The qualifier where dreams are shattered continues as heavy favorite Vikin.gg suffers an upset and Team Liquid gets knocked down to the lower bracket by Tundra.
Ceb and N0tail carrying OG against Team Nigma
It was a good day two for OG as they managed to win against the top-seeded Team Nigma in their best of three series to see who will face Tundra Esports in the upper bracket final. OG pulled off some of their best Dota drafting and playing in this series, completely overwhelming Team Nigma in games one and three. The second game would have probably went their way had it not been for some incredibly throw-y plays from both cores Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan and Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, ultimately giving back Team Nigma the chance to even out the game and push the series to the brink at 1-1.
Games one and three, however, showed the back-to-back defending TI champions at the best they’ve ever been these past few months, with captain Johan “N0tail” Sundstein showing off the deep hero pools that each member has. As hard support, he busted out his Chen, which in the hands of any other team would’ve been a useless, gold-feeding burden. With OG’s hard-hitting playstyle, however, it proved to be a monster in games one and two, enabling all of OG’s cores with great camp stacking and auras for days. OG off-laner Sébastien “Ceb” Debs stated confidently in the post-match interview that they managed to win this series without showing off most of their hidden strats, and you just know that their fans can’t wait to see them use those in their next matches.
OG’s next match is an important one, as they look to get to the Grand Final of the qualifiers. The team standing in their way is Tundra Esports, and it will be a spicy one and surely one to watch.
Tundra showed that they have what it takes as they send Liquid to lower brackets
On the other side of the upper bracket, Tundra Esports gave everyone watching a show as they danced circles around Team Liquid, one of the strongest teams in the region. The roster took both games methodically, stomping Liquid in the first in what was considered to be the worst game in any tournament so far for the latter. For the second, Tundra proved their discipline and patience as they managed to turn a huge net worth difference and two sets of barracks lost into a win in just the span of a few minutes. Tundra Esports took the series 2-0, moving up the upper bracket final where they will face OG in a series that will decide who gets a 50-50 shot at taking Europe’s final TI slot.
Vikin.gg gets 2-0’d by Chicken Fighters in what is possibly the biggest upset of the qualifiers
Everyone has good and bad Dota days, and Vikin.gg experienced what is probably their worst during day two of the TI10 WEU Qualifiers as they exit quite early thanks to a very solid performance from a team that call themselves Chicken Fighters. To add insult to that particular injury, they did not even manage to take a game, losing two games in a row thanks to what can only be described as top-tier performances from Chicken Fighters’ cores Charlie “Charlie” Arat and Ondřej “Supream” Štarha.
The Chicken Fighters’ finger-lickin’ run did not end there, as they once again 2-0’d the Hellbear Smashers in a decisive series. This good run puts them up against Team Liquid next, and if they win this they will have the chance to prove themselves against Team Nigma, should the latter win their own series against Spider Pigzs.
Ghost Frogs and Team Bald Reborn eliminated despite having byes
Unlike the other lower bracket teams, Ghost Frogs and Team Bald Reborn enjoyed themselves during the first day as they avoided matches thanks to having byes, immediately pushing them to round two. However, both fell to the losers from the upper bracket teams Hellbear Smashers and Spider Pigzs, ending their runs quite early and proving that there’s an insane amount of talent in the region that anyone can be eliminated without warning.
In any case, it was a sad day for Team Bald Reborn and fans of position 1 Janne “Gorgc” Stefanovski as his goal to jokingly ‘gatekeep’ any of the bigger teams from that final TI spot ultimately failed.
It did not come home for Into the Breach
Things looked good for UK representative Into the Breach going further into the lower bracket, having successfully defended their shot at a TI10 spot by eliminating Brame from the competition. Their next match against the Spider Pigzs was hyped by a lot of UK Dota fans, and especially as the team managed to pick themselves up after an unfortunate disconnection by off-laner Abdimalik “Malik” Sailau, forcing the team to fight 4v5 as their pause timer ran out and well within into the very late game. After what seemed like forever, Malik managed to reconnect and eventually win the game with ITB, as UK Dota managed to keep its dream alive and tie the series for a game three.
Their best efforts, however, were for naught, as after a grueling hour long game Spider Pigzs managed to take the third game and knock Into the Breach out of the qualifiers. It may be coming home for English football, but English Dota still has some ways to go.
