Virtus.Pro has been eliminated from Dreamhack Invitational with their less than impressive performance in Group A despite their roster change. Liquid was undefeated topp teh group while QPandas and Empire placed second and third respectively.
The group A of the Dreamhack Invitational has concluded yesterday with somewhat of a weak showing by Empire as they went up against Team Liquid. Team Liquid was able to win 2-0 against Empire causing Empire to place third in the group.
Team Liquid topped the group with an impressive 3-0 record while newly formed Qpad Red Pandas follows closely with 2-1.
The only team who has been eliminated from the tournament is surprisingly The Defense 3 grand finalist, Virtus.Pro who has shown less than impressive dedication throughout the tournament. VP forfeited their first game against Empire and got destroyed by Liquid before taking QPandas to a game three with their roster change, which they eventually lost too.
Team Liquid will be starting in the semi-finals of the playoffs while QPandas and Empire will have to battle it out against the second and third placer of Group B in the quarter-finals.
| Empire vs Liquid | ||
 Go[blin] Silent blowyourbrain Scandal Vigoss | vs |  Korok Bulba TC ixmike88 fluffnstuff |
A bad laning arrangement by Empire caused the dual lane of Undying and Clinkz to take so much pressure from Liquid's trilane before the teleport support came in to help out. The Clinkz eventually gave away the First Blood taking the Undying along with him although they did get a Luna in exchange.
The kill score quickly increased to 1-6 in favour of Liquid with the Americans constantly pressing forward with their gank-oriented strat. As Empire applied pressure to the outer towers, Liquid was always one step ahead and successfully denied Empire the bottom tower while destroyed them as they were pushing mid.
Soon enough, Liquid took down Roshan and continued going on a killing spree with the score up to 1-12 in 15 minutes. The experience advantage started dropping over to Liquid's side and there was no way Empire could have staged a comeback in game one.
In game two, Empire braced themselves for the mid-game battles with five AOE intensive heroes while Liquid opted for versatile split pushing heroes such as Anti-Mage and Nature's Prophet.
It was Empire who took the First Blood against the Enchantress in a teamfight in the Dire's jungle although they lost the Shadow Fiend and Jakiro for it. However, Jakiro was denied beautifully by the Keeper of the Light, thus did not give away any experience nor gold to Liquid.
Quickly realizing they might be losing the game due to pick-offs, Liquid made the right call grouping up at top for an attempt at the tower. However, they paid for their lack of respect for Empire's AOE skills as Queen of Pain and Enchantress stepped over the line and was quickly burst down.
With the Reverse Polarity off cooldown, Empire's heroes gathered at bot lane for a push. A few kills were exchanged before Empire took a stab at the tower but eventually took it as they came out in most of the engagements.
The opening for Liquid came at 15 minutes with Empire's heroes constantly walking up into the Radiant jungle and got picked off one by one. The kill score is now 11-11. Considering they had a better line-up fighting in chokepoints, Empire confidently walked into Roshan and took it down, giving the Aegis to Shadow Fiend.
However, it was all downwards there for Empire. The supports were almost constantly caught out of position as the Anti-Mage farmed up to a massive 247 creeps in 25 minutes. The push attempts by Empire was successfully repelled by Liquid's ability to split push while Liquid killed the retreating Empire heroes.
Soon enough, the Anti-Mage has done enough farming and Liquid pushed into mid for the win.
Dubbed as the harder group of the tournament, Group B consist of Fnatic.EU, NoTidehunter, Team Dignitas and Mousesports.
The favourite going into the tournament will have to be Fnatic.EU due to their stable performance of late. Fnatic.EU also made it to the grand finals of The Defense 3 earlier this week and is expected by many to take the group without much of a challenge.
Swedish team, NoTidehunter will be the biggest challenger to Fnatic.EU with their impressive showings in EMS One stunned the viewers. NoTidehunter won three back to back EMS Cups while they took the first spot in their EMS group with an undefeated record.
Mousesports and Team Dignitas have a lot to prove being grouped up with these European mammoths. Team Dignitas recently lost Fnatic.EU in the LB final of The Defense 3 while Mouz lost to NoTidehunter in the final cup of EMS One.
Group B of the Dreamhack Invitational will begin on the 24th of March at 18:00 CET between Fnatic.EU and NoTidehunter.
All the games of the Dreamhack Invitational will be casted live by The GD Studio.
