image source: @BeyondTheSummit
Team Liquid took an easy 2-0 series against Na'Vi to advance to the lower bracket finals of The Summit 5.
Game One:
Both teams held somewhat true to their current forms in the drafting phase, with Team Liquid prioritizing the Drow Ranger and also taking special care to ban out Ivan 'Artstyle' Antonov's signature Enchantress in order to secure a good laning stage. Na'Vi went for the Sand King again, encouraged by their success on the hero against Fnatic and Ad Finem in earlier games. They also grabbed a rarely seen Undying with their last pick of the draft in an attempt to secure a strong laning presence in the early game.
Unfortunately, the viewers never even got to see what Na'Vi's draft could accomplish, as the support duo of Kuro 'Kuroky' Takhasomi and Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka on the Elder Titan and Oracle absolutely dominated the laning stage for Team Liquid. They secured several early kills on Victor 'GeneRaL' Nigrini's offlane Sand King, with GeneRaL inexplicably opting to return to the lane after each death instead of retreating to the jungle. After securing the top lane for Liquid, Jerax and Kuroky began to rotate and gank around the map, easily killing off Dmitry 'Ditya-Ra' Minenkov's Clinkz with the help of the Faceless Void, and continuously roaming into Na'Vi's jungle. As Na'Vi continued to chain feed after a failed gank attempt of their own, neither of their cores were able to get off the ground in time and 'GG' was called only 20 minutes into the game.
Game Two:
Changes were made by both teams in the draft for game two, with Na'Vi banning out the Drow Ranger, and deny picking the dangerous Elder Titan. Liquid opted to remove two signature Akbar 'SoNNeikO' Butaev heroes with first phase bans on the Io and Bounty Hunter. Liquid was able to secure both Lasse 'Matumbaman' Urpalainen's Huskar as well as the Oracle to partner it, throwing in a surprise last pick position four Pudge for Kuroky to play. Na'Vi counter picked by throwing their hopes on a safelane Legion Commander for Ditya-Ra.
At the beginning, the lanes looked slightly better for Na'Vi compared to the disastrous first game, as they managed to at least secure some farm on their cores early, but Liquid soon found their feet and once again began to assert their dominance on the map.
The Pudge and Oracle picks did just enough to throw Na'Vi off in the lanes, allowing Adrian 'Fata-' Trinks free farm and early kill participation on his Mirana, snowballing the hero out of control, and securing him a fast Aghanim's Scepter in under 15 minutes. Firmly in the lead, Liquid transitioned a Roshan attempt and the subsequent Aegis on Huskar into taking several objectives, forcing Na'Vi back towards their base.
Hope was lost for Na`Vi as Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin's Alchemist was deprived of farm, and kept falling farther and farther behind in net worth. Ditya-Ra's Legion Commander was almost useless, and continued to get nuked down by Fata- and JerAx's insane magic damage whenever he committed to a duel. The game lasted only 15 seconds longer than the first one, as Na'Vi was eliminated after one final failed defense.
Team Liquid will face OG in the lower bracket finals, with the winner playing Wings in the grand finals.
