Team Liquid had a trial by fire with their newest player today and managed to show that they’re still a force to be reckoned with at the EPICENTER Major. And Gambit Esports are finally taking the necessary steps to become one of the best teams in the world by pulling off a crazy upset.
Evil Geniuses kicked things off for Group B against Infamous and showed why they’re the third-ranked team this season. Infamous had a few good moments, but overall, it was an easy 2-0 in favor of EG.
That led into Liquid debuting their new player, Aliwi “w33” Omar, in a series against Gambit. As a team that hasn’t had a great record against top squads, Gambit continued to be a thorn in Liquid’s side.
At ESL One Birmingham in May, Gambit bested Liquid 2-1 to knock them out. But here, it was an extremely close series that saw w33 fit in seamlessly with his new squad.
After a missed rotation allowed Gambit to take a tower, w33 rushed mid by himself and took the tower for Liquid. He continued roaming the map after completing his middle run and ended up being a key component in several smaller fights that led to kills for Liquid following his rotations.
Since he was a key part in why Liquid took game one, Gambit made sure to focus him down at every opportunity in game two when w33 picked up his signature Invoker. That ended up being a great strategy that neutralized a lot of what Liquid were trying to build through drafting w33’s Invoker. They controlled the last part of game two and evened up the series.
Doubling down on w33, Liquid drafted another one of his top heroes, Windranger, along with a Chen that ended up being huge. They took an early lead and held on for the 2-1 win. But Gambit weren’t done for the day.
Liquid immediately jumped into a series against EG that mostly featured blow out victories on both sides.
EG took game one easily, putting together both Sven and Morphling in a combo that’s worked for them countless times this season. But they couldn’t use either again as Liquid adapted and flipped the series.
Liquid proceeded to tally 73 kills over the next two games and they held EG to just 22. That secured them a spot in the main event as the top seed from Group B.
In the fight for the final upper bracket spot, Gambit had to face a second top team and they pulled off the second upset of the day.
Gambit absolutely crushed EG. The momentum from their losers match against Infamous carried over and they picked off EG 32 times in order to secure game one.
Game two was even worse for the North American powerhouse. Even with Syed “SumaiL” Hassan playing his main hero, Storm Spirit, Gambit found a way to hard counter him and blast EG for another 44 kills.
That win puts Gambit in the upper bracket of the main event along with Liquid, Team Secret, and Royal Never Give Up.
The matches continue with EPICENTER’s Group C when Alliance and Virtus Pro face off tomorrow at 5am CT.
