BOOM Esports made an incredible comeback on the last day of the group stage matches at The International 2022 (TI11) to advance to the playoffs.
A perfect year in the Dota Pro Circuit SEA regional leagues brought BOOM Esports enough points to become the first team from their region to qualify for TI11. However, the top seed in the Southeast Asian region wasn’t a true indicator of their performance at the most important tournament of the year.
Seeded in Group A, Boom Esports struggled through the first three days of matches and were on the verge of being eliminated ahead of their very last series. BOOM’s last opponent was none other than Evil Geniuses, the NA juggernaut who has secured an upper bracket playoffs spot even from day three of group play. Given the discrepancy between the two teams, nobody was ready to witness BOOM Esports slaying EG 2-0 to keep their hope alive for a spot in the TI11 playoffs.
This was their first 2-0 victory through the entire group stage and was enough to send them to a three-way tiebreaker with Soniqs and BetBoom Team.
The tiebreaker battle began with Soniqs forcing BOOM to a tempo game where towers should have in theory melted down to the push power of Broodmother, and a mid Death Prophet coming from the NA representatives. However, it was BOOM who picked up the momentum with a carry Bristleback and a mid lane Kunkka to close the game with a nearly 20k gold lead and 28 to 3 kill score in their favour.
With one game away from the playoffs slot, BOOM changed the tactic and prepared for a team fight oriented draft against BetBoom Team. They had the pick-off power between a Zeus-Ancient Apparition combo, but also the team fight control with an offlane Enigma and a carry Faceless Void and despite being dragged to a late game scenario, they had no real issues in keeping the advantage through the whole match.
BOOM Esports’ incredible sprint on the last day of the group stage matches meant that for Soniqs and BetBoom Team, the TI11 experience came to an end before getting the chance to play in front of the SEA crowd.
BOOM Esports will be joining Fnatic in the lower bracket rounds of the TI11 playoffs and both SEA teams will first have to survive a brutal best-of-one elimination game held on the Suntec Arena stage on the 20th of October.
headline picture courtesy of BOOM Esports via Twitter
