Invitus Gaming completely dominated Alliance, defeating them in two straight games and just giving one tower across those matches. They will advance into the best-of-three grand finals, wherein they will be paired against the winner of the Fnatic-Evil Geniuses match.
Tournament favorite Invictus Gaming showed the form they had when they won GEST Challenge and the WVW tournament earlier this week as they completely dominated Alliance on their semifinals match-up. Both games were one-sided for the Chinese team, and they actually only lost a total of one tower across the two games.
With the win, Invictus Gaming is now moving into the best-of-three Grand finals. The championship round is supposed to be a best-of-five, but it was changed because of the delays caused by the security regulation changes yesterday. The next match is the second semifinals match-up, a game between Fnatic and Evil Geniuses.
1st - $80,000+
2nd - $40,000+
3rd-4th - 
Alliance - $20,000+
5th-8th - 
mousesports, 
Vici Gaming, 
Cloud9, 
Natus Vincere - $10,000+
Game One
Alliance drafted a line-up reminiscent of what was their staple from a year ago - a Lone Druid, Batrider, and the duo of Phantom Lancer and Keeper of the Light. Invictus Gaming had a similar draft from what they had yesterday, with the big difference being the mid Nyx Assassin and the support Vengeful Spirit - both strong against the Batrider.
Alliance is heavily reliant on a strong laning phase into a solid late game, and they were able to achieve a small victory at the beginning because of the laning. They placed KotL and Phantom Lancer bot to go solo against the Doom, and Lone Druid and Rubick matched up with iG's offensive trilane. Alliance's better jungling capability with the Bear gave them a slight advantage early, but iG bounced back with a first blood after a two-hero rotation on the middle lane.
The Chinese team was well-aware of the enemy's late game strength, and thus they applied the pressure early. Nyx got level 6 after the first blood, and has since then used his Vendetta to get a kill every time its off cooldown. iG was able to finish all tier-one towers by the 13th minute, and they also found themselves sitting on a comfortable 7,500 gold lead then.
After claiming the game's last tier-2 tower by the 20th minute, iG positioned themselves on the top lane. With this, they were able to deny the enemy team of their jungle, and further starve them from farm and experience. Alliance was able to take their first and only tower on the 23rd minute, but the enemy didn't stop pressuring them. With a big lead behind them, as well as swap out to stop Flaming Lassos, iG slowly but surely sieged their way up top. Ember was dealing massive DPS, killing the enemy supports or bringing them to critical HP with just one Sleight of Fist. The game ended after Alliance called GG when they lost three heroes and the top lane.
Game Two
IG first-picked a support Mirana, and followed by one of 430's best heroes on the current metagame, Ember Spirit. Alliance picked a stronger early game this time, stacking the team with heroes like Enchantress and Brewmaster. The Swedish team also had an interesting carry as they picked Silencer, a good counter against the skill-reliant heroes of iG. The Chinese team had a very favorable start as they were able to catch Enchantress pre-creeps spawn. They were also able to block the jungle.
The Mirana was able to contribute to some other kills as she landed a couple of Sacred Arrows. Silencer was able to get a quick Midas, and with his Global Silence contributed to a kill for their team. iG placed the pressure with their roaming duo especially on Silencer, and the lack of levels on Enchantress was hurting her team. Invoker has started to make a good lead as he was free-farming and assisting with Sunsrike, while Silencer was being dived. Alliance made a smoke gank which resulted on one kill for them on the 17th minute, but iG was able to take an uncontested Roshan after.
The superior map control og iG was paying off for them, and their long-range initiation with Earthshaker, Mirana, Ember Spirit and Invoker was instrumental on getting pickoffs. The early Orchid for Invoker was also put to good use, and the team did not stop on pressuring the enemy. They were able to take the tier-3 top on the 21st minute, while possessing a significant experience and gold lead. iG continued, and they had a good fight on 24th as they dived way past the bottom tier-3. Alliance had multiple buybacks, and they were able to get a few kills for their team. Still, iG is sitting on a comfortable 16,000+ gold and 12,000+ experience lead.
iG was just overwhelming on the end, with pickoffs after their Roshan take leading into the middle barracks. Alliance was terribly lacking on damange, and they were getting initated on and losing their heroes even before the Silencer can use his Global Silence. The game ended on the 31st minute, with Alliance not being able to take down a single tower on this game.
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