posted by Jooehn,
Ninjas in Pyjamas* dealt 
Evil Geniuses their second loss in the groupstage, thus ruling out any chance of a top 2 finish. After some great performances 
MVP Phoenix* managed to qualify for the playoffs ahead of 
Not Today* who finished bottom with 0-5. Find out how the final four games of the day went and who qualified.
Photo Credit: Enrique Espinoza @OZenrique7
This was the last match of the tournament for
Not Today* having lost every match; however, there was no doubt they still looked to prove themselves. MVP Phoenix* secured their spot in the playoffs after a huge upset over Evil Geniuses. NoT started with a Batrider and Vengeful Spirit preventing the counterpick. MVP drafted a lot of damage, getting Zeus, Storm Spirit, Earth Shaker, Shywrath Mage and Phantom Assassin. The early engagements were won by MVP. NoT’s aggressive trilane gave up first blood to MVP. The sniper died twice in a row. Phantom Assassin got a solo kill on Invoker after
Bryan Freddy 'Smash' Sina made the mistake of coming out of ghost walk. Somehow, however, Not managed to turn it around. Storm Spirit died twice and Smash found an ultra-kill!Blood was spilt all over the board, with 28 kills 9 minutes in: nobody was safe. A big problem for NoT was Sniper stagnating, having died 5 times before 10 minutes in. There was so much fighting that Batrider bought Boots of Travel before getting a Blink Dagger!
Tae Won 'March' Park Earthshaker was doing amazing work with a record of 9-4-9 16 minutes in and surpassing Sniper in net-worth by 19 minutes. With Sniper being so under-farmed, all the pressure became on the Invoker to make some amazing plays. He did but MVP's cores started pulling ahead of the rest of the Mage's team.It looked like NoT might come back after the game slowed down a bit, but after a few more pick-offs MVP secured Aegis and easily finished the game out.
Coming into the game
Team Empire was in great position of finishing first in the groupstages. In contrast, 
The Balkan Bears* desperately needed another win to stay alive, and avoid being eliminated.The draft stage promised an exciting game. Both teams drafted a midgame oriented line-up. Empire chose Axe, Phoenix, Brewmaster and Dazzle to fight alongside Phantom Assassin. BBC picked up Timbersaw, Lich, Windranger, Vengeful Spirit and Bloodseeker. The laning stage opened at a steady pace, but it wasn’t long before the game exploded: by 20 minutes there were 32 kills! Many of the fights were won by Empire, despite trading heroes frequently.
BBC had a hard time dealing effectively with the Empire lineup. Frequently, fights ended with the Axe retreating and escaping despite being ruptured. Bloodseeker could not finish off the tanky Axe; unable to heal using Thirst, BS died frequently as a result.
The real problem for BBC became the
Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok Phantom Assassin. She doubled the farm of BBC’s most farmed hero before 22 minutes. Stand-in 
Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi landed some great shackles using the Windranger, but BBC simply didn’t have enough follow up damage.Empire had a hard time taking highground with a poor sieging line-up, but were successful in taking one set of barracks after securing Aegis. Stand-in
Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov fit right in for Empire, providing great initiations all game. After finding the Windranger near her tier 3 tower, BBC couldn’t hold on to the remainder of their base and Empire closed the game. This means Empire will face a tiebreaker for first place against either Evil Geniuses or Ninjas in Pyjamas*. Unfortunately, with the loss, BBC have been eliminated from the Playoffs, and finish in 5th. 
Funn1k landing the Call to end the game
MVP.Phoenix set the pace for the game right of the bat with high tempo rotations around the map and quickly got a few kills on the board. Despite getting a bit flustered at first, EG soon adapted to MVP's aggression and evened out the score to eight kills each. The turmoil did not cease however and heroes fell like flies all over the map with one exception, the efficiently farming
Kim 'Febby' Yong-Min's Anti-Mage. With his well-timed Battlefury, Febby started rotating around the map fairly early instead of farming and made a lot happen for his team. Not to mention 
Damien 'kpii' Chok's Axe who wreaked havoc among the squishy heroes of EG with his 10 minute Blink Dagger.
Fear faces inescapable demiseThe Korean's dominance truly became apparent as EG put significant effort in an attempt to pick off the sole Anti-Mage and ended up losing four heroes for none as the rest of MVP rotated to the scene. EG's line-up was not fit to deal with a monstrously farmed hero like Anti-Mage and especially
Sumail 'SumaiL' Syed Hassan on Storm Spirit had a hard time against the devastating Mana Void that got him every single fight. The Static Storm of Tae Won 'March' Park's Disruptor did not simplify matters and he was not able make any impact. Not even a magnificent Roshan and Aegis of the Immortal steal from the young talent's side could turn the tides in EG's favor.
SumaiL's classy stealThe execution from MVP was very solid and they rotated around the map with confidence, not giving EG any room to turn the game back in their favor. 27 minutes in, another devastating fight took place resulting in a teamwipe for EG, boosting the gold lead for MVP over the 10,000 gold mark and we could register a difference of 7,000 gold in net worth between the carries of the teams. However, despite having a six-slotted AM and necessary items on the rest of the squad, MVP still trod carefully with utmost respect for their opponents.
ppd in a tough spotThere was no need for MVP to rush into the base of EG and despite one major misstep by Axe and Anti-Mage who got punished by three simultaneous buybacks while struck by overconfidence, things were looking up for the Korean squad. The Mana Void from Anti-Mage and the Sonic Wave destroyed the line-up of EG fight after fight and the cores of Evil Geniuses had no say against the mobile heroes of MVP. Slow and steady won the race for the Koreans as it took no less than 57 minutes for them to tear down the first barracks, but a few minutes later their victory was a fact. MVP.Phoenix and especially Febby brought out their A-game and showed the world and most of all the favorite EG, that one does not simply underestimate Korean gamers.
NiP was put in a precarious situation from the get-go of the match as
Team Empire got their hands on a four ranged hero line-up empored by Drow Ranger's Precision Aura along with a Troll Warlord. The line-up and damage output of Empire immediately proved to be a big thorn in the Swedes' side as the laning stage went heavily in the Russian squad's favor. With only Linus 'Limmp' Blomdin's Zeus making any substantial profit on the map, they could not halt Empire's push and both tier one, two and the tier three tower top quickly fell on the side of NiP, not even 15 minutes into the game.
Ninjas in PyjamasTwo minutes later at the 15 minute mark, Empire won an engagement outside of the Dire base and could bring down the toplane Ranged barracks. But two buybacks caught them off guard and NiP could punish them for their overly aggressive playstyle and bring in some precious gold. Knowing that they had to do more than that to inflict any real damage on to Empire, they did not spare any time and went for a smoke to ambush Empire who once again tried to finish demolishing the last standing barracks in the toplane.
Troll Warlord whirling aboutThe following events further spoiled NiP's chances of getting back into the game as the element of surprise was no near enough to knock Empire of their feet. One more victorious teamfight for the Russians turned into additional wins and it did not take long until the midlane barracks lay in ruins. It was in the box for Empire at this point and the attempts from NiP to turn the tide was futile.
Jonas 'jonassomfan' Lindholm's Batrider, which was NiP's trump card had no impact whatsoever as beautiful execution from Ilya 'AlohaDance' Korobkin with on point Nether Swaps kept him at bay, leaving the Swedes with no means to pick off the squishy targets of Empire.
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