Team Liquid vs The Alliance

For our first match of the day we have a somewhat exciting clash between Alliance and Team Liquid. Both of these teams are entering tonight's match with different amounts of hype behind them. They are in somewhat the same position seeing how they managed to put up a fight in the upper bracket but weren’t able to win. Once they fought against the lower bracket teams, however, they were able to dominate across the board.

Alliance is a team composed of experienced players who have only been playing as a unit for less than two months. That one fact didn’t stop them from dominating at DreamLeague Season 12, and finishing third in the ESL One Hamburg. They haven’t been playing for long, but they’ve already found a fair bit of success. Their carry duo, Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov and Linus "Limmp" Blomdin definitely stand out. Fortunately, they have an amazing set of supports to back them up along with a great coach and shot-caller Adrian "Fata" Trinks who has played under the supervision of one of Dota’s best players before deciding to make a team of his own.

Alliance always start aggressively and are always prepared to do what it takes to get an advantage. They always make great rotations in order to secure a kill and stop the enemy team from further progression.

Once the late game comes along, and the enemy team starts creating pressure, Alliance seem to crumble. When they fight against a team that can match their aggression, they struggle to find compete. The line between total obliteration of the enemy and a terrible loss is always painfully close when Alliance are involved.

On the other side of the map we have Team Liquid. Their starting line-up was known as Alliance just mere months ago. Their former players are now competing under the Team Liquid banner and are trying to solidify their spot in the world of competitive Dota. They are a great bunch when they play as a five-man unit, they’re dominant across the board but once they spread around they become an easy target. In their upper bracket match against J.Storm they just couldn’t get on the same page, they were afraid and kept making irrational mistakes which eventually cost them the game.

On the other hand, when they played against EHOME it seemed like they were a completely different team. They were committed to putting constant pressure on their opponents and made many smart decisions in the pick and ban phase. It was a close call, but in the end Team Liquid stood victorious with a 2-0 score.

Overall, they are a tough nut to crack and never go down without a fight. That said, they are one of the least consistent teams in Chengdu, and it’s hard to give them our full benefit of the doubt when they failed on so many occasions.

Because of this, we simply have to side with Alliance on this one. They seem much more confident in their way of playing and have been far more consistent throughout the tournament. Regardless of the final outcome, we should be in for a very competitive series.