MSI beats Empire, wins ESL October

It was ESL again for the month of October, with usual winners MSI this time having to climb back up from the loser's bracket having forfeited against Wintro-Gaming. Awaiting to face them in the finals 1-0 up however was not their usual rivals Online Kingdom, but the russian Empire Multigaming.

Game 1 [19410576]
FnaticMSI		Empire Multigaming
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
Lanes
[MSI]Freshpro (Top) [MSI]N0tail (Mid) [MSI]Trixi (Bot) [MSI]Bot (Roam) [MSI]NoVa_ (Roam)		[Empr]Scandal (Top) [Empr]morelikeyou` (Mid) [Empr]LeeN (Bot) [Empr]YoImhere4you (Bot) [Empr]uniQFazer (Bot)

To be very frank, this game was somewhat of a stomp. MSI rushed into a 4.5k overall lead by 7 minutes as everything was working well for them. All of their lanes were being won, their dual roamers were setting up kills nicely and almost all of Empr's map vision was compromised as NoVa_ on Andromeda was spot on on counterwarding. N0tail on Soulstealer capitalized on MSI's advantage with a somewhat reckless aggressive play, buying out for the 4th time 16 minutes into the game.

The game slowed down a bit towards the 20th minute as both sides farmed up. However the peace barely lasted as Empr's mid push attempt falls to a 3 man defence set up by MSI. Seeming lost of what else to do to try to turn the game around, Empr goes for Kongor. MSI intercepts successfully but at least Scandal prevents them from getting the token of life. MSI overplays a lot as their advantage by then was virtually unbeatable. By 30 minutes, all of Empire's outer towers were down and they finally gave up by 32 minutes. MSI won the game 42-18, convincingly tying back the score at 1-1 thanks to a very aggressive approach to the game.

---End Game 1---

Game 2 [19418622]
Empire Multigaming		FnaticMSI
Bans (Legion First)
Picks
Lanes
[Empr]LeeN (Top) [Empr]uniQFazer (Top) [Empr]YoImhere4you (Top) [Empr]Scandal (Mid) [Empr]morelikeyou` (Bot)		[MSI]NoVa_ (Top) [MSI]Bot (Top) [MSI]Trixi (Top) [MSI]N0tail (Mid) [MSI]Freshpro (Bot)

Game 2 started off fairly even, with almost every kill costing one team a life in exchange. However, it was soon more apparent that Phe`V (morelikeyou`) was going to play a more ricing style which forced Empire to hold their ground 4v5, this disadvantage caused MSI to slowly gain an advantage, with N0tail's Soulstealer not far behind Phe`V in farm as well. A turnaround looked possible when uniQFazer's Bombardier scored a Hat Trick at top but MSI came back strong with N0tail's Soulstealer claiming a Quad Kill.

Phe`V's item of choice on Wildsoul was really what was intriguing in this game. Opting to go for a tank style Wildsoul, although admittedly he was hard to bring down, seemed to lack the DPS presence of a usual farmed Wildsoul. By 37 minutes MSI amounted a mid push. A horrible defence set up by Empire cost them the game as by 39 minutes their top and mid lane were pushed in.

---End Game 2---