Mineski and MiTH.Trust both won at least one match in the tiebreaker, keeping their The International 4 hopes alive. The playoffs of the SEA qualifier will begin tomorrow at 06:00 CEST (12:00 SGT) with the upper bracket finals match-up between Arrow Gaming and MVP.
Three organizations who have previously competed in the International were trying to keep their hopes alive, as they found themselves in a three-way tie for the final two playoff slots in the Southeast Asian qualifier. As the group stage, the tiebreaker matches were very intense.
It started with the match of Orange and MiTH.Trust. Orange started the game playing flawlessly, scoring multiple kills without giving off any death. They found themselves ahead by more than 10,000 gold and experience around 20 minutes into the game, but that is when Trust started clawing back. The Thai-team played almost perfect from thereon, completing small objectives until they have turned the game around. They actually managed to win despite their big early deficit, with the match ending just before 50 minutes.
Trust next played against Mineski, and a win of the former could secure them a playoff slot. They went with one of Lakelz' signature hero, the Anti-Mage. Another of that guy's signature hero, the Morphling, went to the hands of Mineski. As expected, it became a late-game duel between those two heroes. It was Trust who had the early game lead this time, but they were not able to hold on to it as Morphling's high burst damage and Mineski's kiting heroes in Dazzle, Treant Protector and Viper proved to be the difference on team fights.
The last game was between Mineski and Orange. Orange had a time window that they have to clear in order to qualify. Interestingly, Mineski went not with a line-up that can defend but rather with a line-up that can win. And win they did, but not before they have channelled the strong pushing line-up of the Malaysian team which features a Chen, a Death Prophet and a Shadow Shaman. It can be remebered that a similar situation happened last WPC-ACE west, wherein Empire just had to delay Alliance to a 37-minute game to advance. The Russian team played just to defend, and ironically they were steamrolled in just 23 minutes.
The three teams got into this tiebreaker after all of them finished the group stage with five points. Head-to-head results would have Mineski eliminated, but the qualifier rules states that tiebreaker match/es should take place and that a time rating would be considered in case of another tie.
The best-of-three playoffs will start tomorrow, and starting it will be the upper bracket finals match of Arrow and MVP.Phoenix at 06:00 CEST (12:00 SGT). The winner of that match would already be guaranteed a trip to Seattle. The next match is the lower bracket semifinals between Mineski and MiTH.Trust scheduled 09:30 CEST (15:30 SGT). Those two teams have already faced each other twice in this qualifiers, splitting their games.
The winner of the SEA qualifier will get an outright slot into the very prestigious The International 4, while the runner-up will get to compete against other regional runner-ups in the wildcard tournament. Both of those tournaments will be held in Seattle this coming July.
Head over to our wiki page for The International 2014!
