picture courtesy of StarLadder
Team Liquid secured their second StarLadder title in just a few months. Back in February they won the SL StarSeries and now they managed to pocket the SL i-League Invitational Championship title too.
Although the tournament was held in Shanghai, China, none of the Chinese teams made it to the grand finals. Instead, TnC had an amazing run through the group stage and playoffs, reaching the grand finals undefeated, followed by Team Liquid who also had a stunning performance throughout the entire event, dropping only a single match in the playoffs finals against IG.
So, there was no surprise when TnC and Team Liquid delivered a very disputed series where games were traded back and forth up to a decisive game five.
Game One
The grand finals kicked off with a crushing first game from Liquid who grabbed a last pick Terrorblade for Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi. The laning stage went extremely well for the Europeans, all thanks to the early rotations in the mid lane from their captain Kuro 'KuroKy' Salehi Takhasomi. By the six minute mark Carlo 'Kuku' Palad died three times mid lane, which allowed TB to snowball into a killing machine.
Only 11 minutes into the game Miracle had under his name seven kills and two towers taken, and the fate of the game was already written. However, extremely disciplined, Liquid waited to have an Aegis placed on Terrorbalde before committing to the high ground push, where Dark Seer could have potentially create a lot of problems with a well-placed Vacuum-Wall. The Roshan kill that allowed Liquid to take the game one victory happened at the 23 minute mark and two minutes later TnC had to call out the GG.
Game Two
Despite the ugly loss suffered in the opening game, TnC came back on the big stage all smiles and ready to turn the grand finals into a bo3 scenario. Their new captain and drafter, Theeban '1437' Siva, prepared for Liquid a draft with multiple lock downs and a hefty amount of AoE damage for the team fights. Sven’s AoE stun and cleave, Sand King’s Burrowstrike, Leshrac’s AoE stun, Nyx Assassin's Impale and Spiked Carapace on top of an early Eul’s Scepter on Queen of Pain were all too much for Liquid to survive in any type of skirmishes or team fights.
Game Three
TnC tried to repeat a similar strategy to the previous game and went with a support Lina along with nyx and Sand King while having Marc Polo 'Raven' Luis Fausto on Spectre, one of his signature heroes. However, their plans were all messed up by Liquid with a Miracle Invoker fourth pick followed by a Lifestealer.
Nonetheless, TNC had the better start, focusing the Invoker mid lane. But we are still to witness the day when a few ganks on Miracle’s Invoker will make the difference, as he recovered quickly in his own fashion. Multiple Sun Strike kills accomplished on the back of a beautiful coordination with Kuroky on his support Tusk and with Ivan 'MinD_ContRoL' Borislavov who played a mean Earth Shaker, resulted in a 17 minutes Aghanim’s Scepter for Miracle and a lost game for TnC. Continuously sniped down, TnC had no time to create any space for their Spectre to farm and the game closed in just 22 minutes with Team Liquid being one game away from lifting the SL i-League Invitational trophy.
Game Four
Once again TnC came back onto the stage with a clear plan in their minds and postponed the grand finals ending. They summoned the old Io-Sven relocate strategy to stay alive in the series and with great success. Having a support Ogre Magi as well for the Blood Lust, TnC wiped the floor out with Liquid, making a clear statement that they were not ready to give up on their chance at claiming the tournament title.
TnC focused Miracle and his mid lane tower again, but this time around they forced Liquid to come and defend with three or even four heroes, which allowed Sven to free farm. By the 10 minute mark Raven had a 2k gold net worth lead and he was ready to join the fights. Liquid got outmaneuvered by the Io relocates time and time again and, with an Aegis in Sven’s inventory 27 minutes into the game, TnC pushed the series to a decisive match.
Game Five
One game away from the LAN victory, both teams geared up for strong battles and both had a twist in their strategies. TnC chose a surprise last pick Phantom Lancer for Kuku, meant to mess up with Invoker’s mana pool and Liquid’s overall high ground defense while the European juggernaut relied on a heavy tower hitter, Lone Druid bear with Radiance and the Alacrity buff. Despite being once again forced to deal with TnC’s aggression, Liquid executed their strategy to perfection. Kuku did indeed shut down Miracle in the early stage, and it looked like he was becoming unstoppable. But while TnC put all their efforts on keeping the Invoker behind, Lasse 'MATUMBAMAN' Urpalainen had free farm and his Bear was six slotted around the 30 minute mark. A well-timed Roshan contest at the 24 minute mark was the nail in the coffin for TnC, who couldn’t deal from there on with Liquid’s push and teamfight control.
Liquid’s victory at Starladder i-League invitational should be a good reason for a possible TI 7 direct invite, and if this alone would not be enough for Valve to take them into consideration, they still have ahead of them the EPICENTER second edition where Liquid are directly invited to defend the title they won last year in Moscow.
