posted by Abelle,
The first elimination match of DreamLeague Season 9 saw some serious highs and lows from both teams. Team Empire had a very rough start to the series but adjusted beautifully to eliminate Immortals* with a 2-1 win.


The first game of the series wasn't an absolute disaster for Empire but it was definitely a struggle. They drafted a greedy lineup with a safelane Outworld Devourer for Aleksandr 'Nix' Levin and sent Rostislav 'fn' Lozovoi's Phantom Lancer to the midlane. PL did well, but OD was under too much pressure to get anywhere. He ended up tied with Yaroslav 'Miposhka' Naidenov's Rubick for the most deaths on the team.

Immortals took the win in just over 45 minutes and Team Empire did not look impressed with themselves.



Empire adjusted their draft for the second game, choosing heroes that would be ready to fight much sooner. They also opted for Enigma for Andrey 'Ghostik' Kadyk, who ended up landing several key Black Holes to help Empire even up the series.



With that win under their belts, Empire's confidence seemed restored. The CIS squad went all out in Game 3 with Ghostik's Nature's Prophet leading the charge. They gave up just five kills in the first 12 minutes of the game, and not a single one more from then on. By the time they ended the game at the 31-minute mark, they had accumulated 39 kills of their own and utterly crushed Immortals.

Nixerino denied fistbump to destroy @fnjkee handteamwork https://t.co/N3fTSYLfKr— Team Empire (@team_empire) March 22, 2018


Team Empire's road for the rest of this event won't be easy, but they've shown great capacity to adjust within the confines of a best-of-three series today. Their next match tomorrow will be played against the loser of the upper bracket match between eu Team Liquid and Int Fnatic, which takes place later tonight.

Header photo source: DreamLeague/Adela Sznajder

  • Abelle
    Abelle

    Abelle

    Annabelle Fischer
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