And then they were two. Empire will have to settle with third place this season of D2CL as Tinker beat them 2-1 to secure a rematch with Na`Vi later this afternoon.
Team Empire and Team Tinker both had lot to prove today as they locked horns in the lower bracket final of the Dota 2 Champions League playoffs, taking place at Dreamhack Bucharest in Romania. Empire seemed a bit less stable than Tinker throughout the series but managed to spike through here and there, such as when they won game two. In the other two games it was a Team Tinker show though and even more specifically a Qoqjva show who played well in all three games.
The first game was a rather short story with Tinker dominating the game from early on despite Pajkatt's Troll Warlord not even getting active on the map. EGM found himself an early first blood on Silent's Lycanthrope who was jungling at low health. After that Tinker dominated all lanes and the game was cut short.
The second game was more even, Empire got a good early lead after having the better laning phase, however SingSing's Brewmaster and qojqva's Doom managed to come into play midgame and even out the disadvantage. The early Aghanim on Qojqva's Doom Bringer was hard to handle for Empire. However, after losing a couple of fights, they found themselves the core items (MKB vs PA, Linken vs Doom) to win a key fights after which they got top barracks.
The third and final game went Tinker's way, mostly due to the offlane Brewmaster of Empire who struggled coming into play due to a rough lane. Meanwhile the safelane storm by Qojqva had a really good game, giving them further control. Tinker won basically all fights due to their item and mobility advantage but as grim as things looked for Empire, they managed to secure a Doom on Storm (past his Linken) and got a team wipe. However, a great double four man Ravage eventually settled the game. Overall great performance by Qojqva, Tinker moves on to the grand finals for a rematch versus Natus Vincere.
Check out interviews, vods and news from the event at our D2CL season 4 coverage hub.
