The Wild Card matches today showed impressive resolve as three teams battled for their tournament lives. Working to decide the last spot in the semifinals, these Wild Card games were high stakes and set to eliminate two teams. The winner goes on to “fill in the blank”, so to speak.
Invincible Armada vs Beyond
I was extremely surprised to see Beyond get their ideal team comp. ForgottenWar showed in the qualifier tournament that his Celeste deserves to be respected and feared. However, when Beyond lined up Celeste, Adagio, and function, it was Yotta who picked Adagio, moving him into a support role.
Invincible Armada jumped out to an early gold lead with their bully jungler, Taka. However, not enough attention was given to the jungle, and Beyond had a perfect opportunity to safely farm, building for the late-game. The team fight Beyond had been preparing for finally arrived, and Beyond was able to capitalize twice, pushing ahead 6-1 in kills.
Invincible Armada were experienced enough to identify what was happening with this Ardan/Adagio camp. Wine immediately transitioned from prioritizing weapon power items, to buying defense. Even with only a tier one defensive item, Wine was able to quickly cause havoc in the back line of Beyond’s team fight.
With Wine being able to dive to ForgottenWar, and not immediately get blow up, team fights immediately tipped in the favor of Invincible Armada. After two strong aces, Beyond was virtually pushed out of the game. The strength of crystal power Vox was very apparent in this match, as he was able to bounce immense damage throughout all of Beyond with Wait For It.
hack vs Beyond
Hack opted to pick a jungle Vox, giving themselves better scaling options to go along with their lane Skaarf. Beyond didn’t want to change their style until they could prove what they were doing works, so they opted for Celeste lane, Ardan jungle, and Catherine as support.
Beyond easily hit their stride with ForgottenWar consistently countering the engage of Phone with his Reflex Block. Hack was unable to gain a gold lead, and Beyond quickly took advantage, pushing their advantage by focusing the immobile Galaxy on Skaarf.
Plex on Vox hadn’t hit his powerspike before the defensive items of Beyond were in place. Hack did manage a solid teamfight, but neither team was able to secure a kill, with both sides backing off safely. Shortly afterwards, Beyond quickly captured Kraken. Hack tried to mount a comeback at the very end after Kraken fell, but Yotta landed a perfect stun while Galaxy was charging up his Dragon’s Breath.
While Beyond did manage a win against hack, their fate would be in the hands of hack and Invincible Armada.
Invincible Armada vs hack
Invincible Armada was one game from the semi-finals, and hack was fighting for their tournament lives. A win for hack would mean a new round robin set, while a loss meant that Invincible Armada would be the victors of the round.
Hack opted to play for the late game, picking up powerful scaling heroes like Adagio in the jungle, and Celeste in lane. Invincible Armada played the exactly opposite game, grabbing Glaive for their jungle slot, and prioritizing the Ringo pick for lane.
Both Sangho and Wine rushed Tension Bow, effectively hitting their powerspike around six minutes into the game. With no conceivable way for a double crystal comp to match that level of aggression, hack was forced out of their side of the jungle, and Invincible Armada started amplifying their monetary lead. By ten minutes the lead was almost double.
Hack had one of the coolest defensive stand-offs with a seemingly unorthodox strategy of scout traps. With Kraken walking into the base, hack setup a battlefield of Scout Traps, then lured Invincible Armada onto them with Kraken. It was the first teamfight that hack would win, and it was all thanks to the setup.
Eventually, Invincible Armada would overpower the underfed hack team, and their raw weapon power builds would finish off the crystal and propel them into the semifinals!
what’s next
With Invincible Armada moving forward, the semifinal bracket has been finalized and we know what the matchups are going to be. The first matchup is the one I’ve been waiting for, and I’m sure it won’t disappoint.
The best-of-three between these two teams is scheduled for Saturday at 9 PM PDT / Sunday at 6 AM CEST. Catch all the action on OGN’s official global twitch.tv page.