Return of the Kings

Looking back on the Manila Major I don’t think there can be any doubt, the right team won the tournament. After getting knocked down by Newbee in the groups OG has just become better and better with every game, culminating in a dominating performance in the grand finals versus Team Liquid. With this win OG, not only become ~$1,1 million richer, they also become the first team to have won two official Valve tournaments, a feat that only grows when you consider the problems the team suffered after their Frankfurt win, a months-long slump. Even though as a true Liquid fan, it stings to say, it has to be said, “Congratulations OG, you were the better team this tournament.”

Lower Bracket Finals

In the lower bracket finals, we saw Team Liquid go up against another Chinese opponent, NewBee, after defeating LGD yesterday. TL could not have gotten a worse start to the last day of the tournament as Newbee managed to sneak in a surprise Winter Wyvern pick, that completely nullified Liquid’s strat. But that was not everything Newbee did right. Thanks to positional mistakes from Liquid before the runespawn Newbee managed to pick up 2x kills and thus got to start the game with a huge advantage. As the game progressed that gap was never even closed to getting closed, and once kpii managed to pick up a blink dagger on slardar after just 8½ minutes, the game was all but over.

Liquid now found themselves in a situation they had not been in before. They were one loss away from being eliminated, but as they walked out of the booth Kuroky seemed confident and had this smile on his face that showed Liquid’s determination. And that determination would bring Liquid back in this series. In game 2, it was their turn to show Newbee that they could control a game. Thanks to an aggressive early game Mind_Control went out of control on his weaver in lane, and even though Newbee looked hot in the middle game, much thanks to the tankability of kpii’s Bristleback, Liquid managed to fairly safely control the game, forcing a deciding game 3.

While Liquid had previously always picked up a Lycan for Matumbaman and heavily favored the Dragon Knight for FATA, all that went out the window in game 3. Liquid showed off a pocked strat with a safelane Drow and a midlane Medusa, an incredibly greedy but potentially very strong draft. The game went pretty much how you’d expect it to go, when a team with a greedy lineup manages to win. Newbee did pull ahead in the early and early-mid game, before Liquid could get the right items on their heroes. Once that timing hit though, there was nothing Newbee could do, as their lead simply wasn’t big enough. Liquid takes out Newbee 2-1 and advance to play OG in the grand finals.

Grand Finals

Right off the bat in the grand finals Kuroky and co. showed that they did not fear OG, no matter how impressive their run in the upper bracket had been. In the draft of game 1 they gave OG the Lifestealer and then instantly, and we mean seconds after Naix pick, locked in Slardar and Riki. It was clear that OG had gone into Liquid’s trap, and Kuroky had OG exactly where he wanted them. Liquids lineup perfectly countered everything OG tried to do and in combination with absolutely brilliant play from every member of Liquid, Liquid easily won the first game.

But OG adapted and how they adapted. Games 2 and 3, grouped together because they were basically the same game, OG showed that not only could they outdraft Liquid, they could use the heroes Liquid had relied on the entire tournament to beat them, as they picked up a Phoenix for themselves early in every draft. In games 2 and 3, the name of the game was Void - Phoenix, an incredibly potent combination when executed correctly, as OG did. It did not matter who played the heroes on OG’s side, they actually switched Void from Notail to Moonmeander from game 2 to 3, it seemed like Liquid had no response to this strategy. This could, in part, be attributed to Fly’s great drafting, where he exploited strategies from Liquid which focused too heavily on melee heroes. It was giving OG the opening for some great Chronosphere’s, and it was also aided by the fact that positioning of Liquid was sometimes off. Instead of spreading out allowing OG to catch 1-2 heroes in the bubble, there were too many times where Liquid got caught out of position.

So came game number 4. Liquid had lost two games with some of their most played heroes and the confidence Liquid exuded during game 1 was lost. On the other side of the stage was OG who, understandably, looked like a million bucks. They had unlocked the secret to beating Liquid somehow, and things needed to be shook up if they were going to lose this opportunity. Liquid did their best in the draft, picking up a safelane Weaver and a mid Lone Druid. At first, it looked like this would be enough to shake OG who countered with an Elder Titan, Wraith King, and Templar Assassin. This paired with a Phoenix and a Batrider game, saw OG field almost the same lineup as they used in their dominating deathless shutout of a performance against MVP Phoenix earlier in the brackets. The result is known now, but as it was being played out, this game was a close call for OG. For roughly the first 30 minutes the game swung back and forth between the two teams, and for a while it looked like Liquid would be able to force yet another deciding game. Unfortunately, for Liquid fans, that was not the case. After Miracle and Notail hit some critical item timings they, together with the ET aura, just melted Liquid and for the last 15 minutes of the game even Moonmeanders sister could probably tell that her brother had won another major.

Final Bracket

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WriterJulmust
EditorTanGeng
GraphicsNixer