Rivalries Abound

Team Liquid vs EHOME

In the first match of the day, Team Liquid's roster faced off with Chinese giants EHOME in the home team's first appearance at a major lan. In game 1 TL picked a moderately non-standard lineup with both Furion and Wraith King, which combined with a terrifying Fata Razor and a remkarably fed Kuro Wisp to outmanuver and roll over EHOME. EHOME fired back by showing that they could play Wisp too, and easily dismantled a Liquid draft that involved a support Brewmaster and a Phoenix that fed heavily. Wisp proved to be a highly contested and valuable pick in the series, as Liquid picked up the ethereal ball in game 3 and made their way to a comfortable 45 minute victory even with a Doom that died, uh, frequently.

Digital Chaos vs EG

Digital Chaos put up a remarkable fight in a matchup that many saw as extremely onesided. Game 1 started off with the brothers Yawar and Sumail facing off in mid, although Fear's babysitting of Sumail prevented us fans from seeing the true mano a mano brother vs brother matchup that many of us wanted. The game was very even through the first 20 minutes or so, but DC was eventually able to pull it out with some excellent swaps by Aui on Venge and the massive teamfight and damage afforded to them by their Gyro, Undying, Dark Seer, and Templar Assassin. Game 2 was bizarrely back and forth, with EG looking like they had clearly lost, then clearly won, then clearly thrown, and then suddenly trashing DC's base with the power of Syllabear hitting Curse of Avernus'd buildings. Game 3 showed how much the meta has evolved to favor mid-camping, with a 3v2 skirmish for first blood in mid at around the 30 second mark. DC hung in the game for a while on the back of an extremely farmed TC Gyrocopter and some great Clockwerk hooks by Bulba, but once TC was neutralized there wasn't much standing in the way of EG's advancement to the next round.

Team Liquid vs EG

The final match of the day was meme central, with Kuroky finally facing off vs Arteezy in order to determine who was truly right and who was truly left. Team Liquid ran a brutal strategy in Game 1 that Winter called "more disgusting than Huskar Dazzle" with the combination of Ursa, Omniknight, and occasionally Darkseer to make an unkillable, unkiteable, destructive bear. TL would continue to run both Dark Seer and Omniknight for the rest of the series, much like EG ran Dazzle and Shadow Fiend in all three games. If Game 1 involved TL rolling EG, Game 2 was the exact opposite: EG were able to harness the destructive power of Sumail SF and Arteezy Gyrocopter to roll a TL lineup that never quite got its footing. Game 3 was a nailbiter, and extremely back and forth: the commentators called it "easily the best game of the day" and this writer humbly agrees. EG pulled out to an early lead with a farmed Gyro and SF, but TL were eventually able to farm up Matumbaman's Wraith King and Fata's TA on the back of some clutch teamfights. A momentary lapse in judgement lost Liquid a massive teamfight top late in the game, but they were able to hold onto their rax and fire back with a rosh and a won teamfight at EG's tier 3 mid. However, they weren't able to take rax and EG were able to eventually walk across the map and win two extremely convincing fights. With Liquid's base already exposed, there simply wasn't enough time for Liquid to regroup and EG took game 3 to advance to the winner's bracket finals.

Bracket after Day 2