Team Liquid can win The International 11

The International 11 has had a lot of great teams and a lot of great matches. One of the playoffs matches lasted for more than 107 minutes. Others had epic comebacks that will go down in Dota 2 history.

Among the teams that impressed us with their performance, Team Liquid are among the best. Their win over Thunder Awaken in the fourth round of the lower bracket was absolutely incredible.

In game one, Liquid lost despite having mega creeps and a 15.000 gold advantage. The South American squad played the late-game to perfection and surprised their opponents with some really nice moves. Christian “Pakazs” Savina, the position 1 player of Thunder, solo-carried his team to a spectacular victory. The second game was one-sided and Liquid won after just 35 minutes.

The third game felt a lot like game one. But this time, Thunder were the ones who failed to win a won match. They had a huge gold advantage and needed just one more lane of barracks to get mega creeps. But instead of waiting for their buybacks, they decided to go on the offensive and got almost completely team wiped by Liquid. The counterattack proved to be lethal.

Liquid’s chances to win the Aegis of Champions

This is not the first time when Liquid have an excellent lower bracket run at The International. In 2017, at TI7, something similar happened and they didn’t stop until they won the tournament. Liquid had to win six consecutive matches to claim the Aegis of Champions and they did it without losing a single game in the Grand Final. So far, they’ve been the only team to achieve this at The International.

Liquid need three more wins right now to repeat that performance. Unfortunately for them, their next opponent will be Team Aster, who already defeated them in the upper bracket (2-0).

Fortunately for Liquid, they have five days of training and analysis until the match begins, and some of the greatest strategists in the game are on their side. Aydin “iNSaNiA” Sarkohi and William “Blitz” Lee are well-known for their prowess. Not to mention Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka, who is currently the team’s second coach.

Two other competitors that Liquid will need to defeat at the tournament if they want to claim the Aegis of Champions are Team Secret and Tundra Esports. Both of them have demonstrated exceptional abilities so far, so it will be hard for Liquid to become the second team in the world who has won The International twice.

Header: Valve Corporation