The South East Asia qualifiers for The International 6 are now over. After TnC secured their TI6 participation by winning the round robin group stage, Fnatic grabbed the second spot into the main event at the end of the playoffs stage.
In the second qualifiers stage, best of three double elimination playoffs bracket, Fnatic swept through White Fries Gaming and WarriorsGaming.Unity in the upper bracket to reach the grand finals, where they met the Filipino team Execration.
Game One
The first game of the grand finals featured the Djardel 'DJ' Mampusti Enigma along with Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo’s Batraider in a team fight, five man push oriented draft, while Execration chose to avoid Chai Yee 'Mushi' Fung’s team as much as possible and went with a split push strategy that relied on Ember Spirit and Death Prophet. But, the skill difference between the two teams showed from the very first minutes into the game. Fnatic had a perfect start in the laning stage, won all their three lanes with Enigma sitting third on the net worth charts.
With every tower objective Execration tried to achieve, Fnatic always came out on top, preventing Tidehunter’s Ravage and killing any team fight hope for the Pinoys. The game ended after 35 painful minutes for Execration with Fnatic taking down two tier three towers at the same time, splitting their heroes both mid and top lane.
Game Two
Fnatic continued their dominant performance with the second game of the series, this time around with a Tinker in the mid lane and Ohaiyo setting up the team fights on Faceless Void. They took early objectives without any loss and claimed the entire map control by the 15 minute mark to make the first high ground push only five minutes later and close the game with a final 27 - 9 kill score in their favor.
Game Three
With a two games advantage, Fnatic chose to have a try at Morphling, one of the most debated heroes by the analysts and commentators alike for these qualifiers, while Execration went once more with a late game split push strategy
Morphling didn’t join the early skirmishes nor did he effectively help his team with early pushes and Execration took advantage, forcing a couple of team fights with Tidehunter in the front line while their Naga was left to free farm her BOT’s and Radiance. Her core items came online before the 20 minute mark and that enabled XTCN to go for the high ground push while Fnatic was still not ready to fight.
One big wasted Chronosphere on the Naga illusions was enough for the Pinoy team to secure mega creeps in one push and force Fnatic into a game four.
Game Four
The fourth game of the series was the last one, as Fnatic tried some mind games with their adversaries during the draft stage, showcasing their players flexibility. They went with a first pick Timbersaw and outmaneuvered Execration with a mid lane Ohaiyo Broodmother.
Although XTCN had the better start and punished the mid Brood by sending Sven to stand against her, once Yeik Zheng 'MidOne' Nai finished the Blink Dagger and the Bloodstone on his Timber, Fnatic started to continuously look for pick offs, creating chaos in lanes while Ohaiyo was able to push tower after tower. 20 minutes into the game MidOne was big enough to afford fountain dives, keeping Execration busy while their base was falling apart.
For Fnatic, the victory over the Filipino team comes with a ticket to The International 6, however the losers of this series, Execration achieved their biggest result so far and will travel to Seattle this summer where they will have the last chance of making it into the main event, via the Wild Card competition.
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