posted by SohNata,
With stage two of MLG T.K.O. coming to a close, every game is incredibly important to the final standings. FLUFFNSTUFF would be in control and drafting for Liquid against Cloud9, while eHug fought for survival - find out how it all unfolded! It was a crucial night of games in the MLG T.K.O. tournament as world Cloud9 faced a double header up against us Team eHug and us Team Liquid with places in the next stage of the tournament on the line - while it is impossible to cover all the permutations going into the games, eHug and Liquid would most likely need 2-0 wins, while Cloud9 could secure a spot even in drawing or losing one of the games.


Fluff controls draft, Liquid control games

Game 1



us Brian 'FLUFFNSTUFF' Lee was in the drafting seat for this game, an interesting development given his recent blog posts. However, the focus soon shifted to Qojqva (Batrider) as he got first blood and another kill soon after, although he did die to tower damage under pressure from SingSing (Nightstalker). The Americans kicked on from there in extremely impressive fashion, picking up a few more uncontested pickoffs all across the map to build up strong leads in both experience and gold. As both teams moved into the mid-game it was more of the same, with Liquid simply getting the better of their opponents and methodically picking up kills and towers. Eventually, in a minute of mayhem, Cloud9 were wiped across the map, losing two heroes on top and three in the mid-lane due to some excellent individual play from Liquid that prompted a pre 20 minute concession from Cloud9 who ended the game without getting a single kill.

Game 2




EternalEnvy finds himself in an unfavourable situation.


This game got off to a more controlled start, although Liquid once again got the better of the opening exchanges, including the first major teamfight engagement on the top lane, managing to keep control of a lengthy fight, coming out ahead with three kills to one. C9 were able to stabilise matters however with some good pick offs, giving EternalEnvy (Spectre) the space and time to farm up and try and take over the game in the later stages. 18 minutes in though he put himself in a terrible spot when haunting in on FLUFFNSTUFF (Rubick), unknowingly placing himself in the middle of the entire of Liquid who happily ended his life before moving in on Roshan. Later on, an attempted gank from Cloud9 went disasterously- despite picking off Fluff early on, Liquid expertly turned the fight around to eventually get four kills from the fight and pick up a tower in the immediate aftermath. Minutes later another teamfight would break out and despite b0ne7 (Puck) hitting an impressive four-man coil, Liquid would come out ahead once again with the gg arriving soon after, securing an empathic victory and qualification for Liquid.


Cloud9 outclass eHug in routine victory

Game 1



The stand-out picks of the draft from Game 1 had to be C9 going for the Drow Ranger while eHug went for Faceless Void, Magnus and Ancient Apparition in a heavy combo line-up. The early game was fairly uneventful for the most part, until an Aegis pickup by C9 gave them the impetus to take control of the game, as they began taking down towers with ease to gain a huge amount of map control. eHug found themselves rapidly reduced to just two outer towers, compounded when b0ne7 (Puck) hit a beautiful dream coil and despite eHug responding with AA Ulti, Chronosphere and RP in succession, C9 still wiped them for no loss, the combined auras from EternalEnvy (Drow Ranger) and pieliedie (Vengeful Spirit) allowing them to dish out absurd amounts of damage during the teamfight. That would be the death of one set of racks and a few minutes later on the mid-lane highground, C9's insane damage output was good enough to take another convincing victory in a team fight, prompting a swift gg from eHug.


b0ne7 strikes with an excellent dream coil.


Game 2



eHug very boldly went for a first pick Morphling in the draft with C9 also going down an adventurous route with a last pick Centaur Warrunner. They also would have Aui_2000 (Ancient Apparition), pieliedie (Rubick) and EternalEnvy (Luna) in a lethal tri-lane that would claim the first three kills to give C9 a big advantage early on. The MLG Columbus champions then built upon that lead as they started rotating - b0ne7 (Centaur Warrunner) got a quick blink dagger, using it to help propel his team to a 7-0 kill lead at the 15 minute mark. eHug finally chalked up their first kill on 17 minutes, but they were already far behind, with the situation worsening as EternalEnvy took down Roshan solo, with jigglebilly (Morphling) eating an Eclipse soon after to forfeit his life. It didn't take too much longer for eHug to realise the situation was irretrievable as they tapped out, confirming their 2-0 loss.

Those results mean that eHug are eliminated from the competition, being unable to make up the points difference in their remaining games, securing qualification to Stage 3 for Liquid and Cloud9. Be sure to tune in on Wednesday however, for what should be a brilliant fight between Liquid and Evil Geniuses, with both teams eager to claim bonus points for the next stage.

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