Team Liquid outlasts Fnatic.Eu to grab final spot

 

 

Team Liquid was able to outlast Fnatic after an epic Game 2 which saw the momentum swing back and forth till the end. They will now be heading to China for the LAN finals along with Alliance.

 

 

Game 1 started out somewhat passively as both teams were just trying to get decent farm and experience in their respective lanes, although Liquid was edging ahead as they had the better laning.

 

At the 4 minute mark, Liquid was able to get first blood off Magnus after a rotation from the support heroes helped to kill him under the tower. While that was happening, Fnatic engaged on Templar Assassin in the middle lane but unfortunately could not kill him which led to Templar Assassin instead killing Juggernaut with Crystal Maiden barely escaping when Chen rotated to help out.

 

At the 8 minute mark, Fnatic decided to group up in the middle lane and focused on the tier-1 tower but unfortunately Templar Assassin managed to deny the tower which was a huge lost for Fnatic.

 

At the 11 minute mark, Liquid was able to pickoff four Fnatic heroes and took down the middle and top tier-1 towers after that.

 

As the game progressed, Liquid was just controlling the game with their strong team fight lineup and coupled with Fnatic’s lack of items, they simply could not handle Liquid 5 on 5.

 

 

Fnatic forced a huge team-fight in desperation near the Roshan pit turned out to be the deciding factor of the game as Liquid's lead became too huge to overcome forcing Fnatic to simply accept defeat, tapping out just 18 minutes into the game after Liquid took down all of their outer towers.

 

 

At the 2 minute mark, Fnatic's support heroes decided to smoke up and gank mid and they were able to get first blood off Dark Seer while Gyrocopter got a solo kill on Batrider following that.

 

Fnatic was in complete control in the early part of the game despite a few over-extensions by Batrider that gifted Gyrocopter easy solo kills.

 

As the game progressed, Liquid slowly fought their way back into the game by winning a few team-fights which gave them the needed gold to buy the basic items for their carries.

 

At the 20 minute mark, Fnatic grouped up in the top lane in an attempt to destroy the tier-1 tower but Liquid smoked up and rotated behind them and was able to get three hero kills in exchange for Nyx Assassin.

 

Fnatic just could not take down Dark Seer and his item combination of Mekansm and Pipe, together with his Vacuum and Wall of Replica combo swung the team-fights in Liquid's favour.

 

At the 26 minute mark, Fnatic was able to secure the Aegis of the Immortal after forcing Liquid to back-off during the team-fight. Following that, they pushed the middle lane but unfortunately lost both Ogre Magi and Sven.

 

At the 36 minute mark, Liquid was able to destroy the middle tier-2 tower and picked off Batrider as well. They then continued to push into Fnatic 's base where they got a kill off Leshrac and destroyed the tier-3 tower at the cost of Clockwerk's life.

 

A few minutes later, Liquid was able to pickoff Nature's Prophet and tried to take out Roshan which forced a huge team-fight but fortunately for both teams, they only lost 1 hero each. Fnatic later tried to take on Roshan but was forced to back-off that gave Liquid the opening to secure the Aegis of the Immortal for themselves.

 

At the 46 minute mark, Liquid caught Sven farming in the Dire jungle and easily killed him. They immediately pushed the middle lane while the rest of Fnatic opted to push the bottom lane forcing Liquid to teleport back to base which saw them successfully defend the lane and killing Nature's Prophet in the process.

 

A huge team-fight near the Roshan pit at the 53 minute mark saw Fnatic losing four heroes but a great Aegis of the Immortal steal by Batrider basically kept them in the game as Liquid decided not to push and let Gyrocopter finish his Assault Cuirrass. After which, Liquid immediately pushed the middle lane and slowly chipped away at the life of the melee barracks. After a few moments, Clockwerk engaged on Fnatic but unfortunately Fnatic was able to get a huge team wipe over Liquid that forced out the triple buybacks from Liquid as Nature's Prophet was trying to take out the bottom barracks.

 

 

At the 60 minute mark, Liquid tried to push the middle lane but unfortunately Fnatic was able to get three kills and was able to take down the middle tier-3 tower instead. Liquid was forced to defend with only Clockwerk and Gyrocopter after Batrider dived at Gyrocopter. However, Liquid emerged victorious on the back of a Great Cog from Clockwerk and huge DPS from Gyrocopter. They then proceeded to push the middle lane and were able to finally finish off Fnatic after killing a few heroes despite the buybacks after 63 long minutes.