Faith_bian has played his last competitive matches in the lower bracket quarterfinals, Matumbaman and Puppey remain the last two-time hopefuls at The International 2022.
The last day in the Suntec Arena at The International 2022 brought four elimination series with huge stakes on the line. The winners would secure a place in the top four at the most important tournament of the year and the chance to play in front of a hopefully larger audience during the Finals Weekend in the Singapore Indoor Stadium next week.
Both PSG.LGD and Team Liquid were looking to secure that for their offlane and carry players respectively as both Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida and Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen announced their retirement plans even before TI11 began.
Unfortunately, for Faith_bian and PSG.LGD the TI11 run ended in the lower bracket quarterfinals at the hands of Team Aster.
Team Aster
vs
PSG.LGD
Aster were able to turn around what seemed like a flawless carry Riki game from PSG.LGD and stole the victory in the last five minutes of the first game. They ran with that win and carried on the momentum to land a clean 2-0 sweep over the team that for many was the favorite at taking the Aegis of Champions this year.
Aster’s win pushes them to the top 4 at TI11 and it comes after a yearlong of struggles to stay at the top of their region and it sends PSG.LGD home with their worst placement at TI since 2016. Through the past four editions of The International, PSG.LGD finished fourth in 2017, second in 2018, third in 2019, and again second in 2021. Unfortunately, today they leave the competition in the top 6 and will look at bringing a revamped roster for the next season.
The second lower bracket quarterfinals held in Suntec Arena was by far the most intense series held so far at TI11. Team Liquid and Thunder Awaken played their hearts out to stay in the competition.
Thunder Awaken
vs
Team Liquid
Two of the three games played led to insane base races, nerve-wracking situations and split-second decisions. Team Liquid lost the first game despite securing mega creeps, in what probably will remain a must-watch game in the Dota 2 history. It all came down to TA being able to team wipe Liquid in a Throne defense and reach the enemy base with just one creep to avoid the back door protection to take the win before all Liquid heroes would have respawned.
But, despite the beyond demoralizing loss in the last few minutes of game one, Liquid were able to return fully focused for the next match and pushed the TA to a game three with a perfectly executed Broodmother strategy.
Thunder Awaken went on pushing Liquid to their absolute limits once more in game three with a carry Pudge and a core Enigma. Liquid were in control of the game for the most part of it, but they dropped the ball at the 30-minute mark in a Roshan fight, and from there on they had to do the extra work to read TA’s intentions, movements, find the right initiation on the Enigma to have a chance at staying in the game.
A series of unfortunate events such as bash procs, an 1 HP escape from Michael "miCKe" Vu on Pnagolier and a miraculous hold on the high ground from Liquid almost mirrored what happened in game one and led to a heartbreaking exit from the tournament for Thunder Awaken, who becomes the first South American team to reach Top 6 on The International stage.
The International 2022 goes on a break until the 29th of October when the top 4 teams, Tundra Esports, Team Secret, Team Aster and Team Liquid will walk on the Singapore Indoor Stadium stage for the Finals battle for the Aegis of Champions.
TI11 Finals Weekend schedule
October 29
- 12:00 SGT/06:00 CEST - Team Secret
vs
Tundra Esports - 15:00 SGT/10:00 CEST - Team AstervsTeam Liquid
October 30
- 12:00 SGT/06:00 CEST - TBD vs TBD (LB finals)
- 15:30 SGT/10:30 CEST - Grand Finals
