affair in which NaNa and Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung ran over the CIS team to claim the game.
Playoffs are best-of-three, single elimination brackets with best-of-five Grand Finals - all played in one day.
February 4 - playoffs
03:00 CET - semifinal #1 - Newbee vs LGD Gaming
06:00 CET - semifinal #2 - Team Liquid vs Mineski
10:00 CET - Finals - TBD vs TBD
