A recap of the upper bracket match between Entity and OG.
The second series of the Arlington major upperbracket is between Entity and OG! Both teams came into this tournament armed with a stand-in. For Entity their carry player Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko was unable to get a visa in time. The player helping them out during the major is TSM.FTX's offlaner Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek. On the other hand, OG is fielding the same line-up that won the Stockholm major. Replacing their position five and captain Mikhail "Misha" Agatov with Sébastien "Ceb" Debs. And the question remains, can OG repeat their major magic?
Interestingly enough both teams chose their respective stand-ins to do the interviews with James "banks" Banks. Saberlight has been tweeting self-praise about his carry performance, and brings some banter towards OG.
Ceb is also rather known for his banter towards opponents and brings us back to the Stockholm major where Saberlight also tried to banter towards Ceb and his teammates.
With both teams preparing to beat the other for bragging rights - we are in for a banging series.
A close affair between two Western European powerhouses
Game 1 treated us to both teams going for some of their classic picks. OG with the Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf's Huskar. While Entity went for Vladislav "kataomi" Semenov's Winter Wyvern and Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk's Chen. Entity had a heavy focus on their five-man strength, while OG went for a snowballing pick-off-oriented line-up. OG got a small gold lead after the laning stage, but it never grows to more than 3K. The game heavily shifted when Visage picked up a Wraith pact. Entity started barreling down on OG with their five-man line-up. OG, being unable to find key pick-offs, suffered in these team fights and kept on losing all of them. After losing several team fights in a row the gold lead started growing rapidly in Entity's favor.
Armed with an Aegis of the Immortal on Saberlight's bristleback they barreled down the middle lane, forcing OG to take a game-losing fight. The game ends with OG calling good game at minute 27.
Game 2 showed us once again, just how much focus Entity has on a strong five-man line-up. Though OG showed up to play with their lane dominators. And after the laning stage, every core of OG was ahead of Entity's cores, showing that their strategy of winning the lane worked. Though their entire lead was wasted when they lost a fight at the radiant's safe lane. Making all the cores even in net worth again. The game was even for a bigger portion of the game, with both teams taking great fights. As the game progressed to the later stages, initiation became the most important thing. And OG was outplaying Entity in that regard.
The game continued to be about who got the better initiation. And even though OG kept the gold lead, the game felt pretty even. That was until Puck reached critical mass and became unkillable for Entity. Good game gets called at minute 42. OG showed great resilience and team fight capabilities to make this game happen.
An even affair comes to an end as OG pull ahead
A slow laning stage leads to both teams starting to group up. Entity with a Templar Assassin on their team forces the first Roshan at minute 15, with OG evading. But as Entity goes for the middle tier two tower, OG shows up to fight. OG ends up winning the team fight without losing a single hero. The game is starting to slip out of Entity's hands after the fight. Spearheaded by Alchemist, OG runs over Entity. Winning team fight after team fight - increasing their advantage. The game is quickly snowballing out of Entity's control.
As OG force the high ground fight it shows just how far ahead they are. Entity arguably get a better team fight but it simply does not matter as they are too far behind. And good game gets called by Entity at minute 30, and OG can continue their upper bracket run!
The current major champions continue their upper bracket run
With OG beating Entity they are confirmed to face PSG.LGD in the next phase of the Upper bracket. The true challenge awaits. With LGD winning the best of two series in the group stage two to zero, all eyes will be on whether or not OG can change things up and beat the unstoppable force that is PSG.LGD.
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