PSG.LGD beat Nigma and T1 defeated Quincy Crew in the upper bracket semifinals of the WePlay AniMajor to set up a China vs SEA clash in the upper bracket final.
Image: WePlay Holding
After a day of rest, the upper bracket was in action again on day three of the playoffs of the WePlay AniMajor. The first game featured PSG.LGD, the strongest team from the group stages, taking on the other team to make it out of the group stages, Team Nigma, while the second game was a competition between the only two remaining teams to top their regional DPC Leagues, T1 and Quincy Crew. PSG.LGD defeated Nigma 2-1 in an enthralling series while T1 managed to take down Quincy Crew 2-1 after losing the first game.
PSG.LGD vs Nigma
This was possibly the most awaited game of the day and might as well have been the grand final of the WePlay AniMajor, considering the way the two teams have been playing. Both teams showed each other respect, with PSG.LGD banning out Invoker and Enchantress in the first phase of all three games, knowing how lethal the heroes are in the hands of Amer “Miracle” Barkawi and Kuro “Kuroky” Salehi Takhasomi respectively, and Nigma doing the same for Axe, knowing how the Chinese powerhouse can play the hero very effectively in two positions. What Nigma didn’t do was ban the Puck, which was a mistake considering what Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang can do with the hero. PSG.LGD’s team fight was farm more superior than that of Nigma in the first game, and they used every Ravage on the Tidehunter perfectly to pin Nigma into submission in just under 35 minutes.
In game 2, Nigma respected the Puck and banned it in the first phase. They got their hands on the Templar Assassin, and as they have throughout the tournament, played their timings perfectly around her. PSG.LGD picked a Drow Ranger for Wang “Ame” Chunyu, hoping to stall out the game until she came online, but with the mounting pressure from Nigma, they weren’t able to hold on for too long and the game ended in Nigma’s favor in just over 36 minutes.
Game 3 was where Nigma pulled a switcheroo, putting Miracle on Dragon Knight and last picking a Broodmother for Ivan Borislavov "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov. It seemed like a good move, but Zhang “Faith_Bian” Ruida’s Sand King took on the task of keeping Brood in check until Ame’s Phantom Lancer was strong enough to take over the game. The game changing fight came near the Radiant tier 2 tower, where Zhang “y’” Yiping’s Phoenix set up an amazing Supernova on a cliff. PSG.LGD didn’t let go off the reigns after that point and closed out the game to send Nigma down to the lower bracket to battle it out against Evil Geniuses.
Quincy Crew vs T1
After the DPC Leagues ended, there weren’t a lot of games played by these two teams. Quincy Crew played three against NoPing Esports, in which they nearly lost the last game, whereas T1 destroyed Team Aster convincingly in two games. In terms of how these two teams were reading the meta developed in the Kyiv Major, there wasn’t too much data.
In game 1, T1 made a surprising decision to last pick Nature’s Prophet in the offlane for Carlo “Kuku” Palad. The hero has been used successfully in a position 1 role, but not so much in a position 3 role. Quincy Crew, who were playing a Luna draft and were on a timer, played it out perfectly and did not give time for Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon’s Spectre to come online.
In game 2, QC went for a Luna again for Yawar “YawaR” Hassan, but this time, T1 were prepared to match the pace with the ability to fight early. T1 nullified Luna’s farming rate with Doom and Terrorblade, and kept racking up a net worth lead. At a point, T1 overwhelmed their opponents, thanks in huge part to the Refresher Orb on Karl “Karl” Jayme’s Doom, and just ran down mid, knowing there were no buy backs on QC’s cores, to draw out the GGs, taking the series to a game 3.
Quincy Crew went for an early Broodmother in first phase, which T1 countered with a Sand King pick, having seen in the previous series what he can do against the Black Arachnia. The name of the game for T1 was making space for 23savage’s Phantom Assassin to come online and make sure they don’t get run over in the early game, which is exactly what they did. Quinn “CCnC” Callahan’s Windranger and Rodrigo “Leslao” Santos’ Broodmother got a lot of kills in the early game, but they didn’t pressure the map enough to limit the PA’s farm. Once she came online, she was able to burst down nearly every hero on Quincy Crew’s team, and they had no answer to her. Windranger, who was 7-0 at one point and dominating the game, ended the game 9-4, with hardly any impact in the late game. T1 took the game in just over 39 minutes to secure a top three finish at the WePlay AniMajor. They face PSG.LGD in the upper bracket final in a bid to make it to the grand final. Quincy Crew, on the other hand, will have to battle it out against Vici Gaming in the lower bracket to try and stay in the tournament.
Of the six teams remaining, Nigma are the only ones who haven’t secured a direct invite to TI10. They will need to reach the grand final, which is three games away, to make sure they get over the two South American teams, Beastcoast and Thunder Predator, to secure their ticket to Stockholm. While all teams will be looking to get their hands on the first place for the WePlay AniMajor, Nigma will have added motivation to do better. Saturday will see three more teams eliminated from the WePlay AniMajor, with only the top three teams making it to the last day of the tournament.
