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The Lima Major groups are over, and we’re taking a look at the last day’s action.
The Group Stage of the Lima Major has come to an end, and with it, three teams are out while 6 others move forward into the Playoffs — four in the Lower Bracket and eight in the Upper Bracket. Half of those teams are from Group B, and unlike Group A, qualification (or failure of the same, for that matter) from the group wasn’t straightforward for some teams, with two different tiebreakers deciding 4th/5th place and 6th/7th place. If you couldn’t watch the matches live, here’s what you need to know about them, following a summary of the final Group B table.
Lima Major Group B Table Wrap-Up
After a relatively rocky start, Team Liquid have proved its worth in the last two days and crown the group, remaining the only team at the entire tournament not to have lost a series. Entity also surprised many with some brilliant Dota, and managed to get a good seed as a result. Next up lies Shopify Rebellion, who have done surprisingly well to secure an Upper Bracket slot, especially considering the fact that the only other North American team is out of the running. Finally, Team Aster snatched the final UB slot from beastcoast by way of a tiebreaker.
Following said tiebreaker, beastcoast now rest in fifth place, while HellRaisers became the final team to qualify for the Playoffs by beating South-Easter Asian side Geek Slate in another tiebreaker.
This left many Geek Slate fans with broken hearts, with their team crashing out by the narrowest of margins. The same can’t be said of BetBoom Team, who underperformed severely after coming into the tournament as one of the favorites. Last place goes to Knights, who looked less like a team and more like a bunch of tourists, and might be facing an investigation regarding possible unscrupulous activities.
Shopify Rebellion vs beastcoast
Following their defeat of almost an identical roster with a similar roster of their own at The International 11, which resulted in Rebellion’s players being booted from the Playoffs early, beastcoast had essentially become the favorites in this matchup. That being said, SR have a long history of winning high-pressure matches in the Group Stages of events, and this would just be another day at the office for them.
Neither team had a clear advantage until about midway through Game 1, when beastcoast conceded 21 kills over a 10-minute period with very little recompense. It seemed as though SR would carry this advantage to victory, but the Peruvians came back strong before a decisive teamfight swung things the other way once again — this time for good. The Americans won the game in the 46th minute.
Hopes for a comeback to level the series were initially alive, but Rebellion began building a lead in the mid-game, and following a massive teamfight in the 32nd minute that turned into a full teamwipe, the game went firmly in the control of SR, who barely made any mistakes as they won the match before the clock struck 40 minutes to complete their clean sweep.
Geek Slate vs BetBoom Team
The most crucial match in the order of the lower portion of the group, Geek vs BB was always going to be an intense affair. The South-East Asians had failed to capitalize on a few situations that should have been theirs, while BetBoom had done the same except worse. BB needed a win to secure a tiebreaker against HellRaisers, while an outright win for Geek would see them not just directly qualify for the Playoffs, but get in a three-way tiebreaker with beastcoast and Aster for the last UB spot.
With both teams playing their hearts out, Game 1 was a battle to remember. BB’s early lead was vanquished by GS in the mid-game, and although they held the advantage for a while, they were unable to make the most of it apart from taking down their opponents’ mid Barracks. Come late game, BB’s lineup simply outscaled their opponents’, and they won in the 71st minute.
Unfortunately for the Eastern Europeans, the SEA boys wouldn’t make similar mistakes in Game 2. With a rock-solid draft in place, GS tore BB to shreds following a relatively even early game, and secured a leveled series and a tiebreaker with HR 39 minutes in.
Knights vs HellRaisers
Knights players have some issues. It’s one thing to be the most ethically questionable team in pro Dota history in a very long time — perhaps for the first time since the infamous 322 incident — but it’s their attitude towards the game and especially the fans that feels the most befuddling and even annoying. In both games against HR, they called GG before they had even lost all their outer or any base towers. This isn’t the first time this has happened at this event either, and we hope they learn from their mistakes. HR, meanwhile, will be very happy about that.
There’s not much to be said about the first game. HR got and maintained a decent gold lead throughout the game, and slowly but surely smothered Knights into submission. This happened in just the 24th minute, in which Knights had already conceded 29 kills while getting just 5 of their own.
If Game 1’s surrender came prematurely, Game 2 was even more bizarre. Knights were actually doing pretty well until the mid-game, but suddenly seemed to lose the plot and give HR a big enough gold advantage to perhaps justify bowing out before the clock struck 28 minutes. Whatever the case may be with Knights, HR won the matches and ascertained their tiebreaker.
Team Liquid vs Team Aster
Liquid had one more raid boss to face before they could finish their Group Stage flawlessly, and that was Aster. Meanwhile, the Chinese side desperately needed to win at least one game in order to retain their place in the UB. With so much on the line, both teams were bound to be brilliant but flawed.
Game 1 between these titans was as topsy-turvy as expected, with neither being able to get a decisive advantage as late as 55 minutes into the game. However, as it is the case when games go that late, one good teamfight was all that was needed for Liquid to finish things off, and they won just over an hour in.
The second game was also pretty neck-and-neck despite Liquid holding a gold lead for almost the entirety of the game. In a similar fashion to Game 1, it took until the 35th minute for a teamfight to give the Western Europeans a window of opportunity, and they took advantage of the lack of buybacks on Aster to close the game and clinch the series.
4th/5th Place Tiebreaker: beastcoast vs Team Aster
Nobody wants to be in a situation where they have to play tiebreakers or overtime, but it is an inevitability in the pro scene of any game unless you’re an absolutely dominant side or just, get dominated. Aster and beastcoast had one best of 3 to determine whether they would start the Playoffs on a high note or suffer a blow to their morale and chances.
For anyone who may have been looking for competitive matches, however, this best of 3 wasn’t one. Game 1 saw Aster pick up steam at the end of the laning phase. They never relented, and eventually choked beastcoast out 34 minutes in.
The South Americans immediately repaid the favor with a gradual domination of their own, beating their Chinese opponents just 24 minutes in with the kill scores of 30 to 6 easily explaining how the game went.
This trend of bashing continued, but in favor of Aster who went on to win Game 3 in the 32nd minute after being in power for most of the game. With this win, they took the last UB slot and secured themselves an all-important buffer as well as a potentially shorter route forward in the Playoffs.
6th/7th Place Tiebreaker: Geek Slate vs HellRaisers
Newly-formed SEA teams have a decent record when it comes to performing above expectations at their first big LAN event, and GS could have joined the hallowed ranks of those teams had they been just a shade better. HR on the other hand made sure Eastern Europe had a second representative on the stage after BetBoom were knocked out.
The EEU team fought their way to an advantage early in Game 1, and held on to it with all they had. Try as they might, GS couldn’t break HR’s resolve, and the latter was able to capitalize on their advantage and get one step closer to qualification with a win.
Unlike Game 1, the second engagement began with GS slowly building up a sizable lead. Unfortunately for the SEA boys, they lost a big teamfight at the start of the mid-game, and seemed to pretty much capitulate after that as they lost fight after fight and eventually the game and series before the 40-minute mark was reached.
Join us again for a preview of the Playoffs soon, and check out our daily recaps once the Dota resumes.
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