Alliance took a convincing 2-0 win over Na`Vi in a match which felt in more ways than one like a throwback, with players going back to their old signature heroes and changing up their roles in thish highly entertaining WePlay winners bracket series. The next game on the docket calls for Na`Vi to face off against Team Liquid, a team which has beaten them both times the teams have met since The International 2013, each time with a 2-1 score.
Match report
Game one
The first game of the series was like a blast from the past as Alliance got their hands on both Magnus for their infamous Son of Magnus captain as well as the Lone Druid for Henrik 'AdmiralBulldog' Ahnberg. Due to the absence of Jonathan 'Loda' Berg it also meant that Jerry 'EGM' Lundkvist was allowed to drop back into his old role as a core player, taking up the safelane Viper in his place.
While Na`Vi looked a bit stronger in the early game and managed to get some work done with their offensive tri-lane, Alliance did a great job of outlasting the Ukrainian team. It would take until the mid game before Alliance were able to start to inch out an advantage, as Bulldog's Lone Druid started to take control of the game and as the badly hurt EGM managed to transform into a Viper Strike machinegun with the Aghanim's Scepter, Na`Vi started losing a lot of their trademark mobility in the later fights which helped Alliance control the Roshan pit and control the game.
Once the Spirit Bear wrecking ball got some fire under it and came rolling into the barracks of Na`vi, there was little that Na`Vi were able to do but try to safely spam their opponents down and try to slowly turn around the pressure. With Gustav 's4' Magnusson also finding out Alexander 'XBOCT' Dashkevich on the Mirana repeatedly with single target Reverse Polarities, there was just not enough that Na`Vi could do in the later portions of the game to stay in it, resulting in their barracks keeping on falling as they eventually had to concede the 'GG' at 55 minutes in.
Game two
Loda returned for Game 2, and while expectations were that EGM would head back to his usual support Windrunner role, Bulldog going heavily into the Dire jungle in order to disrupt the early game of Chen and Visage meant that EGM was left to effectively play a solo offlane role. Another throwback was served up with Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin playing the solo mid Rubick, however s4 once again showed off just how powerful he is on Magnus with several early kills putting Dendi behind and giving Alliance a solid position to withstand Na`Vi's eventual ganking deathball, as the Ukrainians were again the first to entirely abandon their laning position in favour of more map movement.
Alliance's answer to Na`Vi's aggression came through Loda getting the Helm of the Dominator and giving over his creep to Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall, making for a Crystal Maiden who lead Alliances mid game roaming along with a Bounty Hunter providing Track, which allowed Alliance to keep slightly ahead of Na`Vi for a long while, even against the farming power of Alchemist. However Alchemist depends on being ahead, not keeping pace, which meant that once Loda started coming to fights at around the 20 minute mark, the advantage started swinging hard and fast in favour of the Swedes.
While Alliance looked solid, Na`Vi's chance came in the form of XBOCT picking up the Heart of Tarrasque after a Armlet of Mordiggian, which caused him to become insanely tanky when using his Chemical Rage, but the ability of Alliance to find Track kills on the back end of fights kept them going long enough for Loda to build up the damage in order to deal with even the tankiest of heroes. With s4 again putting out those big Reverse Polarities, Alliance once again took to the high ground at around 33 minutes, getting the decisive lead they needed to set the game on course towards another win for the Swedes. The end eventually came at 38 minutes in, when s4 caught out Dendi with a solo Reverse polarity and set Alliance up to take the final fight in convincing fashion.
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