posted by Sun_Tzu,

In the final game of the G-1 Champions League Western Qualifiers we saw the final North American team in Team Liquid try to take on Fnatic.EU to see who would join The Alliance as the second western team to fake up agains the four Asian qualified teams at the LAN Finals in Shanghai, China, to be played on the 24th to 26th of May.

Team Liquid vs. Fnatic.EU

Game one saw Fnatic playing at a handicap straight off the bat as

Tal 'Fly' Aizik encountered some internet problems and had to sit out the game. The absence of their in game leader threw Fnatic into a disarray with a questionable Crystal Maiden pick for their stand in and giving up first blood to Team Liquid around five minutes into the game. Team Liquid extended their lead with

Brian 'FLUFF' Lee on Enchantress and

Michael 'ixmike88' Ghannam on Nyx Assassin making the plays for them. Being unable to find any kills anywhere, they had no choice but to call 'GG' at just 18 minutes into the game with a kill score of 2-16.

With Fly back on his laptop, Fnatic were whole again for game two. While they picked up the Ogre Magi, they did not get their hands on the Magnus that the Alliance likes to combine him with. Meanwhile, sensing that they had the advantages on the solo lanes, Liquid sent an unconventional offensive trilane to the bottom lane, with

Sam 'Bulba' Sosale on Clockwerk backed up by Nyx Assassin and Rubick. This early aggression was turned around on them by

Johan 'n0tail' Sundstein on the solo mid Nature's Prophet teleporting in to turn engagements, claiming an early wipe on the three Liquid heroes before proceeding to open up the map for Fnatic. However as the two teams began to clash more and more, it became obvious that the coordination was better for Liquid, who used great initations from Bulba as well as the ability of

Steven 'Korok' Ashworth on Dark Seer to pull people out of position to set up for

Tyler 'TC' Cook on Gyrocopter to clean up fights. Things began to slip out of the hands of the Fnatic, as

Adrian 'Era' Kryeziu on Sven could not keep up with the flash farming of Gyrocopter, meaning their only edge was the split pushing of n0tail, but this was not enough to keep Liquid from pressuring Barracks, although Fnatic managed to keep them off it, pushing the game late. As everything looked lost, Fnatic managed to get a teamwipe defending their Barracks at mid, as for what seemed like the only teamfight of the whole game Era's Sven was not sufficiently controlled, instead rampaging his way through the Liquid ranks. And so the momentum turned on a dime, as Fnatic were bolstered to rush down mid, but again overextending just slightly, n0tail died with his buyback on cooldown as we headed down the other end again, and after a quick back and forth reversal at the end, it was Liquid who came out on top, earning their spot at G-1 LAN Finals.

Team Liquid proceed to the G-1 LAN Finals by eliminating Fnatic with a 2-0 score.