Photo courtesy of DreamHack
Immortals and paiN Gaming had to bid an early farewell to Dream League Season 9 after being overwhelmed in the lower bracket elimination series.
The temperatures in Sweden were freezing, but things were heating up in the Monster Energy DreamHack Studios as elimination was on the line for four teams.
Immortals 1:2 Team Empire
Immortals had made their first LAN and Pro Circuit appearance since November when they took a disappointing 7-8th place finish at DotaPit Minor. Armed with a revamped roster, the North American team came out in the first game looking to be in good shape. After a relatively even start against Team Empire, they slightly lost their footing for a short period of time before picking up the pieces and ending with a very strong finish. With the first game under their belt, Immortals were looking to close things out quickly.
The second game saw both Team Empire and Immortals taking very fast and fight oriented drafts. The North American squad didn't seem to have an answer to Team Empire's Enigma BKB and it became very hard for them to play against. The CIS squad looked much cleaner with better execution this second round and gave Immortals a lot more problems than they expected. Empire's victory forced the deciding third game.
With elimination on the line Team Empire completely crushed Immortals, unleashing their fury and aggression in leaps and bounds. In a staggering 5:39 score, Empire gained another day at the event as they advanced to the Lower Bracket Round 2 and eliminated Immortals.
paiN Gaming 0:2 OG
The first match started out with the South American team going head to head and toe to toe against the Europeans. It was a solid 15 minutes on a level playing field until a bad team fight at the Roshan pit turned things around. About 18 minutes in, following the team wipe on paiN Gaming, OG seized the lead and swung the game into their favor. They never stopped and turned to look back, closing out the game in 28 minutes.
The second match was much more one-sided and heavily favored OG. Looking much better than they had yesterday, OG was in top form and made very little, if any mistakes. The Europeans didn't give paiN Gaming much room to breathe, constantly applying pressure and choking them out around the map. In 20 minutes OG had a 21k gold lead and was ahead by 20 kills thanks to an incredible performance on Razor by Sebastien "7ckngMad" Debs. Unable to do much, paiN Gaming called 'GG' 22 minutes in, ending their run at DreamLeague Season 9.
The action resumes later today with the two semifinals, starting first with Fnatic vs Team Liquid.
