After the end of day two of the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season only four teams remained and only one of them would make it to the ESL One Los Angeles Major
The opening series for the day kicked of with Group A and business associates against BOOM Esports. Many expected that business associates would be the team to prevail, but those people were wrong. BOOM won the first match and sealed the deal with the third one ending the series with a 2:1 over their North American colleagues.
What followed was the loser’s match for Group B where NoPing faced CR4ZY. The South American squad took the advantage with an absolute stomp in game one as the final score stood 23:4. CR4ZY weren’t done yet and managed to pull a reverse sweep taking the next two games. Game three was fairly contested early on, but as it transitioned into the later stages NoPing started to fall off.
NoPing e-sports and business associates were the first two teams to leave the event, each taking $12,000 and 40 DPC points for their efforts.
The decider match for Group A was between BOOM and forZe and little did we know that the South American underdogs will snatch a 2:1 victory. The final series for the day was the decider match in Group B where Alliance faced CR4ZY. In game one we saw a peculiar Abaddon carry for CR4ZY which despite winning the lane didn’t turn out too well for them. In the meantime, Alliance put their faith in Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov’s Faceless Void and he didn’t let them down. The second match was make or break for the ex-Fighting PandaS squad. CR4ZY’s early game draft secured them a good lead and things looked pretty good. For the side of Alliance they were once again all in on a late-game carry in the face of Medusa. CR4ZY secured the Aegis and decided to push on despite Oliver "skiter" Lepko’s Razor getting picked off. Whatever advantage they had was gone after the team fight that followed.
From that moment on it was bread and butter for Alliance as they assumed control of the map and secured enough space for their Medusa. A couple more mistakes by Jonathan Bryle "Bryle" Santos De Guia's Monkey King didn’t make things easier for CR4ZY. Nikobaby soon had a Divine Rapier on his Medusa and his opponents simply didn’t have the power to take him down as he scored a double rampage to wrap things up.
CR4ZY and Alliance were the other two teams to get eliminated for the day, ending their run with $24,000 and 60 DPC points each.
The playoffs of the StarLadder Minor will continue tomorrow with the four remaining teams. Alliance will go against Aster, while Gambit Esports will face BOOM Esports. Who do you think will take the first spot?
