The sixth invited team to the Nanyang Champion #2 has been decided after Empire's 3-1 victory over Virtus.Pro in the finals of the EU qualifiers.
Empire will be traveling to Shanghai, China to battle for a portion of the $200,000 prize pool at the Nanyang Championships #2 LAN finals from the 6th to 10th of July. They will be competing with seven other teams, the invited teams are: Team Secret, Fnatic, EG, Newbee, Digital Chaos and Empire.
Game one
A solid early game, a messy mid-game, and a very tight late game. Virtus.Pro's laning stage ended with results favoring them after a few support rotations and solid Puck play. Between Spirit Breaker's charge and Puck's Dream Coil, VP were able to secure towers. However, the tides turned when VP slowed down the game and tried looking for ganks; they managed to find the ganks, but lost many heroes to get the kill due to Empire's counter ganks. This continued and Empire started building a lead until VP's Spectre hit critical mass and carried them to victory.
Game two
A calm early game allowed VP's Tiny-Io to build up momentum and kick everything into motion. Empire was powerless as the combo took tower successive towers, but this advantage was quickly negated after VP took Rosh and started pushing with their Lone Druid. A lucky pick-off on Tiny paved the way for Empire to take a set of Barracks and eventually, the game.
Game three
A Tinker pick resulted in VP's and Empire's supports having a heavy presence mid, where VP tried to prevent ganks while Empire tried to get ganks. VP's supports were the victor of this battle and their Tinker secured large amounts of farm. Empire did not manage to build the necessary momentum to crush the Tinker and was at the mercy of VP. This all changed when VP's Tinker got caught out twice, letting Empire take a set of Barracks and allowing their Spectre to become unstoppable.
Game four
VP's Alchemist farmed in exchange for their towers in the early game; VP turned into the aggressors after their Alchemist farmed his core items. But Empire's Medusa, Nature Prophet and Puck were able output enough damage and kept the enemy Alchemist in-control. In their time defending against VP, Medusa became a wall which cannot be broken and carried Empire to victory.
Headline and banner image from Empire's Facebook
