Photo courtesy of EPICENTER
Team Liquid and PSG.LGD have advanced to the upper bracket finals of EPICENTER XL and secured additional DPC points with their top four placement.
EPICENTER XL has become a very special event for Team Liquid. Not only did the TI7 champions and second place DPC team advance to the top four in Moscow, but with the minimum points they would receive at the event, they secured themselves a direct invite to TI8. Defending their reputation as one of the world's best and most formidable opponents, Team Liquid came into EPICENTER XL charged to win. The team has yet to lose a series and continue to dominate their opponents.
PSG.LGD has been steadily rising to the top of a short list of the world's best teams lately. With impressive performances, patience, and stellar drafting the Chinese team has been relentless in their quest for collecting DPC points to gain the highly coveted TI8 invite.
Team Liquid 2:0 OG
Team Liquid have not been taking it easy on their opponents. In a clean and tidy 2:0 sweep over OG, they continue to make collecting DPC points look as easy as taking candy from a baby. The first game started out relatively even, but one bad fight for OG would hand the game over to Team Liquid. At that point, things just quickly started to snowball as Liquid barrelled through to the end and OG stood alongside helpless. The second game was all Team Liquid's for the taking from the very start.
Team Liquid's win moves them along to the finals while OG's loss is a hefty one. The 'dream green' team will now face off against the CIS dark horse, FlyToMoon in the unforgiving best-of-one lower bracket elimination series.
Virtus.pro 1:2 PSG.LGD
This matchup was expected to be an exciting one, and it proved to hold true. The first game went in favor of PSG.LGD despite Virtus.pro's best efforts to take the game themselves. For the first 30 minutes, things were back and forth and too close for comfort. As the pressure intensified, the rising Chinese stars persevered and kept their composure to claim the win. The second match Virtus.pro bounced back with style in a dramatic and powerful statement. The CIS team dominated their opponents and although they almost let it slip from their hands towards the end, VP maintained a firm grip on their game and level head to tie up the series. The deciding match saw PSG.LGD take on the flashy storm spirit pick for middle lane that proved to crucial for the team as VP expended all of their energy into shutting him down, allowing Wang "Ame" Chunyu on Slark to become too difficult to handle. PSG.LGD seized the last game and the series win.
PSG.LGD's win advances them to the finals to face off against Team Liquid. The price for VP's loss is expensive. The CIS team will now have to overpower Mineski in the best-of-one elimination series to survive.
EPICENTER XL resumes tomorrow at 12:30 local time/11:30 CEST as FlyToMoon take on OG in the first of the Lower Bracket Round 2 best-of-one elimination series.
