The Eastern European Qualifier for The International 10 was a wild ride. At the start of the tournament, the analysts were sure that Team Spirit was going to win. But nobody realized just how difficult their journey was going to be.
Eastern Europe’s TI 10 Qualifier Results
The battle in Eastern Europe started with 14 teams and 5 of them looked capable of winning. These 5 teams were Spirit, Natus Vincere, HellRaisers, Gambit, and Winstrike. During the race, Gambit, Winstrike, and Natus Vincere proved to be much weaker than expected. And their place was taken by PuckChamp and Empire.
PuckChamp finished 4th, which is not bad at all for a team of their caliber. But the real dark horse was Team Empire. VANSKOR and his crew came extremely close to causing a huge upset and secure a spot in the upcoming $40 million event. This would have brought him and his teammates a lot of money but unfortunately, they got a bit too excited and lost the Grand Final after having a 2 – 1 advantage.
Grand Final
The match took place between Spirit and Empire. The first of these two teams had gotten there by winning 3 consecutive matches in the Upper Bracket. They crushed Winstrike and PuckChamp and then struggled against HellRaisers. But they eventually won that 3rd match as well, even though they were forced to make a comeback.
By contrast, Empire started the qualifier in the Lower Bracket and had to win 5 consecutive matches to play in the Grand Final. Their victims were Winstrike, Unique, Na’Vi, PuckChamp, and HellRaisers. The fact that they managed to beat all 5 of them is quite shocking. But the final boss proved too strong to beat.
Team Empire lost the first game even though they had a good start. After the 35-minute mark, Spirit’s Terrorblade was simply unstoppable in team fights. But games 2 and 3 had a different outcome. Both of them needed over 50 minutes and Mega Creeps to end. But ultimately, Empire proved to be the stronger side.
Then came the comeback. Great teams are known for this ability to simply reset and find a way to win. Miposhka proved in games 4 and 5 why he’s such a great captain by switching his strategy completely. In particular, in game 5 he picked a risky carry, Phantom Assassin, that’s often easy to counter at this competitive level. But he made it work somehow against a scarry combination of heroes: Spectre + Invoker + Kunkka.
Photo credit: Valve
