With the other portion of the upper bracket being settled yesterday, we now know which teams will be joining Team Secret and OG in the winner’s circle.
Team Liquid played a comfortable first game, thanks to Lasse “Matumbaman” Urpalainen’s trademark Broodmother, easily picking off unsuspecting opponents thanks to Winter wyvern’s Splinter Blast and Arctic Burn.
It didn’t take long for the European squad to siege Evil Geniuses’ base on multiple fronts, as Team Liquid’s Broodmother and Nature’s Prophet picks are incredibly mobile heroes.
After 30 minutes, the North American squad did not see a way to bounce back once they faced mega creeps and called good game.
For game two, EG doubled down on their Drow-focused draft, while Team Liquid chose a rare Sniper pick, backed by a hard-carry Naga Siren. The plan was to cast Song of the Siren (which sleeps all enemy heroes in range) when any of EG’s heroes got too close to Sniper, but EG followed up with an initiation heavy line up. Earth Shaker, Batrider, and Alchemist made things too difficult for Mutumbaman to get any type of damage out, and EG evened up the series.
During the final match, Team Liquid used all-new tactic, bringing four heroes to try and bring down the Dire Tier one tower before the first wave of creeps reached the middle lane. With Mutumbaman’s Lone Druid summoned bear tanking the tower alongside Kuro “Kuroky” Takhasomi’s Abaddon, who had selected Curse of Avernus as his first skill, Liquid almost succeeded.
Once both teams reached the mid-game, however, it was clear that EG’s burst heavy lineup had the advantage. Gustav “S4” Magnusson’s Doom Bringer kept Team Liquid back peddling which led to the North American team taking the game and series.
EG moves on to the upper bracket to face NiP, which is led by former EG captain Peter “ppd” Dager; while Team Liquid drops down to the lower bracket to face South American squad Pain Gaming.
The second day of the playoff stages also featured elimination matches with Fnatic vs Keen Gaming and Pain Gaming vs Chaos EC, with Keen and Pain moving on to the loser bracket best-of-three rounds.
The MDL Disneyland Paris Major continues tomorrow and will be streamed here.
