The lower bracket final of the Nexon Sponsorship League has concluded with StarTale emerging triumphant against MVP.hot6 to advance to the final round against Team fOu.
Quick recap
Game 1
StarTale came into the game desperate to make up for their 2-0 forfeit to fOu (formerly known as FXOpen) in the upper bracket while MVP.hot6 looked to ride their winning momentum from their previous match. Both teams opted for strong supports with StarTale picking Crystal Maiden and Rubick while MVP relied on Visage and Shadow Demon to shut down their opponents trilanes. First blood went to Startale after a mistiming between Heen's Disruption and FOREV's arrow resulted in the tables being turned on MVP's attempt to score an easy kill on the bot lane. While MVP's trilane restricted KsH's farm on the Morphling, it came at a cost of giving away mutiple kills to the supports of StarTale. Despite BahNwA's Weaver having good farm in the top lane, the amount of key items began appearing rapidly for StarTale with MP's Dragon Knight securing his Black King Bar and Shadow Blade and Weaver getting his Linken's Sphere by the 23th minute. With a lead of 10000xp and a kill count of 22-6, StarTale pushed the top barracks and forced the gg to hand them game one of the best of three elimination match.
Game 2
Requiring a win to stay alive in the competition, MVP started off by giving away first blood before the game even started as BaNhwA's Night Stalker found himself greeting the entire linup of Startale at the radiant mega creep camp before being cogged up by KsH's Clockwerk and nuked to death. MVP scored a revenge kill on MP's Tinker shortly after with the combo of Venomancer's gale and Visage's grave chill contirbuting to the kill. Item progression became an obvious factor in the game as Tinker obtained his Boots of Travel, Soul Ring and Blink Dagger by the 17th minute while Night Stalker only having treads and urn with Jyu's Weaver only a recipe away from his Linken's Sphere while HOONji's Queen of Pain only sitting on power treads. With a 14000xp and a 7500 gold lead, StarTale pushed the top lane and MVP were forced to call the gg thereby ending their journey in the Sponsorship League.
With a 2-0 win over MVP, StarTale has made it to the grand final where they will be facing fOu for the championship. Startale was meant to face fOu in the winner bracket final but they were forced to forfeit because they showed up late. With both teams showing strong performances throughout the tournament, they will require every tricks and strategies at their disposal to be able to secure the grand prize which awaits the winner of the Sponsorship League.
Prize Pool
1st place: $93,000 USD
2nd place: $7,400 USD
3rd place: $2,800 USD
4th place: $2,800 USD
5th-8th place: $1,400 USD
The VOD's and Gosubets for this match can be found here.
