PSG.LGD, Team Spirit reach upper-bracket finals of PGL Arlington
Chinese behemoths PSG.LGD and The International 10 (TI10) champions Team Spirit advanced to the upper-bracket finals of the PGL Arlington Major in Arlington after defeating Major champions OG and Team Aster on Thursday.
PSG.LGD beat OG 2-1, while Team Spirit overthrew Team Aster 2-0. They secured a top-three finish in the Arlington Major, as well as US$75,000 and 670 DPC points.
Saturday’s tournament will be a rematch between the two winning teams from last month’s Riyadh Masters grand final, in which PSG.LGD took home the $1.5 million grand prize.
OG and Team Aster, on the other hand, are relegated to the lower bracket, where they will face the winners of the second round of elimination matches.
On Thursday, Beastcoast won on the green over Fnatic in 45 minutes. Jean “Chris Luck” Salazar of Peru led beast coast with a 22-4-5 ratio on the last map, and Adrian “Wisper” Dobles of Bolivia averaged 14.6 assists per map. Fnatic was eliminated from the tournament.
PSG.LGD vs.OG
PSG.LGD and OG fought hard on the eighth day of the Arlington Major. In the first 21 minutes of the series, PSG was totally outplayed by OG, forcing a GG call with a 17-2 kill lead.
PSG’s Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruidaled the team in kills-death-assists at 14-7-16 on the third map, while Wang “Ame” Chunyu had 11 kills, 14 assists, and one death on Spectre.
In game two, LGD led 37-12 in kills, with Ruida on Beastmaster and Zhang “y'” Yiping on Viper each adding nine kills.
Game three started with OG dominating the laning stage behind bzm’s Keeper of the Light and ATF’s Viper, while also slowing down Ame’s farm on Alchemist.
Just before the 30-minute mark, OG tore down their opponents’ bottom barracks. Both teams then have notable team battles to begin PSG.LGD’s comeback.
With both Ame and Faith_bian on Razor eventually obtaining the items required to confront OG, The team was nearly unbeatable, cruising their way to a 50-minute win.
Faith_bian had a series-high 14 kills against seven deaths in that match, while Ame had 11 kills against six deaths.
Team Spirit vs. Team Aster
In the day’s final series, Team Spirit easily defeated Team Aster to reach. Team Spirit dominated the laning phase behind Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov’s Razor and Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov’s Chen, allowing Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk, who was on Templar Assassin, to farm the items he needed to lead Spirit to a 34-minute victory.
Collapse carried Spirit to a 25-10 kill lead in the opener with a series-high 13 kills against three deaths. Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek contributed by adding seven kills of his own.
Game two was similar, with Collapse and Miposhka bringing back their heroes from game one to assist Spirit in securing an early lead. However, Aster was more hostile this time. TORONTOTOKYO on Puck was a threat in midgame team fights.
Spirit’s mid-laner repeatedly picked off the enemy’s backline heroes, allowing Yatoro’s Terrorblade to slash through Aster’s lineup.
In the end, Spirit forced them to call GG after 44 minutes to secure a 2-0 series sweep.
TORONTOTOKYO recorded ten kills and eight assists to help Spirit to a 28-16 kill advantage. Yatoro and Collapse each contributed eight kills.
