Welcome to the Weekly Recap, where we gather the top stories that happened in the past week to help you catch up with the busy world of eSports!
Dota 2
Liquid completes historic run at TI7
Dominant. Exciting. Historic.
Three words that are unusually used together but are perfect to describe what Team Liquid just did at the International 2017.
The Blues not only became the first team to sweep their opponents in the final after thrashing NewBee 3-0 in the grand stage at KeyArena, they were also the first team to lift the coveted Aegis of Champions as the lower bracket representatives.
Carry Matumbaman, midlaner Miracle-, offlaner Mind_Control and supports GH and Kuroky survived six rounds of grueling Dota to win the championship and close to $11million in prize money, and they did so in thrilling fashion.
After losing to Invictus Gaming in the first round of the upper bracket, Liquid had to turn back Team Secret, cool down the streaking Team Empire, outclass the very versatile Virtus.Pro, squirm past both LGD Gaming and LGD.Forever Young, and play the games of their lives to trounce NewBee without dropping a single game.
With the TI, Liquid capped off an amazing season, in which they also won the Dream League seasons 6 and 7, StarLadder StarSeries 3, StarLadder Invitational 2, and EPICENTER 2017.
Valve reveals 2 new heroes
Following its tradition of revealing or releasing new heroes during the International, Valve teased its millions of players with a video that hinted on two new heroes in the patches to come.
The video, titled The Dueling Fates, showed a Pangolin humanoid that has the skills and costume of Puss in Boots with just a tint of the Latino superhero Zorro (in the film the Mask of Zorro, the main protagonist is played by Antonio Banderas, who voiced Puss in the film Shrek the Third).
Later in the video, the new hero, who is now called Pangolin in the internet, was approached by pink lady-fairy that has similarities with Puck, though many are thinking that the diminutive flier is the fourth Elemental Spirit – the Air Spirit, or Sylph in European mythology.
If true, Sylph is expected to have a skill that helps her travel distances quickly, like Ember Spirit’s Remnants, Storm Spirit’s Ball Lightning and Earth Spirit’s Rolling Boulder.
Post TI7 Shuffle
As usual, what follows the International is the heart-breaking episode of teams breaking up as players look for better teammates, or organizations look for better teams, and sometimes players accepting that it is time to hang it up.
One of the biggest moves this off-season is ana leaving Red Bull OG to take a break for one season. The 17-year-old midlaner won the Boston Major and Kiev Major with OG last season, but failed to translate it in the TI7 when they only finished 7th-8th.
Also a big move was Team Secret letting go of two players in carry MP and offlaner Khezu. According to Khezu’s own post, he wanted to extend his stay with the Blacks but captain Puppey had already courted other players to replace him.
In Southeast Asia, two of the region’s most experienced players will be in one team as offlaner iceiceice join midlaner Mushi in Mineski. The two SEA veterans will likely stay together to try and qualify for next year’s TI. Aside from the two, Mineski is bannered by carry NaNa, supports Jabz and ninjaboogie.
Philippines-based Execration made a slight change from its team that reached TI, replacing carry Nando with former Clutch Gamerz position 1 player Gabbi. Gabbi, who already played with XCTN from September 2016 to March 2017, spent four months with CG but left the Malaysia-based team after losing in the TI qualifiers last July.
League of Legends
SKT awakens, thrashes SSG in Summer quarter-final
The debt is repaid! SKT T1 has avenged its two losses to Samsung Galaxy in the Summer Split after the world champions swept its rivals 3-0 in the quarter-final in the playoffs.
SKT is now set to face second-seeded KT Rolster, and the winner between the pair will face top seeded Longzhu Gaming in the final.
The Spring champion dominated all three matches against SSG, especially the last two games when it had a sizeable advantage in kills, net worth and experience.
In Game 2, SKT rode Faker’s masterful performance on Lucian, as the famous midlaner got involved in all 11 kills with a 9/1/2 KDA.
It was Bang who stood out in Game 3, as the AD Carry had a 7/0/2 KDA on his Kalista and SKT held an almost 20k lead in the gold department.
UoL, G2 faves in their semis matches
The Unicorns of Love and G2 Esports are billed to win in their respective matches in the EU LCS Summer Split playoffs.
A win for UoL (9-4) against the Misfits (6-7) is priced at 1.37, while an upset from the Misfits is offered at 3.12. The Unicorns defeated the Cats in their lone meeting this season, winning the cross-group match 2-1.
In the other quarter-final round, G2 is favored against Splyce at 1.33, while a win for the latter will be paid at 3.38. The Spring champion swept Splyce in their lone meeting in the regular season.
EDward Gaming try to hold off Team WE in Week 10
Edward Gaming aim to stretch its lead over Team WE in Group A as the pair collides in Day 3 of Week 10.
EG, at 11-4, and WE (10-5) both lost their first matches of the week, with EG bowing down to Invictus Gaming (9-6) and WE getting bit by Snake Esports (5-10).
WE, the Spring champion, is not the favorite in its match against EG, as a WE win pays 2.44 in Dafa Sports, while a win for EDward pays 1.57.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
ELEAGUE Premier 2017 to have $1M prize pool
The flagship tournament of Turner Broadcasting, ELEAGUE CS:GO 2017, will feature a prize pool of $1million, .09% smaller than last season’s $1.1m.
ELEAGUE might have a smaller pool but the champion will receive a bigger paycheck this season, as the winning team is set to receive $500,000, 20% higher than the $400,000 Virtus.Pro pocketed as champion last year.
This year, Brazilian powerhouse SK Gaming is favored to win it all in Atlanta at 4.35, followed by Danish strong group Astralis at 4.60.
