Team Liquid is again proving why the team is the King of the Lower Bracket as it eliminated two Dota 2 teams as Day Four of The International 2019 came to a close. For those not familiar, Liquid had been in a somewhat similar situation back in TI7. The team had dropped to the Lower Bracket where it beat opponents to eventually reach the Grand Finals and secure the Aegis.
In the first game of the day, it was Liquid taking on Royal Never Give Up. In the first game Liquid's Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi used Gyrocopter and partnered with Maroun "GH" Merhej on Io. RNG meanwhile went for the standard Ember Spirit and Lifestealer play from Gao "Setsu" Zhenxiong and Du "Monet" Peng, respectively. In the initial stages, the two teams tried to figure out their matchups, eventually leading to their carries farming. RNG did what it could, but the scaling potential of Liquid's picks were just too much. The game ended with Miracle- getting 12 kills and zero deaths.
In the second game, RNG went for lane domination. RNG's Su "Flyby" Lei used Enchantress and Setsu picked Outworld Devourer. Liquid meanwhile went with Rubick for GH and Arc Warden for Miracle-. While Liquid had the initial lead, Setsu rallied his team and gained the advantage against Liquid. Feeling confident, RNG dived into Liquid's base in order to increase its lead. However, RNG overextended and got countered by Liquid. Despite getting map control, and even having the Aegis, they still couldn't move forward to high ground. Even while not having buybacks, RNG made what is clearly an aggressive move and got demolished. RNG called GG, ending the game at 78 minutes.
This meant Liquid had to face EG. In the first game, EG took an early lead, getting seven kills by the 10-minute mark. However as the game went on, Miracle-, on his Faceless Void, started to come online and become a problem for EG. A team fight around the 40-minute mark was disastrous for EG, In addition, three of EG's heroes experienced diebacks which eventually led to the GG. Liquid's win in the first game appeared to have taken the wind out of EG, as in the second game it was all Liquid.
With this, RNG dropped to 7th-8th place and took home around $848,000. Evil Geniuses, meanwhile, gets to take home about $1.1 million at 5th-6th place.
The other "non-Liquid game" had Team Secret going against Infamous. Secret revealed that it came prepared as it banned Wraith King in the first game, one of Infamous' comfortable heroes. Infamous therefore decided to go for Phantom Lancer and in a surprise move, went for Riki. While Secret went its way to put pressure on the towers, Infamous made sure to constantly rotate its heroes on the map. Secret was patient enough and eventually its cores managed to catch up with Infamous, giving them the game.
In the second game, Secret again banned Wraith King. Infamous this time went for a Storm Spirit and Lifestealer. For Secret, team captain Clement "Puppey" Ivanov decided to get the Witch Doctor. Despite a being at position five, Puppey took charge in the initial phase of the game. While Hector Antonio "K1" Rodriguez of Infamous managed to get the right amount of farm for his Lifestealer, the rest of the team wasn't as lucky. One mistake later in the game by K1 ensured Secret's win. With the loss, Infamous ends its excellent TI run finishing at 7-th-8th place with RNG.
Day 5 Schedule
For Day Five, the scheduled games are:
- Vici Gaming vs Team Secret
- OG vs PSG.LGD
- Team Liquid vs Team Secret/Vici Gaming
