It looks the golden days of Team Secret are over as they throw away their lead in both the games to get beaten 2-0 by Team Liquid and find themselves eliminated from the EPIC League. On the other hand, Na’Vi, after a fantastic group stage finish, fall successively, initially in the upper brackets to Vikin.gg and now in the lower bracket to OG to get knocked out of the tournament. Both Na’Vi and Secret finish in the 5-6th place and take home a sum of $30,000.
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Liquid Comeback To Knock Secret Out Of EPIC League
Game 1 witnessed Liquid going in with the last pick Ursa in a bid to counter Sven- a matchup that worked tremendously in their group stage series against Nigma. Secret emerged out slightly ahead in the initial phases as they looked to push this lead further. All of Liquid’s heroes were being continuously found and killed apart of miCKe on Ursa, who managed to extract a lot of farm. As a result, all of their hopes lied on him, and he absolutely thrived on it, solo carrying the team to victory. Secret had no answers to him, and each of their heroes got shredded. Things fell apart in a flash for Secret as they lost game 1 in 40 minutes.
Game 2 was one of the more intense games in the playoffs as both teams kept winning and losing teamfights. While both the carries suffered, the midlaners were shining on their respective heroes. A seesaw ride as it was, Secret had the control for the majority part of the game, but one major teamfight loss at the 38-minute mark for them completely turned the game upside down. One more time, Secret let go of their early lead, which forced them to tap out of the game in 51 minutes and lose the series 0-2.
With this, Liquid has knocked Secret out of their second consecutive tournament- a thing that had become impossible to happen, considering their eight-month indomitable winning streak. Liquid, themselves, have bounced back strongly from a disastrous beginning to this EPIC League and will now face against OG for a spot in the lower bracket final.
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OG Outplay Na’Vi To Continue Their Lower Bracket Run
Game 1 saw OG taking some notes from Liquid textbook as they picked a first phase, Ursa, in a bid to counter Na’Vi’s Sven. OG lost its mid and safe lane but Ceb having an amazing time in the offlane deterred Na’Vi from pushing their lead any further. In the meanwhile, MidOne picked up a lot of creep score with a Battlefury on Ursa and once all of OG’s heroes found the right combination of items and levels, they pounced upon Na’Vi. One of Na’Vi’s cores was always found and killed at the start of teamfights, making it impossible for them to engage any further. They could not stand against the insane amount of damage coming in from OG’s heroes, which forced them to GG out at 33 minutes.
In Game 2, OG picked up the Sven for themselves, a hero with which MidOne has lost only once in the current 7.27 patch. Na’Vi did not copy OG and Liquid’s strategy of picking Ursa to counter Sven but went in for a signature V-Tune Lifestealer. The initial phases went in favour of Na’Vi as they always got the better of small skirmishes. MidOne was always relocated to safety by N0tail on Io, which massively helped him amass a lot of farm. Once again, he carried OG to victory as Na’Vi despite having an Aegis could not fight against such a farmed Sven with all the buffs coming in from Io, Solar Crest and Pugna heals. Eventually, OG ended the game in 34 minutes, keeping their hopes alive at the EPIC League.
Na’Vi will certainly be disappointed with their elimination from the EPIC League considering their amazing group stage performance and the runner-ups spot at the recently concluded ESL One Germany 2020. OG, on the other side, looks to be gaining a lot of momentum now as they have shown some classic Dota they are known for.
