They've done it again: Secret secured a slot in the second Major Grand Finals

They've done it again: Secret secured a slot in the second Major Grand Finals
posted by Supafida,
Team Liquid and Team Secret battled it out today to determine the first team to claim a spot in the Grand Finals of the Shanghai Major. And it was Puppey who led his team to the podium after a clean 2-0 victory. The Upper Bracket Finals of the Shanghai Major played out today, with eu Team Liquid pitted against eu Team Secret, which promised to be a great matchup. In the end, [h3]Secret took the series 2-0[/h3], thanks to the phenomenal performance of Misery and Pieliedie.

Misery’s Dark Seer destroyed Liquid



In a game that features unpopular picks such as Legion Commander for de Kuro S. 'KuroKy' Takhasomi or Doom for ee Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov, it was [h3]dk Rasmus 'rASmus' Fillipsen[/h3] who paved the way to victory for Secret.

With early successful rotations, Liquid was slowly but steadily pulling a lead. However, it all changed at 12 minutes when Misery showed up to the combat [h3]with a fully completed Mekansm.[/h3] A magnificent Vacuum – Wall combo resulted in [h3]a 4 for 0 exchange[/h3], with only FATA’s Invoker the only survivor.

At the right place, at the right time


35 minutes into the game, with a Blink Dagger in his stash, Misery again [h3]executed the combo to perfection and decimated Liquid’s lineup[/h3], who was forced to buyback both Gyro and Invoker but lost the second lane of barracks anyways.

A perfect Vac - Wall by Misery


The desperate rapier on Gyro proved helpless as Liquid was teamwiped in a last-ditch attempt at Secret’s base. Misery undoubtedly contributed a great deal toward Secret’s success in this first map.

Pieliedie’s Lion: great plays with minimal resources



se Johan 'pieliedie' Åström also deserves an honourable mention is today’s series. Playing the Lion in both maps, he provided the [h3]disables and nukes[/h3] that Secret needed to jump Liquid's heroes. With only a Blink Dagger, Pieliedie posed a great threat to heroes wandering the map alone.

Fantastic map reading by Pieliedie


One such example would be the final moments of Game 2. Liquid was wiped and bg Ivan 'MinD_ContRoL' Borislavov bought back on his Nature Prophet, immediately teleporting to bottom lane and split pushed to salvage the situation. [h3]Pieliedie instantly teleported back to base, smoked and caught the Prophet[/h3] with the help of ro Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi'sInvoker, closing the series for Secret.

Also, check out this video to see how Pieliedie teamed up with W33 to teamwipe Liquid:



The road doesn’t end here



With this victory, Secret has made it to the Grand Finals of a Major the second time in a row. They looked extremely strong right now despite rather a weak start in the groupstage.

Guaranteed top 2 once again - Source


For Liquid, this is not the end. They will face the winner of us Evil Geniuses vs kr MVP Phoenix* for a second chance to claim the remaining spot in the Grand Finals.




If you missed the series, catch up with this recap video:



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