In the best-of-one lower bracket were two unexpected teams: Team Liquid and Fnatic. Both teams had made a roster change near to TI, with differing results: Liquid had a very shaky Group Stage, while Fnatic was one match away from securing an Upper Bracket berth.
With everything on the line, Liquid, the 2017 TI champions, burst out its comfort picks, Io and Gyrocopter, to be played by Ivanov Maroun “GH” Merhej and carry player Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi respectively.
Likewise, Fnatic went for Timbersaw for offlaner Daryl Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang, Kunkka for mid-laner Abed “Abed” Azel L. Yusop, and Enigma for support Djardel Jicko B. “DJ” Mampusti.
Both teams opted for a safe early laning phase, but when the fights broke out, Liquid was able to get a slight lead thanks to Fnatic overcommitting on a kill on Liquid mid-laner Aliwi “w33” Omar’s Necrophos.
Despite the loss, Fnatic shifted its strategy to farm up its cores, including DJ’s Enigma. While iceiceice’s Timbersaw didn’t have that much impact, he was continually split pushing with Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong’s Leshrac to force Liquid to react to defend their base. A smoke gank found both teams trading kills, with Fnatic coming out on top.
Team Liquid wasn’t going to sit idle though, forcing out fights and trying to take down iceiceice, though he managed to survive thanks to his teammates.
However, Liquid managed to catch iceiceice out before the rest of his team was ready, and took a big team fight, killing all of Fnatic’s four cores and taking the bottom lane barracks.
Despite falling behind, Fnatic tried their best to recover, managing to get kills on Liquid, but it just wasn’t enough, as Liquid cores were already too farmed and managed to constantly keep winning fights against Fnatic, with DJ whiffing two Black Hole ultimates.
In the end, Liquid took a big fight and went straight for Fnatic’s tier four towers and ended the game despite Fnatic’s valiant attempt at defense.
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