With Cloud 9 being the only remaining western team in the Upper Bracekts in StarSeries Season XII, ViCi Gaming swept through them, pushing them into the Lower Brackets with a 2-0 victory. Meanwhile the other Chinese team, IG, defeated the only SEA team, Team Malaysia, sending them to face Team Tinker in the Lower Brackets after a 2-0 win.
ViCi Gaming vs Cloud 9
Game 1
The first game in the series started with interesting drafts by both teams, with ViCi Gaming taking a Zeus offlane and a Bristle Back Mid lane for Cloud 9. It seems that VG came more prepared for the first game and picked up a sniper and juggernaut. Even though they were facing a Troll Warlord and Bristle Back, it was not enough to keep the Chinese from pushing forward and gaining the advantage. Chen Zhihao “Hao”‘s Juggernaut claimed first blood against Cloud 9 and VG claimed an early farm and kill advantage and a counter initiation by VG, Cloud 9 lost four heroes in a bad team fight, giving VG even more of the advantage. With a team wipe by C9 around minute 15, and Adrian “FATA-“ Trinks having the game under control for awhile, it started to fall off towards late game. After a couple of pick offs by VG with the Zeus ulti and Sniper’s shrapnel scouting abilities, they managed to get a kill on FATA- and head mid for the push to end the game.
Game 2
In the second game, Brood was picked for Daryl Koh “iceiceice”, but he had a terrible start, dying five times in lane. Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao bought a seven minute dagger on Tiny, while Johan “BigDaddy” Sundstein and Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen had really great early game plays with great rotations on brood and on magnus, killing them multiple times. Overall the game developed with many fights going in the favor of VG. Xie Junhao “Super” Magnus and Xu Linsen “fy” Disruptor combo set up a good team fight for Chen Zhihao “Hao”, where he obliterated C9 and was twice as farmed as every hero in game. A couple of skirmishes, good defense on top lane from C9 even though they were far behind and efforts to split push were not enough for the Europeans to gain advantage. Things were difficult as the normally strong Tiny-IO combination was destroyed by the popular support duo of Lu Chao “Fenrir” on witchdoctor and Fy on Disruptor alone. After the last Roshan kill, VG started to push the bottom lane, but a really good blink toss back to C9 base by EE gave C9 a little hope when they almost got the kill on Hao’s troll which would have repelled the push and stalled the game a little longer. With Hao‘s extremely farmed Troll, there was little C9 could do. ViCi Gaming took the second game in the series.
ViCi Gaming defeated the only remaining Europeans in the Upper Brackets, sending Cloud 9 to the Lower Bracket Semi Finals to face The Alliance.
VG will advance to the Upper Bracket Finals.
Cloud 9 Roster
Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao
Adrian “FATA-“ Trinks
Pittner “bOne7” Armand
Johan “BigDaddy” Sundstein
Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen
ViCi Gaming Roster
Chen Zhihao “Hao”
Xie Junhao “Super”
Daryl Koh “iceiceice”
Lu Chao “Fenrir”
Xu Linsen “fy”
Invictus Gaming vs Team Malaysia
Game 1
Team MY drafted spirit breaker along with a first pick Troll Warlord and Windranger while Invictus Gaming grabbed the infamously popular Sniper, and an offlane Earthshaker. Invictus claimed first blood before the laning stage had even started and IG continued to just dominate, pushing towers and asserting their control in the early game. With a significant lead, IG took the first set of barracks around minute 27 and had a clear lead with 22 kills. Team MY called “GG” at about 29 minutes into the game after losing another fight and having no clear way to recoup.
Game 2
Invictus Gaming again picked up the Sniper, an offlane Earthshaker and Treant Protector, however swapped in a Luna and Morphling. Zeng Hongda “Faith” killed the courier, delaying “Kecik Imba” Fadil bin Mohd Raziff’s bottle but depsite this, Team MY had the early game advantage and “kYxY” Lee Kang Yang’s Gyrocopter helped keep the advantage going in their favor. As mid game approached, Morphling and Sniper were picking up momentum and farm as IG attempted to play quietly to extend to support their better late game potential. Luo Feichi “Ferrari_430” secured a triple kill and later with IG taking Roshan was enough to seal their fate to take the game. A “Beyond Godlike” streak for Ferrari_430 helped to take two lanes of barracks and gave the win to IG.
IG swept through Team MY 2-0 sending the Malaysians into the Lower Bracket to play in the Lower Bracket Semi Finals vs Team Tinker. IG will advance to the Upper Bracket Finals to face the other Chinese team, ViCi Gaming.
Invictus Gaming
Luo Feichi “Ferrari_430”
Wong Hock Chuan “Chuan”
Yinqi Luo “Xi”
Zeng Hongda “Faith”
Zhilei Xu “burning”
Team Malaysia Roster
“kYxY” Lee Kang Yang
“Kecik Imba” Fadil bin Mohd Raziff
“Ohaiyo” Chong Xin Khoo
“JoHnNy” Siong Tait
“Mushi” Chai Yee Fung
Still to Come
Team MY vs Team Tinker in Lower Bracket Semi Finals 16:30 CET
Cloud 9 vs The Alliance Lower Bracket Semi Finals 16:30 CEST
IG vs VG Upper Bracket Finals 20:00 CEST
Leave a Reply