The second day at DreamLeague season eight was full of upsets and repeat performances in Jönköping, Sweden.
Fans in attendance saw Team Secret once again secure a second Dota 2 Pro Circuit Major grand final appearance by defeating the reigning International champions Team Liquid in three games.
Related: Fnatic and Infamous exit DreamLeague Season 8, while Secret and Liquid meet again
Their performance against Liquid was nothing short of inspiring, proving to everyone at the event that their strength as a team was legitimate. Once again, Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard and Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat were the key players for Secret, lifting their teammates past Liquid and into the grand finals. Ace, in particular, seems to have reached a whole new level as a player in this tournament—his run here has been simply frightening.
At the previous Major, ESL One Hamburg, this was also how Secret got into the top two—although this time there’s a possibility that the two teams will meet again in the grand finals for a best-of-five. Liquid will first have to face Evil Geniuses in the lower bracket to get there, however.
After a rather lukewarm run in the first day of the tournament, a completely different EG showed up yesterday. In the lower bracket, they raced past Hamburg champions Virtus Pro and the on-fire Natus Vincere, all without dropping a single map.
Support players Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen and Clinton “Fear” Loomis both made the difference for EG, dictating the pace in teamfights with their superb movement and surgical strikes. Offlaner Saahil “Universe” Arora also helped carry the load, especially in their first game against VP where he landed several critical Flaming Lassos with Batrider.
Should the same EG show up against Liquid tomorrow, we could see them go up against Secret in the grand finals. Of course, we can all expect Kuro Salehi “KuroKy” Takhasomi and the rest of Liquid to give EG a tough match in the lower bracket finals. Either way, the final day of DreamLeague should be one hell of a ride.
DreamLeague season eight concludes tomorrow at 5:30am ET. Catch the final two series on DreamLeague’s official Twitch channel.
