Group D has come to an end and with it the WePlay groupstages as Na`Vi and RoX.KiS secure their path into the next stage of the competition, leaving Fnatic on the outside looking in as what looked to be a fairly safe group for the Europeans started off with a disaster from which there was no recovery.
While Na`Vi had an easy run through the groups, not giving up a single game even though some heavy handed attempts at throwing a few won games, the rest of the group was a lot closer than many had expected. Everything started with RoX.KiS asserting their dominance against Poseidon and SFZ during the first day of play, making it a 4-0 and getting them most of the way to their eventual 5-3 record.
The true shocker of the group was Fnatic's poor showing against Poseidon, losing 0-2 first to an unconventional Abaddon, Treant Protector, Weaver, Outworld Devourer and Drow Ranger lineup, which Fnatic could not find a way to lane around nor to stop once they got going, and then to a more conventional CIS strategy of the Storm Spirit and Lifestealer combination which has been so popular in this particular region during the past month. Starting from a 0-2 record, Fnatic continued struggling in their first game against RoX.KiS before turning their fortunes around ever so slightly by taking the second game of the series, leaving RoX.KiS on the eventual 5-3 record while Fnatic went into the final day of Group D with a 1-3 run.
While Fnatic looked a bit more awake against the easiest opponent of the group, SFZ, things quickly took a turn in the wrong direction as they faced off against Na`Vi in the final game of the group. Fnatic managed to get some solid kills during the first minutes, including a first blood by Kalle 'Trixi' Saarinen on the offlane Vengeful Spirit against the solo safelane Bounty Hunter of Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov, but in the end it became apparent that as so often is the case, in order to secure these kills their opponent had to expend so much time and effort that Na`Vi were able to farm their way ahead, carving out a solid lead which eventually snowballed into a dominant mid game performance, ending Fnatic's hopes of advancing after only 12 minutes. The eventual score was 0-2, leaving Fnatic tied Poseidon on 3-5.
WePlay will take a short break at this point as teams rush off to Kiev for StarLadder next week. The second groupstage will return in just under two weeks, on the 15th of October followed by the playoffs, set to begin on the 23rd of October.
Qualified teams:
RattleSnake.Int
Flipside.Quantic
Empire
Evil Geniuses
Team Liquid
Alliance
Na`Vi
RoX.KiS
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Headline photo from navi-gaming.com
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