The first day saw Liquid, Bob, ATNF and Virtus.Pro triumph, but the action is only heating up. Join us at 14:00 CEST today to see the continuation of ETS #3. 

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$10,000, state of the art ROCCAT hardware, high-end PCs from Alienware and the title of Enter the Storm Champions. All that was put on the line last night as the final stage of the ETS #3 marathon began with eight of the best teams in Europe.

Click on the matches to download the replays. 
 

Team Liquid versus ROCCAT


A non-coordinated Team Liquid is a rare sight in Heroes tournaments, but for the first few minutes of their match against ROCCAT on Dragon Shire we saw exactly that. After trading early game punches, ROCCAT managed to take the first drake before the second minute, and then the second at the sixth minute, showing complete and total map presence and early game domination. Nevertheless, despite most towers of Liquid being leveled, ROCCAT only held a small level advantage and they didn’t enter the mid-game with as much advantage as double dragon would suggest.

Liquid were not worried. Known for being a very strong late-game team, the Spaniards played patiently and took fights when they counted the most. Securing all of the subsequent dragons, Liquid were able to capitalize on the objective’s massive strength to level forts and keeps as their double tank composition protected their ranged assassins Valla and Raynor.

Game two was never that contested. Going for a melee-heavy composition with Kerrigan on top of the Muradin/Anub’arak double-tank front-line, Liquid decimated ROCCAT in the early game on Tomb. Liquid’s control of the altars was superior and at one point ROCCAT sat on more than 50 gems, with no option to turn in. A couple of boss fakes to bait ROCCAT into the pit was all it took for Liquid to wrap up the series 2-0 and move on the winners semi finals.


 

Bob? vs PiP


Much more contested was the series between Bob? and PiP. The two teams who came through the ETS qualifiers were tangled in a rivalry of sort, one that Bob always managed to win and it was no different this time.

Bob went for a more or less standard draft with Kharazim as their healer and two ranged damage dealers behind double tank but this time it was PiP who threw the curve ball with Sonya. The two teams sparred long and hard on Cursed Hollow and although PiP managed to get a lot of kills on adrd’s Kael’thas as he’d gone for Backdraft instead of Arcane Barrier, the damage output raining onto PiP’s quad-melee composition was too much.

The second game was played on Battlefield of Eternity where Bob had a much firmer grasp on how to play the objective. Being very aggressive and persistent while pushing with their immortal compared to PiP’s playstyle, Bob roughed out their rivals and moved on. They will play the kings of Europe Team Liquid today.


 

Na`Vi vs ATNF


The only series that went to three games was the Na`Vi versus Alternate Fancy matchup in the third quarter final. Pairing Abathur with Alex’s Johanna and JayPL’s Sonya, Na`Vi  took a relatively uncontested victory on Sky Temple, abusing a couple of critical positioning mistakes of ATNF and particularly Darkmok’s Falstad whose flying away gave Na`Vi a free boss in the mid game.

A very different Alternate Fancy came out for games two and three. Known to consistently lose to top tier teams and having dropped three of their last four match-ups against Na`Vi, ATNF were almost reborn. Na`Vi continued to try and play melee assassin style drafting Kerrigan in both their games but ATNF seemed to have their number. An absolutely fantastic series, we strongly recommend that you go back and watch it in its entirety!

 

Fnatic vs Virtus.Pro


Speaking of teams who struggle against notable opponents, Fnatic had to play Virtus.Pro, a team they’ve never managed to beat so far. Determined to show dominance and rotation control from the get go, Fnatic drafted a quad-stun composition on Cursed Hallow with Uther, Muradin, Anub`arak and Tyrande and got a flawless first curse but failed to capitalize on that. VP’s rotations were on the stop and outside suffering minor damage to their structures, they kept up with experience. VP’s composure as the game progressed were equally great and the turn-around came easily to them.

It took only ten minutes for VP to body Fnatic out in game two on Dragon Shire. The Russians gave their opponent no breathing room, having absolute control over the map. Staying always a talent ahead, and utilizing this advantage to the maximum during Dragon pushes, VP pinned the 2-0, leading 16 levels to Fnatic’s 12. The flawless streak of the bears against the black-and-orange jerseys continues.

Enter the Storm #3’s playoffs continue today with five more matches. The first WB semi final is between the top two teams in the EU rankings at the moment, as Liquid face the unpredictable draft of Bob. Team Liquid showed weakness on a couple of occasions yesterday, proving they’re not invincible, but the Spanish armada is still favored against the young roster of Bob?.

In the second WB semi final, Alternate Fancy will face Virtus.Pro. Despite both being top teams in Europe, the two have only met once and VP took that one 2-0. On paper, VP are the favorites but then again so was Na`Vi against ATNF yesterday. Blumbi’s team is not going to go down easy.

In the lower bracket, four teams will struggle for survival. ROCCAT is playing PiP and in the second match either Na`Vi or Fnatic will go home early in the first big upset of the tournament.

The show starts today at 14:00 CEST on twitch.tv/khaldor with the following matches:

14:00 CEST – Team Liquid vs Bob
15:30 CEST – ATNF vs Virtus.Pro
17:00 CEST – Winners bracket final
18:30 CEST – ROCCAT vs PiP
20:00 CEST – Na`Vi vs Fnatic

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