Good morning everybody! Welcome back to Gosugamers coverage of the Manila Major.
Yesterday was an awesome day with some awesome games. If you haven't already, you have to go check out OG v MVP Phoenix, that series was absolutely unbelievable!
Our interview with Capitalist is now up, as well as our short catch-up with SirActionSlacks. Keep it locked to GosuGamers.net later in the day as our interview with Godz should be up sometime this afternoon.
10:54 am: Na’Vi v Liquid.
Game 1 of Na’Vi v Liquid is well underway.
Liquid took an early lead and were seeming to be in complete control of the game. After taking an early Roshan, Liquid looked to rotate towards Na’Vi’s middle T3 tower. However, a beautiful defence from Na’Vi deflected Liquid’s push and resulted in a 4-0 fight in Na’Vi’s favour and the momentum of the match swinging back in Na’Vi’s favour.
A failed Roshan attempt by Na’Vi surrendered their lead back to Liquid though, resulting in Liquid taking their second Rosh and killing Dendi during an attempted Aegis steal.
11:05 am:
Liquid continue their lead; taking Na’Vi’s top lane of rax in an intense fight where almost the entire team on both sides fell.
Liquid then rotate into the Rosh pit again and easily secure both the Aegis and Cheese. They use this momentum to push through Na’Vi’s middle lane, quickly securing the GG from their opponents.
11:35 am: Na’Vi v Liquid, game 2.
Game 2 of Na’Vi vs Liquid is now underway.
This crowd is absolutely insane! Their passion for everything Na’Vi is almost unbelievable, they’re almost as excited for this match as they were when their home team was playing Alliance a few days ago.
Liquid score first-blood on Sonneiko on the Bounty Hunt; but Sonneiko responds almost instantly by sniping Liquid’s courier UNDER the T1 tower in mid; denying the Death Prophets bottle and slowing Liquid’s momentum.
11:51 am:
Na’Vi seem firmly in control of this match.
Finding pickoff after pickoff, Na’Vi are preventing Liquid from ever getting the solid 5 on 5 fight they need so badly in order to better Na’Vi’s line-up.
Liquid respond by rotating into the Roshan pit and securing the first Aegis of the game uncontested at 18 minutes into the match. The question will be, can Liquid convert the advantage into momentum in order to get back into this game?
12:00 pm:
Liquid take an amazing fight in middle lane; counter-initiating onto Na’Vi as they attempt to kill the Sven while in the river. When the dust settles, Na’Vi are down 4-1 and Liquid are able to secure the T2 tower in mid.
The game is still very even though; only one kill separates the scores and both teams still have T2’s standing.
Liquid begin to look towards the pit again. They score a kill on the Venge in the Radiant jungle and then instantly into Roshan and secure another Aegis.
Liquid move towards Na’Vi’s middle rax, but at the same time Na’Vi are pushing in top. Liquid take the better trade however; clearing out Na’Vi’s middle rax and securing the T3 on bottom lane before a clean retreat.
12:06 pm:
Liquid engage Na’Vi in the Dire jungle; scoring a five-man team wipe before pushing straight for the throne.
Na’Vi attempt to buy-back but they cannot stop the onslaught that is rolling towards them. Liquid push through the base, finish off the players of Na’Vi, and secure the GG.
The crowd doesn’t care though; the Na’Vi chants are going strong and the cheer that comes up as Dendi and Kuroky share a quick hug on stage is genuinely deafening.
3:12 pm: Secret Shop.
We've been off exploring the venue and having a look at the Secret Shop.
The secret shop works a little differently to previous events. Rather than purchasing a specific item of your choosing, you purchase a random drop of varying levels of value.
Depending on the value of the drop, you will have a chance to receive different (and higher value) items.
There's a lot of mixed feelings around this style of experience. I'm personally not a big fan; when I pay a decent amount of money for something (up to $100) I want to know what I'm getting. There's also an element of gambling to it which I'm not a huge fan of... but oh well. It's cool that Valve is mixing things up a bit and making it fun.
You also have the chance to run into some interesting people from the production team walking around. We bumped in to Nahaz and ActionSlacks while they were out talking to some fans.
3:22: LGD v VG.R.
While we've been off exploring the venue, the series between LGD and VG.R has been heating up.
Both teams currently have one win each; the decider looks to be tense.
6:00 pm: LGD takes the series.
LGD have defeated VG.R 2-1 in an absolutely intense series.
Next up we have Team Liquid vs the SE Asian titans of Fnatic. As is to be expected, the stadium atmosphere is electric. You can feel the crowd’s energy rising as the feature series of the day unfolds.
Liquid have the advantage early on and the fans watch with intense anticipation.
6:46 pm: Liquid v Fnatic game 2.
Liquid were able to best Fnatic in game 1 in a scrappy display of determination and outright Dota prowess.
Game 2 promises to be a crowd pleaser though; Liquid have picked up the tournament signature Riki while Fnatic have gone for a Medusa. This game will simply come down to timing; Liquid have to gain an advantage early on and finish this before the late game or Fnatic's line-up will roll over them.
6:51 pm:
This game is not going well for liquid.
Fnatic have managed to take a series of successful team fights in the early game; slowing down the Alchemists farm and preventing the Riki from being able to effectively gank.
Liquid respond though; taking a series of pickoffs all around the map with the Lifestealer before immediately rotating into Roshan and taking the first Aegis of the match.
6:59 pm:
Liquid’s lineup has started to come online.
The Slardar has his Blink Dagger and the Lifestealer and Alchemist have started to come online.
This is the crucial timing for Liquid; they need to inflict some serious damage in the next ten minutes if they want to have a chance of defeating Fnatic going late.
Liquid take another massive team fight in the Dire jungle; killing off four of Fnatic’s heroes and killing the Medusa on the steps of her own base.
7:17 pm:
Liquid group up and rotate towards Roshan again, but Fnatic know what’s going on.
Fnatic goes for a Venge Swap out of the pit but it backfires. They get turned on by Liquid and absolutely decimated.
Liquid group up and push through Fnatic’s mid T3 and rax before rotating back towards the pit to finish off Roshan.
Fnatic know they have to contest if they want to stay in this match but Liquid are simply too strong. Liquid clean up the entire team of Fnatic and force the GG.
Despite Fnatic’s best efforts, Team Liquid’s mid-game line up was simple too strong and Liquid takes the series 2-0.
That’s our final series of the day everybody.
Make sure you join us tomorrow as we continue our live coverage of the event. We’ve got MVP Phoenix vs LGD and OG vs Newbee; both guaranteed to be enormous matches here in Manila.
