Soniqs claim NA qualifier for The International 11

The North American Qualifier for The International 11 ended with predictable results. Soniqs easily won the Grand Final against nouns, but only after losing the upper bracket Final against them.

The two teams that advanced to the Last Chance Qualifier were nouns and Wildcard Gaming, which is exactly what the DPC rankings suggested before the tournament.

Tournament results

The tournament had 12 teams. Eight of them started in the upper bracket while the other four had to wait for their opponents in the lower bracket. There were only four matches in the entire tournament that were actually important and interesting to watch.

The first took place in the upper bracket semifinals, between Wildcard Gaming and nouns. In game one of this match, thanks to a Naga Siren pick, WG won despite the fact that the odds were not in their favor. At the 20-minute mark, the team’s networth was roughly equal, but in just five more minutes, the game would practically be over.

Games two and three were won by nouns, partly because WG insisted on playing Naga Siren in all of their games, thus showing their cards to a well-prepared opponent.

The second interesting match of the tournament occurred in the upper bracket Final, between nouns and Soniqs. Everyone believed that Quinn “Quinn” Callahan’s team would win with ease, but they actually lost in just two games. Each time, nouns used Faceless Void as their carry hero and made spectacular comebacks with him.

The third important match of the tournament was the lower bracket Final between Soniqs and Wildcard Gaming. It required just two games to conclude and Quinn had a lot of fun playing Leshrac. In game one, his KDA record was 18-0-10. Game two was much harder, but Soniqs still won thanks to their exceptional team fighting skills.

This second game had one of those rare, 18K gold comebacks. Everyone believed that Soniqs had no chance but they still managed to win somehow.

Grand Final

In the Grand Final, the rematch between Soniqs and nouns should have been highly disputed, but Soniqs just proved to be the better team in any end-game scenario. All three games lasted around 40 minutes and it was incredible to watch Soniqs’ players in action, fighting as a well-organized group. This truly was a symphony of skills.

Nouns were not bad and even had a significant lead in game one, but they just couldn’t deal with Soniqs’ well-executed tactics.

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