T1 kept its bid for the Aegis of Champions alive as it sent Alliance packing after a 2-0 sweep in their best-of-three series in the second round of the lower bracket playoffs of The International in Bucharest Romania on Thursday, October 14.
T1’s supports Kenny “Xepher” Deo and Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon showed the way for the only remaining Southeast Asia representative in the tournament, dictating the tempo in the two-game beatdown of Alliance.
It was an all T1 show in Game 1 as Nuengnara “23Savage” Teeramahanon proved to be the biggest thorn to the side of Alliance. He put up a masterful performance of 13-1-8 KDA on his Wraith King.
But it was the supports, Xepher on his Dawnbreaker and Whitemon on his Bane who put on the pressure to the side of Alliance allowing 23savage to get the space he needs to farm in the top lane.
The North American squad couldn’t keep up with T1 as the South Korea-based squad utilized its vision game and perfect initiations to take crucial pickoffs in the map.
T1’s pressure also starved Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov’s Morphling from his farm, forcing him to go on a defensive and not reach his power spike in the late game.
Xepher finished with an exceptional 3-2-26 stat line while Whitemon was equally impressive on his 2-4-21 showing to lead T1 to a 35-13 victory in Game 1.
T1 made use of the same formula in the second game as Xepher’s 31 assists, one kill against four death performance on the Treant Protector paved the way for Karl “Karl” Jayme on his Ember Spirit and 23Savage on the Slark to dominate the team fight for T1’s favor.
Karl showed once again why he’s one of the rising stars in TI10, unloading a massive game of 18-2-18 while 23savage followed suit with 10-2-17 KDA to take a 44-15 win.
Just like in the first game, T1 kept Nikobaby’s Medussa at bay, only allowing the Alliance carry to only muster 0-5-5 KDA.
Assured to take home at least P50 million prize after making it to the Top 8 teams in the tournament, T1 will face the winner between Vici Gaming and Evil Geniuses in the next round.