The competition for two spots to The International 11 in the Last Chance Qualifier has ended with Team Secret and Team Liquid seized their qualification for TI 11.
Given that the Last Chance Qualifier competition at The International 11 featured a number of formidable teams and players, it is not a surprise that this year LCQ was highly anticipated. Especially with the addition of a number of well-known players to the team, which produced some exciting moments during the competition.
Puppey, The Perfect Attendee
All eyes were on Clement “Puppey” Ivanov as Team Secret entered the LCQ. Many fans bet that the veteran will maintain his streak of perfect attendance in TI.
Puppey listened, and gave his reply.
In the grand final of the upper bracket, Team Secret met Virtus.pro in a three-game best-of-three battle. Team Secret grabbed the TI spot with an overwhelming victory.
Virtus.pro’s mid game advantage of 12k gold proved insufficient to secure a victory. Against Crystallis’ Sniper, who single-handedly maintained Team Secret’s defense, Virtus.pro struggled to break through. Team Secret tactics paid off as they prevailed and emerged victorious in a hard fought battle.
Team Secret was able to set the pace in the game two by learning from mistakes that almost cost them the previous game. Even though Virtus.pro tried to trick Team Secret with a rather unusual draft pick, it simply didn’t work as Team Secret stomped Virtus.pro and finished the game in less than 30 minutes.
With 2-0 victory against Virtus.pro, Team Secret became the first team that qualify for The International 11. And as expected, another The International action for Puppey yet again. Right where he belongs.
Matumbaman : The Final Ride?
Despite their defeat to Team Secret, Virtus.pro still had another shot to qualify for TI 11. And that means they need to get through Team Liquid, one of the fan favorites that beat Vici Gaming 1:2 in the lower bracket semifinals.
For Team Liquid, this means a chance to get back at Virtus.pro who knocked them out to lower bracket round. Analysts and commentators, however, were not expecting much from Team Liquid, especially after their poor performance against Virtus.pro in the upper bracket round.
In the end, it’s all about the winning mentality.
Team Liquid showed an entirely different performance against Virtus.pro in the grand final of lower bracket this time. Though early laning phase went well in favor of Virtus.pro, Team Liquid quickly dominated the mid game and ended it in 30 minute, all thanks to MATUMBAMAN and miCKe stellar performance.
As their chance to qualify dwindles, gpk and RAMZES666 decided to go all-out and try to win the game for Virtus.pro by making a rather aggressive draft in game two. Their plan failed, however, as Team Liquid continued to dominate and won the lower bracket grand final 2-0.
This victory pretty much serves as a fitting send-off for MATUMBAMAN, who stated that this would be his final professional Dota competition.
“I’m just happy to make it to be honest. My last year of pro-Dota. My last tournament. So absolutely f***g amazing.”,” MATUMBAMAN said in an interview. “I’m exhausted.”.
Matu later added that even if he doesn’t win The International, he would like to see newer players prosper from his experiences.
End of The Road for T1
“Topson Leshrac 1,047 GPM. WTF,” Clinton Loomis, an analyst who was watching the opening game of LCQ between T1 and NAVI, said on twitter. Topson’s incredible consistency and efficiency had the whole world in awe for a long time. Together with fellow superstar, ana, he was expected to boost the team performance with hope to qualify for the TI 11 competition.
That hope is dashed. Again.
What was hailed as Southeast Asia’s “super team” took defeat after defeat in every LCQ match they played. T1 simply could not compete with Navi, Team Secret, and Vici Gaming.
When they played Vici Gaming in the lower bracket round, it was the end of the road for T1. Fans were hopeful that they would move on to the next round after a victory in game one against Vici Gaming. But it was never as easy as they thought it would be, as Vici Gaming hit back and prevailed in game two. Eventually, T1 lost their composure and forced a teamfight that proved to be a terrible mistake in game three.
“Bye bye kuku,” Erika from Vici Gaming chatted as the final game approached its conclusion. This scene alone set the social media on fire as fans were quick to blame the highlighted player as the major problem for T1. Some of them have partaken in banter that circulates around Twitter.
Their defeat marked the end of T1’s 2021–2022 competitive season. Given the turmoil that occurred during the LCQ competition, it’s certainly interesting to see how T1 management will react to this ahead of new competitive season.
