Alliance blunder at ESL One Hamburg 2019

Alliance blunder at ESL One Hamburg 2019
Alliance blunder at ESL One Hamburg 2019
posted by NanaKrustofski,
The first day of the ESL One Hamburg 2019 is now over for group A. All six series were went 2-0, except for one 2-1 matchup. While the favorites met the expectations of fans, one underdog could eventually prevail over the Swedish stronghold Alliance.


VP's talent saves his team last-minute



For Virtus.pro newest additions Egor 'Nightfall' Grigorenko and Vitalie 'Save-' Melnic, it is still a tough trial phase. The first series against Virtus.pro started out somewhat difficult with a 0-2 loss. epileptick1d's Omniknight carry with a Pipe and Aghanim's build did not work out, leaving him 1/4/10 despite a 50-minute long match. However, he finally found his form in the battle against Fighting PandaS, where he finished each map with top networth, most kills and zero deaths. Therefore, VP could be victorious with a 2-0.





Nikobaby is not enough to carry Alliance to victory



Alliance started with a strong 2-0 swipe against beastcoast. The first game went evenly for the first 23 minutes. The Swedish organisation could then win a Rosh fight and turn it into a tier 3 push, leading to another teamfight victory. Rising star Nikolay 'Nikobaby' Nikolov was able to display another dominant performance. The carry fought his way through beastcoast, ending the second map with a 23/2/13 on Faceless Void. But after a strong kickoff in the first series, the team had to realize that Nikobaby alone cannot carry them to victory and finally lost their first map against Vikin.gg.





Vikins stumble against EE's PandaS



Vikin.gg have so far had a really rough start, which is not surprising giving the lineup changed only a short time prior to the group stage. Jan 'Qupe' Tinnemeier and Pontus 'Frost' Frost got announced as stand-ins, and while they showed some strong plays, the overall team coordination of course still lacks perfection. In their battle against Fighting PandaS, Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao got 21 of the 30 kills as Juggernaut on map two. The Pandas closed the games prevailing 2-0.

But especially Jan 'Qupe' Tinnemeier then rose in their matchup against Alliance with a nearly flawless roaming Tiny, secured Ivailo 'Mastermind' Petkov's farm and enabled many setups for kills. They could then win their first map in the groupstage, ending their first day with a 1-1 draw.





Who do you think is the strongest team in group A?



Photo credit: DreamHack, Alexander Maxwell

Comments