With Na'Vi waiting in the Lower Bracket final, it was up to Alliance and Liquid to decide who would move on to face the Ukrainians. After yesterday's somewhat lackluster performance, Alliance managed to secure a 3:0 victory, leaving Liquid free to enjoy the remainder of their weekend.
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Playoffs bracket
Alliance vs Liquid: Alliance picks up steam
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Liquid started well into this best-of-five, winning an early engagement. From there on out, the match went fairly even, with the outcomes of fights going back and forth. Alliance's eventual pulling ahead is only marred by a few questionable decisions here and there, but when it really came down, the Swedes pulled through effectively. While EGM's Io wasn't used to its fullest potential, the Relocates only far and in between, the Overcharge did well to turn Loda's Chaos Knight into a potent threat. 42 minutes into the game, the home favorites managed to pull through.
With a line-up heavily focussed on its pushing power, featuring both Pugna and Dragon Knight, Alliance had a difficult fending off Bulba's early Clockwerk rotations. Since their team fight potential was limited compared to Liquid's, destroying towers was their only way back into the game. When they finally managed to utilize their heroes, as well as winning a crucial team fight with the help of Lich's ultimate, Alliance stocked up their inventories, helping them to battle all the more effectively, especially with Necronomicon units, to ensure a 36 minute victory.
The final and most one-sided matches of the three saw S4's Shadow Fiend and EGM's Venomancer abuse Roshan to farm souls prior to the first creep wave. To no avail, however, as the Swedish mid player was the one to give up First Blood. While Liquid's roster would have allowed for decent pushes, Alliance seemed to have their number in all facets of the game, using the Chen-Shadow Fiend-Clockwerk combination to not only gank successfully, but also team fight and push favorably. It was not too long until Liquid was on the back foot in all respects. A dominant performance by S4 helped secure a half-hour win.
>> Winner interview with Alliance.s4
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