The old Chinese guard in the colors of Azure Ray took down BetBoom Team in three games to secure top 4 at TI12.
What a story this has been – three old players from the LGD roster of TI8 and TI9 pair up a few months before The International 2023 (TI12), and they make top 4! Azure Ray exceeded all expectations by defeating BetBoom Team 2-1 in a scintillating series during the finals weekend at TI12.
Azure Ray came into the game on the back of a 0-2 loss against LGD in the upper bracket. BetBoom came in with a lot of confidence after three wins in the lower bracket of TI12.
Azure Ray
vs
BetBoom TeamGame 1 (58:41)
Game 1 was all about Yao “Somnus” Lu on the Necrophos. The veteran mid player played an 829 GPM game on Necro, eventually becoming an unkillable frontliner with two Heart of Tarrasques. Danil “gpk” Skutin’s Templar Assassin gave Azure Ray a good run for their money, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Necrophos and his team in a back and forth game that nearly reached the hour mark.
Game 2 (32:01)
BetBoom pulled out the first Dragon Knight of the tournament in game 2 to counter the Azure Ray Puck in the mid lane, and it paid off big time. BetBoom came out stronger in the laning stage, and ramped up the game to win it in 32 minutes, which is an absolute stomp for this meta.
Game 3 (42:49)
It all came down to game 3, and BetBoom picked a Morphling, a hero that is not in the best place right now. It wasn’t even a last pick – it was a third pick Morphling, which possibly indicated it could have been a comfort pick. Things seemed to be going well for BetBoom, but the Morphling died twice in quick succession, which is when the game started turning in the favor of Azure Ray. But even after that, they steadied the ship. But then for a third time, Morphling got caught out alone and died without buyback, taking him out of the game for 80 seconds. When you give Luna a chance to hit buildings on your high ground, those buildings don’t stand for too long. Azure Ray took two sets of barracks before the Morhpling respawned, and went on to take the game in the next few minutes.
Now there had been drama between these two teams at the Bali Major. Azure Ray had prevented Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko from playing against them after BetBoom were demoted to the lower bracket for Pure violating a rule. Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek made his thoughts known in the all chat.
As it turns out, the Azure Ray players hadn’t forgotten that and there were a couple of question marks in the all chat after the ‘gg’s were called by BetBoom.