Team Liquid knocks compLexity Gaming into the lower bracket of the Shanghai Major.

Game One

Team Liquid’s style of team composition was very traditional. Liquid always aimed to have an overwhelming mid-game and snowball from there with a farmed FATA-. This game however they added a new flair of Anti Mage which weakened their mid-game. On the other hand, compLexity’s game plan was much more gank oriented. With heroes such as Lina, Bounty Hunter, Nature’s Prophet and Slardar, Complexity had a huge burst potential in the early-mid game.

Liquid opted for a greedy jungle Beastmaster which was heavily punished by the Bounty Hunter as he was able to contest the jungle with no answers from Liquid. Because the lack of lane contestants, compLexity’s Slardar was able to free farm for a very long time, but the same goes for Anti Mage. As the game progressed to the mid game, compLexity continued to pull ahead because of the early Track from BH. Liquid had limited options because of Anti Mage’s weakness in the early game, they were forced to dodge fights and pushes from compLexity. Although Anti Mage pulled ahead of everyone in terms of net worth, he was still very fragile from the amount of burst of compLexity. However, coL was unable to pull ahead in advantage and this gave Anti Mage the opportunity to catch up on farm which resulted in a team wipe of Complexity. Although Liquid’s farm was centralized on Anti Mage, compLexity seemed to have no answers for an AM with heart.

Game Two

Liquid went back to their team fight oriented style this game after the almost disastrous Anti Mage pick in game one. Although the AM worked out in the end, their mid-game was very unstable. This game they opted for the Void, Gyrocopter, Phoenix lineup. With so many AOE combinations, they’ve secured an extremely strong team fight lineup. On the other hand, compLexity’s lineup seemed scattered aiming to counter the various heroes on Liquid’s side. With Vengeful Spirit and Beastmaster to counter the Gyrocopter and Void. Whereas the Legion Commander can control the Outworld Devourer with Duel.

Both teams were content with farming their carries early on in the game due to the passive nature of both lineups. Both teams began to abuse their mid game team fight early on. Liquid was able to pull ahead due to the strong ultimates available. compLexity’s lack of strategy in their drafts provided them with no answers for the strong Liquid team fight. From there onwards, compLexity began to fall off completely letting Liquid to dominate the whole map. 27 minutes in, Liquid stormed into the base of compLexity and they were forced to exit the game. compLexity will start their journey in the lower bracket of the Shanghai Major playoffs and Team Liquid will move forward to face the loser of Team Evil Geniuses and Virtus Pro.

headline and banner pictures from compLexity and Liquid twitter accounts