9Pandas saved the day for the Eastern Europe region as Bali Major heads into the Main Event.
A disastrous day for EEU, with two teams being sent home and a drama attached to BetBoom Team, concluded with redemption from 9Pandas who remain the sole representative for their region in the main event.
Following their group stage performance, 9Pandas are bound to fight through the lower bracket rounds in the Bali Major playoffs. But with the first part of the day going from bad to worse for their regional counterparts, all eyes were on them in the final series of the day.
At the same time, the stakes were high for Team Aster, 9Pandas adversaries, who needed at least a top 8 finish in Bali in order to snatch one of the last two spots available at TI12 via Dota Pro Circuit Points
Team Astervs9Pandas
It all started well for Aster, who answered 9Pandas’ first pick Morphling with Drow Ranger, a somewhat classing counter. Despite the game going back and forth, Du "Monet" Peng’s Drow along with Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan’s Ember Spirit made the difference past the 30 minute mark.
However, heading into the second game, Aster pushed for one more Drow match and ended up getting countered by 9Pandas with a carry Alchemist. It was the EEU team that manage to reverse sweep Aster and secure a top eight finish and a presence in the main event at the very last major before The International 2023.
For Team Aster, the elimination means that they no longer have a shot at adding any DPC points to their name and that the only way to qualify for TI12 it will be through Chinese regional qualifiers.