posted by Abelle,
A delayed end to Group A
Groups were scheduled to conclude yesterday, on June 7th, but games were postponed and the final match between
Team Secret and 
LGD.Forever Young was moved to the morning of the day off between groups and playoffs. The bottom three teams of Group A were already decided at that point, but since both Secret and LFY had won all three of their previous matches, their final match was very important. It decided which team would be seeded into the quarterfinal round of the playoffs, and which team got a free ticket to the semifinal round.
In Game 1, Team Secret drafted a (first-pick) Dazzle and (last-pick) Huskar in Game 1, hoping to harness the power of
Pyo 'MP' Noa’s Burning Spears. Despite a very rough time in the laning phase, LFY held on for the late game, where Xie 'Super!' Junhao’s Dragon Knight had more than enough physical damage to deal with Huskar, even with the Shallow Grave. Du 'Monet' Peng landed several fantastic Chronospheres as well, keeping Secret split and unable to lock onto the targets they needed in fights.The second game was a stomp in LFY’s favour. Monet’s Weaver and Super’s Bristleback had free reign in fights, and LGD had taken two sets of barracks by the time GG was called at the 23 minute mark.
With LFY now situated at the top of their group, the playoff bracket was complete.
Team Secret vs Invictus Gaming
Team Secret and
Invictus Gaming met quite recently, in The Kiev Major. While Team Secret ended up coming last (9th-16th) overall in Kiev thanks to a first round loss in the playoffs, their group stage performance was another story entirely. Of all 16 teams at the event, they were the only ones with a flawless group stage, defeating all three of their opponents 2-0.Of course, this made their playoff loss that much more shocking, but helps in understanding what’s happening here in EPICENTER: Moscow Season 2. It’s the same Team Secret as we saw in Kiev, and their placement in that event alone is not an accurate indicator of their strength.
Invicutus Gaming may have lost to Secret 2-0 in that group stage but they weren’t slouches in Kiev either. They had the third best group stage record (6-3), and they made it to the semifinal round where they lost to Virtus.pro.
This time, the match between these two squads will decide who moves on and who is eliminated. The winner will advance to face
Evil Geniuses, who have been seeded directly into the semifinal thanks to their stellar group stage record.Virtus.pro vs Team Liquid
We get a proper CIS vs EU matchup in the second quarterfinal between
Team Liquid and 
Virtus.pro. These two squads never met in Kiev. Their last meeting was The Boston Major European qualifiers, during which Liquid beat VP 2-0 in upper bracket semifinals but lost to Ad Finem in the UB final. They faced VP again in the lower bracket deciding match but lost 2-1 and missed the Major.Team Liquid have shown some fantastic plays in the EPICENTER group stage, but their 5-5 was far from decisive. Virtus.pro had a slightly better record at 6-3, but their group was arguably “easier” in the end, considering the weak showings from both
Planet Odd* and Clutch Gamers.The winner of their match will advance to face LFY, who have astounded us with their performance so far. Alongside Evil Geniuses, they finished the group stage with an almost perfect 8-1 record. Whichever team moves on to face them in the semifinal will have their work cut out for them.
Both Virtus.pro and iG have an edge that Team Liquid and Team Secret do not, and that's Top 4 finishes at The Kiev Major. That means that no matter what happens for them, they stand a very good chance of being directly invited to The International 2017.
For Secret and Liquid, even a win in EPICENTER doesn't guarantee anything, but it would certainly help their chances of getting to an invite and bypassing regional qualifiers, which are now less than a month away.
All photos credit: EPICENTER
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