[TI9] Championship Sunday Recap

Two Time Champions. This was what was on the line as soon as Team Liquid beat PSG.LGD in the lower bracket finals. OG had won TI8 while TL had won TI7. The stories of the two teams couldn’t be more different with OG winning through the upper bracket and Team Liquid starting their playoff run from the bo1’s. A champion would be decided and while OG were the favourites to win, Team Liquid had built a ton of momentum going through each opponent in the lower bracket and looked like they would be able to challenge OG. Before getting to the grand finals though, let's take a look at how Team Liquid got there.

Series 1: Team Liquid vs PSG.LGD
Last year PSG.LGD had been denied the Aegis in a 3-2 defeat to OG. Similarly to last year they faced them and lost 2-1 in the upper bracket finals and they clearly wanted a chance to get revenge. However standing in their way was Team Liquid, the team that looked so bad in groups that some wondered if they would even make it through their bo1 match against Fnatic. Team Liquid had gone on to stun everyone with a flawless run to the lower bracket finals but that flawless run was quickly ended. PSG.LGD started off game 1 strong, protecting Ame’s Spectre and securing their mid game with Centaur and Gyro. Fy’s Rubick was also on full display, seemingly stealing whatever spell he wanted and using it against Team Liquid to greater effect. Team Liquid would lose game 1 and for the first time since the first round of the lower bracket found themselves one game from elimination.

Game 2 started and it was almost entirely the PSG.LGD show. They slowly but surely built up a 20,000 gold and exp lead just before 40 minutes with their Huskar but then tragedy struck for the Chinese side. Team Liquid clawed their way back into the game in some incredibly long and spread out team fights. Mind_Control and GH made some incredibly plays on Dark Seer and Rubick which set their core Sven and TA up to cleave through PSG.LGD and we quickly found ourselves heading towards game 3. Sadly PSG.LGD crumbled in game 3, getting outdrafted and outplayed. Team Liquid sealed their place in the grand finals and found themselves in a bo5 against OG to see which team would become the first two time champion.


Series 2: OG vs Team Liquid
A lot was on the line for this match as It would determine the first two time TI champion and also who would win the 15 million dollar first place prize. Of course, the prize money is almost secondary to two teams full of former TI winners but it’s still a nice take away for proving that you are the best team in the world. Rather than talking about the games (which were all good to watch in their own way, aside from maybe the third game which was more or less a repeat of the second) we’ll quickly go over them generally and recommend you go watch the grand finals yourself if you haven’t already!

Team Liquid came out strong with a Meepo pick for w33 which was masked by an earlier TA pick. This ended up working wonders for Team Liquid but it wasn’t a straight forward win. OG had their chances, and even had the lead late into the game before Team Liquid made an incredible base defense and were able to wrestle back control of the game to their side. This was the only game Meepo wasn’t banned, and in following games it was always banned during the second phase. The following two games played out largely in the same way. MC got destroyed in his lane, W33 got counter picked mid, and Team Liquid failed to react to the incredible team fight prowess and balls to the wall aggression that came from OG. We’re talking T3 tower dives while every T2 is still up at 15~ minutes, and before that full on 5v5 brawls in the woods or mid lane. While these games were short they were entertaining in their own way.

Heading into the final game of the series we were treated to Ana’s carry Io. While Team Liquid’s draft was rather unique with Miracle on Bristleback and w33 on Windranger they put up quite a fight, even sieging OG’s base at one point, but after that attack was pushed aside OG took firm control of the game and became the first two-time TI winners.

OG had done something that had truly never happened before. They broke the cycle of no player ever having won TI twice, and did so as the same 5 man roster who had lifted the Aegis in Vancouver. You could see what it meant to the players as they saw gg typed out in-game. After a remarkable upper bracket run, OG once again won The International and successfully defended their title. Now the question becomes, can they get the threepeat?

Recommended Games
Team Liquid vs PSG.LGD Game 2 VOD not yet available
Team Liquid vs OG (series) VOD not yet available