The end of the struggle between Startale and Eye of Tiger marks the end of the quarter finals of the Nexon Sponsorship League. FXOpen, MVP HOT6, Underated, and E'oT will now compete in a double elimination format to be crowned the champion of season one.
Quick recap
FXOpen vs NJ&Kids (draft information)
Unfortunatly the quarter final matchup between FXOpen and NJ&Kids was not played due to Team NJ&Kids forfeiting the without any disclosed reasons. Therefore FXOpen was admitted a free pass into the semi-finals.
MVP vs VirtualThrone (draft information)
In the first game, VirtualThrone picked up a rather unconventional line-up consisting of Invoker, Tuskar and Medusa against MVP.hot6's more conventional lineup. Unfortunately for VirtualThrone, they were unable to allow their late game oriented lineup to shine and MVP promptly ended the game on the 30 minutes mark with superior farm and items to boot. The following game featured a NightStalker and a Death Prophet as core heroes of Team VirtualThrone. However, both Death Prophet and NightStalker are unable to survive the huge burst damage from MVP in teamfights thus, reducing the lineup's potential starkly. With MVP winning most, if not all the teamfights, they ended the game with a score of 32-10 in 40 minutes.
Underated vs Season.one (draft information)
During the first game, Underated picked a very teamfight oriented lineup against Season.one's dedicated pushing lineup thus making the first game highly action packed. Season.one was unable to pull off any sucessful pushes due to Underated's AOE-oreiented heroes and Underated swiftly took over the game and forced a gg. Game two is another short affair with Season.one again unable to fare against the immense damage output from the lineup of Underated.
StarTale vs Eye of Tiger (draft information)
Considering it is the only match among the four who made it into game three, the series between Startale and Eye of the Tiger is quite the nail-biter. In the first game, E'oT ran a very successful middle lane Pugna who was able to zone everyone out by rushing an Aghanims Scepter. Startale could not handle the pressure from E'oT and a gg was forced. The second game was a very intersting affair with Chen controlling four Wildwing Rippers. However Startale managed to overcome the power of tornados and forced a game three. Game three featured conventional picks from 6.78 with the exception of Tinker and Undying where both teams tried to farm up conservatively. However, Ksh's 7 minute blink dagger turned the game around completely in Startale's favour and thus, won them the spot towards the semi finals.
Semi-Finals Bracket
With the quarter finals of the Nexon Sponsorship League finished, the tournament now enters the semi finals. FXOpen, Underated, MVP.hot6 and E'oT will face off on the 29th of October in a best-of-three, double elimination format. The third and fourth place will receive around $2,800 USD while the last two teams will play in the Grand Finals on the 9th of November. The first placer will receive $93,000 USD while the runner-up will receive meager $7,400 USD. However, regardless of the teams performance in the semi-finals, the four teams are all highly rumored to parcipate in the upcoming Nexon Invitational Super Match due to their performance in the tournament.
Headline photo source: ThisIsGame.com
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