Invictus Gaming are the winners of Major All Stars after a solid 2-0 victory against Empire in the Grand Finals. The Swedish Ninjas-in-Pyjamas managed to finish third, followed by the CIS squad Natus Vincere.
The third and final day of the Major All Stars had four matches to be played, the first one being the LB match between Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere. The Ninjas won the series (2-1) eliminating Navi from the tournament. The second match was the winner bracket finals between Team Empire and Invictus Gaming, although iG won the series (2-1), they lost their first game after the roster change (currently 19-1). Consequently Empire dropped down to the Lower Bracket and were matched up with the Swedes to secure a spot in the Grand Finals against iG. The Russians managed to take down NiP and earn their place in the now best-of-three final match (due to delays). The Chinese giants proved their strength once again, crushing Empire with a 2-0 score to earn the first place in Major All Stars.
Invictus Gaming vs Team Empire - 2:0
Game One [W: Invictus Gaming]
Invictus Gaming had a rather greedy draft, running Axe jungle from level one and having a dual core setup with Shadow Fiend and Morphling. They had a solid laning stage, won both the safe and mid lane, and got good levels on the position four Phoenix in the offlane. The major impact came from Axe and his Blink Dagger, Lu0 had a perfect game (14-0-8) and was involved in 71% of his teams kills. He managed to create enough space for BurNIng's Morphling to get a 20 minute Ethereal Blade (with Hand of Midas as well). Team Empire on the other hand was completely stopped in their tracks and were not allowed to turtle long enough for their Medusa, iG showed no signs of stopping and kept on the pressure until the end. The Chinese finished the game rather early (37 minutes) with a ~35,000 gold advantage.
Game Two [W: Invictus Gaming]
Team Empire started out with an aggressive trilane with Brewmaster, Rubick and Ancient Apparition, and was successful in killing BurNing's Juggernaut twice in five minutes. The early-mid game went back and forth with both teams playing around the Blinks of their core heroes. The mid game was very entertaining with continuous skirmishes. While Empire attempted to take advance of their early game momentum (including some flashy plays by ALOHADANCE), their questionable decisions and bad teamfights allowed iG to stage a massive comeback. Using the power of the Phoenix-Axe combo, the Chinese were able to control Resolut1on's Templar Assassin quite effectively, despite the presence of a Black King Bar in his inventory. Winning more and more consecutive engagements, iG were able to destroy two sets of barracks (top-mid) and trap Empire inside the Radiant base. While the Russians did fight back and attempted to push mid themselves, iG's advantage was just too great to overcome; the Chinese did not even bother destroying the bottom barracks, as they went straight for the throne and took the victory.
Headline image by Major Allstars (twitter)
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