Invictus Gaming bests LGD in the best of three Upper Bracket finals of the StarLadder StarSeries XII regional qualifiers. IG secured their placement to attend the LAN finals to be held at Dreamhack Bucharest, between April 24-26. LGD will try their luck again, for a change to lay their hands on the second qualifying spot for the region.
Game 1
IG claimed victory in the first game of the series, in a steady and well managed pace. IG was able to capitalize on their early lead, using it to their advantage to keep the Sniper in check and avoid what could have been a devastating snowball effect. The incredibly strong and favorable Tiny-Wisp combo of Lio Jiajun “Sylar” and Zeng Rong Lei “MMY” was not enough to beat Zhilie Xu “Burning”‘s Juggernaut and Luo Feichi “Ferrari”‘s Ember Spirit. The game lasted 51 minutes with a score of 27-13.
Game 2
After a shaky start from LGD, Yao Lu “Maybe”’s Shadow Fiend was able to pull off amazing individual and team plays. After a while, When Yinqi Luo “Xi” on Phoenix engaged Shadow Fiend on tier 2 bottom tower, Maybe managed to blink out and dodge Phoenix’s dive. All of a sudden, IG was out of position and unable to kill Shadow Fiend, ending up losing 3 heroes and the Aegis. Even though IG’s line-up was looking very strong against the greedy pick of LGD, LGD was able to manage due to their stellar performances and synergy. The game lasted 41 minutes and 52 seconds with a score of 46:16.
Game 3
Game 3 was the deciding game and was as intense as could be expected from these two teams. Even with the traditionally mundane Lycan (for IG) and Medusa (for LGD) farming picks who were both leading in net worth early game, the surprises of this game were endless. It was clear that LGD feared the Medusa-Juggernaut late game and planned to avoid putting themselves in the position of having to contend with such a strong threat. By minute 21, LGD took down Roshan. Six minutes lated, unsuccessfully tried to break high-ground. They continued to push and by 35′ had a failed attempt to forcefully break base, dying with three heroes and the Ageis. Again, they tried at minute 45, losing 4 heroes, Ageis and two cheese. IG reacted by rushing into the LGD base and managing to take mid-lane racks, kill three her3os and head to the top racks – all in exchange for one Juggernaut death. At minute 52, IG tried to break base and gave LGD a team wipe, an ultra kill to the Storm Spirit and uncontested Roshan to LGD. The smoke gank on Maybe at minute 63 forced a buy-back then die-back and was the opening IG needed to end the game. The game lasted 64 minutes and 53 seconds, with a score of 32-29.
The Teams
IG roster
Luo Feichi “Ferrari_430”, Wong Hock Chuan “Chuan”, Yinqi Luo “Xi”, Zeng Hongda “Faith”, Zhilei Xu “burning”
LGD roster
Yao Zhengzheng “Yao”, Zeng Rong Lei “MMY”, Lio Jiajun “Sylar”, Zhang Ning “Xiao8”, Yao Lu “Maybe”
Up next in StarSeries XII
The lower bracket series between LGD and ViCi Gaming have yet to be announced. ViCi Gaming had just eliminated Newbee earlier today. The winner will qualify to play in the LAN finals of StarSeries Season 12 at DreamHack next month.
The StarLadder StarSeries XII online group stages began March 10. The best eight out of the 40 participating teams will qualify to the LAN finals: four European teams, two Chinese teams, one North-American team, and one Southeast Asian team. For the first time in the tournament’s history, the StarSeries finals will leave the Cybersport Arena in Kiev, to be hosted at Dreamhack Bucharest, April 24-26. The venue for the playoffs was changed amidst multiple frustrations and issues in the past regarding visas for traveling teams. The base prize pool is $80,000 plus travel support for attending teams. Casting will be provided by SLTV in Russian and Beyond the Summit in English.
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