Phoenix and Rave neck and neck whilst Jerax's Korean gamble pays off « News

Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka's choice to leave 4ASC and then after Team Tinker to head abroad to South Korea seems to be paying off in group A, as MVP.HotSix look in good shape to challenge for a TI5 place. Meanwhile, in group B, Rave and MVP.Phoenix will decide their fates via a tie-breaker after identical results in the groupstage.

As the dust settles on the opening day of SEA TI5 qualifiers, Rave look rejuvenated after disappointing results at The Summit 3 a couple of weeks ago.

However, MVP.Phoenix were their main threat in group B of the decisive qualifiers.

The second day started off with a spectacular match between the two big favorites in Group B,

Rave* and

MVP Phoenix*.

Although, contrary to the expectations of many, it was MVP Phoenix who looked the strongest. In game 1 the Korean squad took control after a 13 minute teamwipe and did not let up the aggression.

WITNESS! Click to view Rave.Chrissy's Leshrac Roshan fight

Rave's Chrissy showcased the power of Leshrac

But between them and victory stood the lone Leshrac of Rave's

Djardel 'DJ' Mampusti.

His outstanding awareness on Leshrac netted the Filipino squad several aegis steals. Phoenix had no way to deal with him and had to give up the first map.

What is more - in their match against CsW later in the day, Chrissy would gain the 6.84 records for the highest kills before 10 minutes on Leshrac and the record for fastest Octarine Core on Leshrac.

In the remainder of the Rave clash though The Koreans did not let the first game loss get to their heads. During the second game they once again dominated straight out of the gate.

Seon-Yeob 'QO' Kim played played Templar Assassin and showcased some refraction timings that would have had LD yelling. This time, Chrissy could not work any wonders, and MVP Phoenix convincingly took the map.

In the other match,

Can't Say Wips* took a convincing 2-0 win over

Motivade.Trust Gaming, keeping CsW in the run as the third team with a small chance to qualify. This status as would be further cemented later in the day, when Signature Trust finally won their first games and defeated

Invasion.Gigabyte*. Neither Rave nor MVP Phoenix was keen on letting them through, though. Both favorites beat the Australian hopefuls and ended their dreams of TI.

Rave and MVP Phoenix both had a great run, beating all teams other in their groups and drawing in the head-to-head match. Tomorrow, a tiebreaker match will decide who gets to the upper bracket. You can find the rules of the tiebreaker

in here.

The Rave and MVP Phoenix tiebreaker match will be a best-of-1 game starting at 12:00 SGT (06:00 CEST). Two hours later, at 14:00 SGT (08:00 CEST) the winner of the tiebreaker will go up against MVP Hot6 in the first upper bracket game.

TNC's life in the balance

Over in Group A, things looked a lot less black-and-white.

TnC Gaming* convincingly brought down G-Guard, ending their group stage on seven points.

Now their fate was in the hands of MVP Hot6 and Mineski, whose personal results could mean life or death.

Of these teams, Mineski had the chances for the best score. The Filipino squad had two games left to play on a record that already boasted a win and a draw.

5EVA get on the scoreboard but Meracle predicts disband

Mineski was off to an interesting start. They were up against the already-eliminated 5EVA, who didn't have a single win to their name. And to further cement their role as favorites, Mineski's

Carlo 'Kuku' Palad's Storm Spirit scored a rampage just as the clock hit 7 minutes.

But 5EVA just wouldn't budge. The Singaporean squad, bloodied and beaten, kept repelling the dive-happy Filipinos and served up some punches of their own. After a 70-minute slugfest Mineski failed in their efforts to destroy 5EVA's last remaining rax, allowing the Singaporeans to push in for their first win of the qualifiers.

Mineski's chances suddenly looked shaky. A draw here would still be enough to pull up alongside Hot6 on the charts, but 5EVA smelled blood in the water. They drew out a surprise last-pick OD for

Joel 'Chibix33' Chan Jian Yong.

Mineski had no heroes who could go up against against the lane-destroying hero, and had to watch mutely as their mid Phantom Lancer got stomped into the curb. 5EVA methodically worked themselves towards Mineski's base, and the Pinoys had to call gg.

However, in the grand scale of things it was not enough for 5EVA, with Meracle tweeting that this may be the end for the team after they finished with 1 win from 4 matches.

The team's probably not gonna stay together and I'll probably take a short 2 weeks break before playing. Thanks for supporting team 5eva! :)
— Meracle (@Meraclee) May 30, 2015

Mineski crumble despite promising start

Mineski, who this morning were primed to take a top spot in the bracket, suddenly teetered on the brink of elimination. And their day was about to get worse.

MVP Hot6 played circles around the shaken Pinoy team, with a standout role for

Sang-Don 'FoREv' Lee.

His first-game Bloodseeker amplified the damage of his nuke-heavy team, allowing the Zeus and Nature's prophet to burst down heroes with ease. Mineski turned the roles around and drafted heavy magic damage in the second game.

But they walked into their own trap; picking this little rightclick damage allowed ForeV to get his signature Huskar. The Korean carry player happily armlet-toggled his way to 680 gpm, securing a 20 minute victory for his team.

Hot6 and TnC find their way to the playoffs

With this 2-0 victory, MVP Hot6 take the top slot in Group A and advance to the upper bracket. The second place goes to the up-and-coming Filipino squad TnC. They seemed to be eliminated after Day 1, but 5EVA's unexpected victory over Mineski allowed them to slip by their countrymen and into the playoffs.