LGD back at the International, Black to play in for second time
The playoffs of the Chinese Qualifier started out with LGD dominating CIS in their first Bo3 match-up before DT^Club kicked themselves in gear, eliminating TongFu.WanZhou in fourth place. It wasn't until the second day of the playoffs and the game between CIS and DT^Club that we had an even series.
CIS eliminate favourites DT^Club
For the first game DT^Club came out ahead on lanes but failed to control Dominik 'Black^' Reitmeier's Anti-Mage, who instead took over the game after some poor decision making from DT lost them a few games. Particularly off the ball in the first match was DT's Yu Xiao 'Air' Yin who got to play his trademark Brewmaster but ended up handing over his Primal Split to Tianyou 'ayo' Fan's Rubick in an early fight as well as feeding away his life after some questionable micro.
For the second game DT^Club took the Anti-Mage and gave it to Silong 'xdd' Liu who made some great plays on the hero such as turning around to kill a chasing Sand King. xdd was able to split push and stall the game enough for his superior mobility to give his team the win, sending the series into the third game.
For the final game DT^Club bet on Phantom Lancer but due to a combination of early pressure from CIS and some very questionable build choices from xdd, it was Black's Morphling which won the day, sending his team to Seattle.
LGD win their second International Qualifier in a row
For the finals it seemed another repeat of the upper bracket finals, as LGD crushed their way through CIS in game one and took a measured victory over them in a longer game two. It wasn't until the third game that things got interesting as CIS changed up their play from the previous qualifier games, giving Black a midgame ganker in Axe, which demolished the early game and absolutely took over, forcing LGD to call the fastest 'GG' of the series so far at 18 minutes and 8 seconds.
For the fourth game CIS was back to their prevalent style, with Black on Morphling once again and generally looking to eek it out in the lategame against a LGD who were having none of it. Outmaneuvering their opponents in every engagement, LGD quickly established complete dominance over the flow of the game. From this point on their experience carried them safely to victory, taking the series 3-1.
