Showmatch between Empire and VP starts at 17:00 CET today (in 10 minutes), for some reason there is no announcement on LiquidDota. Hype!

Empire is also on a bootcamp in Moscow since yesterday, I guess it is the beginning of preparation for TI (and also good practice since they'll play Esportal together).

goody153

44064 Posts

July 30 2015 05:57 GMT

#202

Ingvar

Russian Federation421 Posts

July 31 2015 06:02 GMT

#203

Group B was one hell of a ride. But with a happy ending. LGD is strong, but it was also strong in MDL, now it's preparation time.

Byyk

457 Posts

July 31 2015 07:59 GMT

#204

That was close. Now, LGD is on the menu...

rebdomine

6040 Posts

July 31 2015 08:02 GMT

#205

I'm really hoping for a pleasant surprise from these boys vs LGD.

Byyk

457 Posts

July 31 2015 21:57 GMT

#206

"Dota 2 Top 5 Pro Plays Group Stages TI5" or "Top5 Team Empire plays" or "Top 5 Yoku plays" I am really not sure. :-D

a_flayer

Netherlands2826 Posts

August 01 2015 08:58 GMT

#207

Those Magnus plays.

GiveMeYourtTots

990 Posts

August 01 2015 10:05 GMT

#208

Are they really crumbling again at TI? Both this TI and last year they looked super strong coming up to it but at the event they're looking shaky. I picked this team for top 5 but it looks like a top 8-10 at best right now.

Hoping Resolution can show why he is one of the best players in the world.

spudde123

4814 Posts

August 01 2015 11:27 GMT

#209

On August 01 2015 19:05 GiveMeYourtTots wrote:
Are they really crumbling again at TI? Both this TI and last year they looked super strong coming up to it but at the event they're looking shaky. I picked this team for top 5 but it looks like a top 8-10 at best right now.

Hoping Resolution can show why he is one of the best players in the world.

They did make it into the upper bracket, so this far they did what they needed to. For example at MarsTV Empire went 1-3 in groups (losing to VG, c9 and EHOME) and then beat LGD and VG in the playoffs.

I didn't really see Empire as a team that would be super consistent and just stroll through the groups before the event. But now that they made it into the upper bracket, I wouldn't even be all that surprised if they win some games, given their LAN history from the past few months against big name teams. While a lot of people seem to think LGD vs Empire is heavily LGD favored at this point, I think it'll be very close.

Also this "crumbling at TI" is a bit overblown as far as Empire goes. For TI3 the team broke apart before the qualifiers, so they didn't get to play in the main event. And at TI4 they went 6-9. Cutoff point for tiebreakers was 7-8, and 8-7 was already enough for 5th place in the groups. The field was very close. They were hardly an overwhelming favorite to make top6 for example before the event started. I don't remember how their games actually went down really, but I don't think one should just put it blindly down to them crumbling. There's quite a bit of variance involved. Just 2 bo1 games going differently and suddenly Empire would have been in the playoffs and noone would be talking about their TI curse.

And now before TI5 it's not like they've been consistently beating every team. Online they've dropped games to for example VP, c9, mouz, LC, Vega, etc. So it's not surprising to me that their level of play can vary and they are near the middle of the group. But that said, they have also shown that they can beat some of the biggest teams when the playoffs start. But we'll see how it goes for them.

Byyk

457 Posts

August 03 2015 22:04 GMT

#210

The game is hard. I hope they will do better in losers brackets. The game 3 is over after draft :-(

the bear jew

United States3674 Posts

August 05 2015 02:26 GMT

#211

Disappointing TI for Empire. They looked like they were still off form after yesterdays loss to LGD. MVP just seemed to be the more confident team, better team.

After all those lan wins and finals, to go out like this is a sad result for them.

Ingvar

Russian Federation421 Posts

August 05 2015 03:03 GMT

#212

How can you play 2-1 vs LGD but 2-0 vs MVP. Whatever. I'll stay with the team until the roster resembles current Empire but I'm not sure it will be very long.

Elyvilon

United States13143 Posts

August 05 2015 05:04 GMT

#213

Disappointing.

Oh well.

DucK-

Singapore11446 Posts

August 05 2015 08:13 GMT

#214

I'd say Silent really choked this time. He has been deservingly regarded as one of the top carries around for the past few months, but his dives has cost Empire games against LGD and MVP.

Byyk

457 Posts

August 05 2015 08:24 GMT

#215

I am sooo sad :-(

Ingvar

Russian Federation421 Posts

August 05 2015 10:32 GMT

#216

On August 05 2015 17:13 DucK- wrote:
I'd say Silent really choked this time. He has been deservingly regarded as one of the top carries around for the past few months, but his dives has cost Empire games against LGD and MVP.

Silent's Antimage was the only thing that could bring them victory. And he was the best in the game 3 vs LGD. I would also pay attention to awful support play, underwhelming performance from Reso during the whole tournament.

spudde123

4814 Posts

August 05 2015 11:01 GMT

#217

Before TI I thought Empire was a hard team to judge. A lot of people were putting them really high up because they beat teams like EG, LGD, VG on LAN. But Empire also dropped a lot of games online all the time, even to some teams like LC etc. However, I didn't really see a lot of those games so I had a hard time judging what is the actual reason and how high to expect Empire to place. And now even in these playoffs they are close to 2-0ing LGD, and then they get 2-0d by MVPP. I didn't see the games against MVPP last night, but it was a very surprising result to me. People laugh about "c9 inconsistency" (when imo in reality with their most recent lineup they haven't even been that inconsistent, they were just consistently behind the top teams and consistently beating the rest), but Empire has shown even more of that.

No doubt a lot of these Empire players are capable of doing very well in the future. Hopefully they won't ruin everything by making too drastic conclusions and throwing each other under the bus.

StarVe

Germany13591 Posts

August 05 2015 14:30 GMT

#218

yoky carried them through groups and had almost no impact in the Key Arena games, Silent threw game one vs LGD and general blink decisions during the whole playoffs were really off, resolut1on had like 3-4 games at his usual level throughout the whole tournament, the support duo never once found the groove that made them so strong in LANs earlier in the year.

I can't say you can really blame anyone in particular, they just really failed as a team when they really could have easily 2-0'd LGD and made a great run. I dunno what it is if it's not very much nerves among other things.