Team Liquid has secured the second slot for the European region for EPICENTER Major set to kick off next month.
After Team Secret directly booked their ticket to EPICENTER Major following the group stage, the playoffs began to determine the second, and eventually third, team to compete in the last DPC 2018-2019 season event.
NiP, OG, Team Liquid and Alliance were left standing to vie for two spots. Alliance came out of the gate swinging with a very convincing win over NiP for the first series. The first match was over in merely 25 minutes as on OP Morphling destroyed NiP. The second match ended in favor of NiP after a pretty even start. In the end, with a heavily farmed Timbersaw and lots of map control NiP was able to tie up the series. The deciding game was a hard-fought series with Alliance narrowly in the lead, often coming close to losing their advantage. Holding their breath and hearts pounding they were able to close out the game in their favor and advance further.
It took the full three games between Team Liquid and OG to determine a winner of the series. OG started off looking like they all but had the first match in their pocket. A strong start gradually building up fell about 35 minutes in after a few bad fights. They quickly regained the lead, turning a 5k deficit into a 15k lead only to lose it in a devastating manner at the very end. OG's only win was a battle that was filled with ups and downs and thrills-a-minute. The last match was all in favor of Team Liquid with some heavily farmed cores and aggressive pacing.
Feeding off of the adrenaline rush of their first series win, Alliance headed into their battle with Team Liquid raring to go. The Swedish team took the first match relatively easy. They fought hard in the second match that resembled more a ping pong game with the lead and control going back and forth between the two teams, eventually ending in favor of Team Liquid. It was the TI7 championship team that would take the third game and series victory with relative ease to secure their place at the EPICENTER Major.
Alliance still have one more shot as they wait for the winner of the NiP/OG series for the final slot. Both OG and Alliance need to compete at the Major with decent results to secure their direct invite to TI9. OG is currently with an edge, sitting in 9th place with over 900 points over Alliance sitting in 15th place with only 279 points. A fourth place or better finish at the Major is what they are both aiming for.
The action resumes today at 14:00 CEST.
EPICENTER Major
The last DPC event will take place in Moscow, Russia at the VTB Ice Palace June 22-30, with 16 teams competing for the lion's share of the $1,000,000 prize pool. As with all DPC events, there will be no direct invites. All 16 participants will need to qualify, 14 through the closed regional events and two teams via the StarLadder Minor.
