Newbee, the former TI4 champions were sent to the to the lower bracket by Evil Geniuses after an epic showdown by both teams in the Upper Bracket Quarter Finals in the Day 2 of TI6 Main Event. This time, Newbee faced Liquid in a best-of-three series in the LB elimination match.
Game One
The first match of the series began with Newbee drafting the Batrider and Lifestealer, with a strong team fight controller Naga Siren to allow them to reset or escape from Liquid. Liquid responded with a Keeper of the Light and an Ember Spirit, which was countered with a Nyx Assasin to destroy the Radiant line-up.
Liquid got off to a good start, as Kuroky got himself a double kill in the first minute of the game. FATA, on the other hand, was very effective with his early game ganks, which brought Liquid to an advantage of 9 kill score to 0 by 14 minutes into the game.
With Liquid’s advantage into the mid phase of the game, Newbee were forced to play it safe, retreating from their own Dire jungle. Liquid gave all they have to pressure Newbee from gaining any advantage thus, delaying Hao’s Lifestealer farm and Naga Siren’s Radiance, which were key for split pushing. However, all of Liquid’s heroes were capable of pushing and clearing creep waves to pressure all lanes.
As the game went on, Newbee felt the lane pressure, and they decided to send Nyx with infested Lifestealer to roam around the map and look for kills. They managed to pick off both Ember Spirit and Mirana with huge streaks to their name, and regained the Chinese team’s momentum in the game. Soon after, Naga Siren was farming well and fully slotted before the 35th minute. During that moment, Liquid went to siege Newbee’s high ground. But they were sloppy with their execution, which turned the whole situation around; Newbee won their first team fight and successfully defended their base, then claimed Roshan.
Moving forward towards the late game, Liquid found themselves losing multiple team fights to Newbee’s heroes, which became difficult to deal with. Around 45 minutes, Newbee claimed the middle barracks. This time, Liquid’s formation started to fall apart. After Liquid claimed Aegis, Newbee rushed into Roshan’s pit for another team fight, killing two of Liquid heroes. At that moment, Matumbaman decided to go for Divine Rapier to defend Newbee’s high ground aggression. With aegis in hand, Liquid decided to go for a team fight to find an opening to end the game, but Newbee’s ability to control team fights turned the scuffle around. Matumbaman lost his Divine Rapier and the first series was claimed by Newbee.
Game Two
The second game’s draft was pretty similar to the first game, but with a mix of uncommon heroes in the draft such as Chen and Undying.
First blood was spilled at top lane by Morphling on kpii’s Batrider, giving Matumbaman a good start into the early phase of the second game. Unfortunately, Chen was unable to find an opening to go for a gank on any Liquid heroes. By 10 minutes, Newbee was unable to gain any good team fights to their advantage. One team fight at the Dire jungle had crippled Newbee’s game progression, where Morphling got a triple kill to Matumbaman’s name. Shortly after, Newbee had lost their game coordination, and they got picked off all over the map. Unable to handle the pressure, they surrendered the game by 17 minutes to go for a decisive game three.
Game Three
For the final game of the series, Mirana and Shadow Demon were picked again by Liquid. Newbee picked Morphling for themselves, but Liquid gave them the Anti Mage and Axe surprise.
In the early phase of the game, both teams went full on aggressive mode, exchanging kills. Newbee managed to get four kill score, as compared to two on Liquid. Matumbaman’s Anti Mage had a fantastic early game, uncontested free farm and gaining about 10.k net worth. But Newbee’s aggression on mid tier 1 tower at 11th minute turned everything around. Liquid managed to defend their tower and turned the fight in their favor. Ater some of Newbee’s skills went on cooldown, Liquid secured four kills to their name.
Toward the 19th minute, Newbee went to contest Roshan while Liquid was inside the pit to take it down. Newbee’s attempt to ambush failed – Liquid tore them apart and won the team fight. Newbee struggled to regain momentum after the fight, in addition to the pressure of lanes being pushed towards Newbee’s base. Liquid once again dragged Newbee to another choke point to force another team fight, and Newbee had throw all their skills just to bring down Anti Mage’s Aegis.
With all Newbee’s skills on cooldown, Liquid ran over them in a devastating fight and forced the GG call at 36 minutes.
Despite a good come back by Newbee in game one, it did not deter Liquid from jumping back on the track and eliminating Newbee from TI6. Liquid secured top 8 placement and will be facing Fnatic in the following LB match.
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