picture courtesy of PGL
The quarter-finals at the Kiev Major got under way with Team Liquid going up against Invictus Gaming – both teams looking to secure a semi-final spot.
Day three at the Kiev Major would bring us the quarter finals of the main event – with the first game being Invictus Gaming going up against Team Liquid. Both teams had a fairly strong run to this point in the tournament, but for one of them, elimination would be on the cards. Would the Chinese team be able to show the strength they did at DAC or would they fall under the power of Liquid’s 9K MMR line-up?
Game One
A very aggressive start from Liquid got them first blood and major pressure in the bottom lane as they killed Lin "Xxs" Jing twice in the first few minutes. Liquid took control of the game for the first eight minutes but iG made a big comeback by ten minutes to draw up the score lines at 6-6. Both teams continued to draw even when it came to kills but TL had dropped all tier one towers on their opponent’s side well before twenty minutes.
With their map pressure, Liquid claimed an aegis and pushed down mid but iG fought back, killing off four from the Radiant line up, and then claiming both the tier one and two mid towers. With thirty minutes passed, iG started to take full control of the game, finding the perfect pick offs to open up Roshan for themselves.
With thirty six minutes passed, Xu "BurNIng" Zhilei's Morphling and Ou "Op" Peng's Ember Spirit absolutely destroying the enemy line up, Liquid were forced to call GG, ensuring iG would take game one of the series.
Game Two
It took two minutes for first blood to come out and it was Op on Storm Spirit finding a solo kill on Amer "Miracle-" Barqawi in the mid lane. iG looked to be winning all the lanes in the early game and by ten minutes they held the lead in the score line at 4-3 – and had three heroes in the top five net worth. Even with a lead, iG succumbed to a great rotational gank from Liquid as the Dire managed to claim a crucial kill on BurNIng’s Anti Mage.
The game continued to move at a slow pace for most of its duration – with neither team wanting to make that error that could cost them the game. While both teams drew even for a lot of the game, it was an error from iG that gave a massive opening to Team Liquid who moved into the Rosh pit, claimed an aegis and then marched down mid lane where they ripped through the Radiant line-up to secure game two and tie the series at 1-1.
Fantastic plays from Lasse "Matumbaman" Urpalainen on a Spectre ensured a win for Team Liquid - as well as a Satyr claiming a few glory kills of its own.
Game Three
With the series tied up, the final game would decide who would survive and move into the semi-finals and who would be eliminated from the Kiev Major.
A great start from Team Liquid saw Maroun "GH" Merhej on the Earthshaker claim first blood as he found Xxs's Dark Seer in the jungle and took him down with ease. Liquid continued to keep the pressure up in the early game, claiming crucial kills throughout the first ten minutes – taking a 7-1 lead. But iG found a brilliant moment in the mid lane to secure 3 quick kills to give them a slight reprieve in the pressure from Liquid.
IG finally begun to make a showing in the game using their team fight line up perfectly to gain some much needed map pressure however,the game remained fairly even as both teams continuously found great fights. It was at thirty minutes when iG went high ground that they took down the mid lane barracks and showed their dominance as they destroyed the Dire line up before looking to Roshan.
With a fresh aegis in hand, iG marched through into the Dire base and ripped through Team Liquid’s line up. Xxs on the Dark Seer was definitely the MVP for iG, pulling out some of the most amazing Vacuum - Wall combinations to ensure his team would move forward into the semi-finals. Unfortunately for Liquid, their run at the Kiev Major would end here in a 2-1 loss.
IG would be facing the winner of the quarter final match up between Virtus Pro and Vici Gaming J. And beyond that there are still two more quarter final series to be played today, with OG going up against Team Faceless coming up next.
