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With the Shanghai Major quickly drawing to a close, the Lower Bracket sees four teams battle to keep their place in the tournament. The first series would be a fight between Alliance and compLexity Gaming.
Game One
At the start of the game, both teams look to focus on farming but good rotations from compLexity secures them first blood soon after four minutes. Even with the early pressure from coL, Alliance go toward the ten minute mark with quite a nice lead, with a score line of 7-2. By the twenty minute mark, Alliance seems happy to pick off heroes and keep farming. But a good team fight from coL – while Rasmus 'Chessie' Blomdin on a Nature's Prophet split pushes top – brings down Jonathan 'Loda' Berg in the bot lane. However, the game still seemed to hang in the balance, awaiting one team to make a move toward the highground or a big mistake. And soon after the thirty minute mark, this did happen, as coL take a great teamfight at the Rosh pit.
Even with the fight not going their way, Alliance still had a massive lead and coL were relying on a split push tactic to win rather than pushing straight through to the highround. The game progressed with no other Black Holes hitting the mark, and Alliance end up rolling through their opponents, forcing out buybacks and killing them off again. The Dire team finally throw in the towel and call gg, with Gustav 's4' Magnusson on the Zeus being far too strong to handle. Alliance took a 1-0 lead and seemed ready to eliminate coL from the Major.
Game Two
Early in game two, with an Earth Spirit on their side, coL manage to grab both bounty runes, giving them a small advantage in the early game. With this advantage they take the first blood and grab a second kill quickly after. But Alliance - never wanting to be on the backfoot for too long - convert a failed smoke gank into a tier one tower top, making it a bit more worthwhile for them. By ten minutes, coL have the lead in the score line, but the game seems fairly even beyond that. The first major teamfight breaks out at the Dire tier one bot tower and while it seems to be going in coL’s favour, Alliance come out on top and continue to push down the tier two tower as well. Suddenly compLexity seemed to be falling apart at the seems, getting picked off across the map.
Twenty minutes in and the game is still bouncing back and forth, with compLexity coming out on top of most of the fights that occur. Great plays from Kyle 'Swindlezz' Freedman on the Dark Seer help the Dire team find some good picks. Alliance’s pushing strategy draft had definitely helped them stay alive in this game this far, and they start to push the highground in the bottom lane – but back out after doing some good damage to the tier three tower. They then begin to play their well-known rat DotA, attempting to push the highground while coL push out other lanes – knowing that the Dire side would be unable to really counter the Radiant’s split push ability.
Just before the forty minute mark though, a huge Relocate save from Simon 'Handsken' Haag, on the Wisp, pulls both teams into a massive teamfight, where coL destroy Alliance and then head right into the Radiant base where they pummel down the mid and top rax. Soon after, at forty-four minutes, they push bot and force the gg from Alliance, tying the series at 1-1 and taking us into a decisive game three.
Game Three
With the start of the third and final game in the series, coL looked far more confident in their ability to win the game. With quick ganks and early tower pushes, Alliance started of on the back foot. By the fifteen minute point, the score was 10-5 in compLexity’s favour. But Alliance started to pick up their game just before the twenty minute mark, getting three kills and pulling the game seemingly into their favour. But with compLexity picking up the first Rosh soon after this though, it looked like it would lean back towards their early game pressure.
Both teams traded kills back and forth until the thirty-five minute mark where Alliance took a great teamfight bot, with only Loda falling for the Radiant and four falling for Dire-sided compLexity. Alliance finally look like they had taken control of the game, taking the lead in the kills department, for now. However, at forty three minutes, coL take a big fight at Rosh and then push towards the highground mid, killing off Loda’s Spectre twice - with no buyback on their carry, Alliance's plight seemed dire. compLexity push down the mid rax and then move over to the bot lane, destroying the rax there too. With a few more kills in their favour compLexity Gaming knock Alliance out of the Major in a shocking upset.
