One Hundred and Seventeen! — Day 4 Recap

By KawaiiSocks on Aug 23, 2019 17:22 UTC

South America deserved the slots

NoPing Esports silenced everyone this TI. Whatever this team might have lacked in terms of experience they more than made up for in terms of boldness and flair. It wasn’t enough to take down Team Secret, who were the heavy favorites coming into TI, but it was definitely enough to prove once and for all that SA deserved their slots all these years.

This TI will definitely leave a mark on the scene as a whole and it is not impossible that next year we are going to see our first SA team in the top of DPC rankings. Team Secret will move on and will face Vici Gaming tomorrow after a very strong and convincing performance.

Infamous will leave the tournament as a team that has proven itself as a top tier competitor and the team who also gave Riki a chance on the main stage and ensured that every single hero in the biggest esports tournament of the year was contested.

Upper Bracket is for Losers

Team Liquid will move on to top four of the tournament and will keep their hope of a first repeat champion title. Their day began with a slow and steady 2:0 against Knights. They played their regular. disciplined game of soul-crushing, choking Dota against a Chinese team known for their highground holds and heavy punishes for every mistake and emerged victorious.

Both KuroKy and LaNm are veterans of Dota who know the game incredibly well, but the extra experience on the side of the other players on Team Liquid definitely showed. Royal Never Give Up is a young team and the top8 result is probably not the end of the story for its players.

In their Shopify Rebellion series, however, Team Liquid showed that they are not a one-trick-pony. Pulling out Alchemist in the first phase and even picking Dark Seer as their last pick, not only did they completely switch their playstyle, but also switched their players, with Miracle- going against Aster.Suma1L- in the mid lane.

That was a different kind of Liquid. The one we haven't seen during this tournament yet, the one that won The International 2017. Slightly over a year ago, before settling down on a more calculated approach, Liquid played incredibly fast paced Dota. The precision was always there, but there was also confidence and the willingness to take risks. It was their preferred playstyle because Liquid at their peak was better, smarter and faster than the competition, but it wasn't the case this season. Not until now.

It was unlucky that Evil Geniuses had to face this Liquid in their elimination series, but it is what it is. While their rivals fully embraced the memes, Evil Geniuses decided to keep a straight face and with no Arteezy getting stuck on cliffs, there can be no hope of a third place finish.

New Hero Revealed

A new hero was revealed for Fall 2019. All we know for now is that her name is Snapfire, she is Keen Folk, she is somehow related to Timbersaw and she has a very Pixar-esque mount. You can watch a full reveal here, while we might try to speculate on what the hero does in the future.

Esports