As the competition heats up in the Open Division the games become tighter and tighter with teams giving their all for the best seeding going into the playoffs
On the first side of the semi-finals LFM faced Even in Death. Game one on Braxis Holdout, EiD earned the first zerg push thanks to global from Falstad and put a ton of pressure onto LFM barely into level 7. Using that same strategy they quickly got level 10 along with another full zerg push. LFM tried to makeup for their shortcomings by getting the boss but it was quickly taken away, just adding to EiDs already strong push. They snowballed from there and took the first win.
LFM tied up the match as their smart Abathur pickup kept them up on experience the whole game.
Even in Death tried the Abathur 'trick' in game three on Towers of Doom and while it was a clever choice to keep their experience up, it left them a man behind when it came to team fights that are vital on this map. That was very apparant as EiD fell in the final game with zero hero kills.
On the other side of the semi-finals UT-A faced Imported Support. Both teams took double support on Infernal Shrines for game one. While kills and experience were equal, Imported Support got much more use from the punisher but the punisher up until UT-A fought back. Hard. After the final punisher at level 20 and 3 kills Imported was able to finally take down the core.
Another Abathur pick came in, this time on the side of UT-A for Cursed Hollow. Imported was on the verge of snowballing the win as they led level 10 with 3 kills to none and two tributes already claimed. UT-A turned it all around in their favor taking three kills and immediately going for boss to catch up. Imported responded with getting the other boss as well as the playing field equaled out completely. UT-A held a strong defense as the midlane to their core was completely vulnerable. After Imported got another boss leading into level 20 it left UT-A's core more and more vulnerable. As UT-A did the same, their boss pushed all the way to Importeds core and as they ignored it Locust Swarm from Abathur kept building and building and ultimately won them the comeback just as Imported reached level 20 and UT-A’s core.
In the tiebreaker both teams were fairly equal in kills and levels but by level 17 and a boss push it was really Imported's game to lose. With Oden from Tychus they were able to push the boss all the way to the core and take the win at barely 15 minutes.
Game one of the finals was certainly a game of...questionable...compositions as LFM took Zagara and Sylvanas while LFM took Nova and Medivh.
Zagara and Sylvanas fared pretty well as Imported held all of their forts while they took multiple back to back curses and camps knocking at LFM’s core. Thanks to the experience lead, Imported was able to roll away with the win.
LFM came back and tied the series up after a quick game two that lasted barely 17 minutes with no level 20s.
In game three Imported earned most of the Dragon Knights as they kept up usually a 1-2 level lead. The momentum just rolled on to level 20 and even though LFM got the final Dragon Knight Imported just went straight to core for the win.
Imported Support took away their second cup win and secured a second place spot in the standings going into the playoffs.
The third place match was broadcasted thanks to CavalierGuest and Even in Death defeated UT-A 2-0.
That concludes the North American Open Division for the first half of the HGC for 2017! The top 16 teams will now fight in a playoff bracket in two weeks. The remaining top two teams will then move on to The Crucible where they will play the bottom two teams in the current HGC Premier League for their HGC spots.
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