All the highlights from our second day of the Western Europe DPC Regional Finals.
After we saw two epic series in Round 1 of the Upper Bracket, it was time for the Final. Of course, today was the day when we also had the chance to watch the first round of the Lower Bracket.
Following Team Liquid’s dominant performance against OG, Lasse Aukusti “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen and the rest of his team had to play against Gladiators. The latter secured themselves a spot here after defeating Team Tundra.
As for the Lower Bracket, OG had to fight for its survival against Tundra Esports, a really difficult team to beat. With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the most important things that we have to know about these two fantastic series.
UB Finals – Team Liquid vs Gladiators
Game 1
The first game of the series between the two powerhouses was not as interesting as it seemed on paper. Gladiators decided to pick an exciting draft with IO and Treant, two heroes who should help their team under pressure. Although they helped a lot during the laning stage, Team Liquid’s aggressive lineup with Invoker and Naga Siren was too strong.
The European powerhouse secured a solid lead for the mid game and accumulated a comfortable 5k net worth advantage. This gave them enough time to snowball and prevent PA and Ember from farming. Needless to say, Gladiators were unable to bounce back and had to focus on game two.
Game 2
After losing the first game of the series, Gladiators decided to change their draft but picked Phantom Assassin yet again. They even got Timbersaw in an attempt to counter their strong opponents. Sadly, this was not enough to win because Gyrocopter and IO played flawlessly. Team Liquid also had Queen of Pain, the strongest mid laner in the current patch.
The team fights were even in the beginning, but things changed once TL got a couple of items. The team started winning most of the critical battles and slowly gained a considerable advantage over its opponents.
Phantom Assassin managed to secure several vital kills for her team and gave them the chance to bounce back. Sadly, Gyro took the Aegis, which gave Team Liquid a massive advantage in team fights. Needless to say, a team of this caliber took full advantage of it and sent their opponents to the lower bracket. This victory sent Team Liquid to the Finals, where they will face one of the remaining three teams.
LB Round 1 – OG vs Team Tundra
Game 1
Round 1 of the Lower Bracket was exciting because OG had to face Team Tundra. The first game between the two was intense because both squads had perfect drafts. The laning stage was pretty even because neither team was able to get a substantial advantage. With that being said, Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov managed to do really well against QoP. This provided him with the chance to snowball, which was good news for OG.
OG continues to play more aggressively in the mid game because they have Ursa and IO. As expected, the team was able to secure the first Roshan kill very early on, which allowed them to be more dangerous during the team fights. Despite the fact that bzm didn’t get the Aegis, he kills Tundra’s players.
After 33 minutes of play, OG already had more than 11k net worth advantage. This gave them full map control, which meant that TT could not farm. The two times TI winners doubled their lead a couple of minutes later and started pushing their opponents Tier 3 towers. As expected, OG continued to dominate its opponents and eventually secured themselves the first win in the series.
Game 2
Despite losing the first game of the series, Team Tundra demolished their opponents in game two. After picking an excellent draft, their Templar Assassin managed to snowball out of control land had around a 10k net worth just 14 minutes after the start of the game. OG tried to utilize Bristleback as a carry, but their tactic was not great. Team Tundra completely ripped through them in every team fight and had more than 11k net worth advantage.
OG tried to delay the game as much as possible so that their cores could bounce back. Sadly, this never happened because TT had complete map control. They secured Roshan for the second time, which made Templar Assassin almost impossible to kill. OG tried to surprise their opponents and even killed TA. Sadly, the other heroes from Liquid’s roster were too strong and secured Team Tundra the victory. This pushed the series into a final game three.
Game 3
OG didn’t want to give Team Tundra to pick TA, so they decided to get it for themselves. With that being said, TT got a really strong draft that included Invoker mid and CK as a carry. OG tried to focus on the mid game, so they’ve picked heroes, such as Razor and Sand King.
Since OG picked Templar Assassin, they tried to stack as many camps as possible so that the hero could get Desolator as fat as possible. Of course, Oliver “skiter” Lepko and the rest did everything they could to prevent him from taking advantage of this, but he managed to get a lot of farm. This helped BZM secure himself a triple kill, which gave OG a slight edge.
A couple of minutes later, OG managed to get the Aegis which allowed them to push a couple of towers. While pushing the T2 in the top lane, bzm got an ultra kill, which gave OG the chance to secure the first lane of rax. Bzm continued to right-click his enemies, and a couple of minutes later, OG won another crucial team fight. This was when Tundra realized that the game was over and used the gg call.
