All the highlights from Days 1 & 2 of the Playoffs at the Lima Major.
The playoffs of The Lima Major 2023 started yesterday, allowing us to watch the best teams in the world. The end of the Group Stage meant the best 4 teams from Group A and B had to fight in the Upper Bracket. Of course, the teams that finished 5th and 6th also had tons of problems because they had to play in the Lower Bracket.
There are a couple of days left until the Grand Final of The Lima Major 2023, but until then, we have a lot of matches ahead of us. We’ve already had the chance to watch some of them, so here is what happened. Don’t forget we’ve done several reviews of this Major on BLIX.GG, so feel free to check them out.
Upper Bracket – Day 1
Following the matches in the Upper Bracket of The Lima Major 2023, it’s safe to say the Western European Teams continue to dominate. The teams from the strongest region in Dota 2 had no problems in Groups, so we weren’t surprised they continued to dominate in the Playoffs.
Gaimin Gladiators was the first team from WEU that shined on the big stage after it won against Team Aster. This series was fascinating to watch, but most people expected the WEU squad to win because the Chinese haven’t had the best results lately.
While it is true GG won, the match was more interesting than expected. That said, Aster couldn’t do much and lost both games. This is not Aster’s event, but we’re yet to see if the team will survive in the Lower Bracket.
Entity was the second team from Western Europe that succeeded in the Upper Bracket of The Lima Major 2023. However, unlike GG, this team had a tougher opponent because it had to face Evil Geniuses. The latter surprised everyone in Group A, so we expected them to put up a fight.
There’s no doubt this was among the most intriguing series of the day. Even though Entity won the match, EG did everything in its power to win, so we had the chance to watch an epic battle.
Finally, we saw the mighty Team Liquid. Nisha’s team was on another level yet again and won the match with little to no effort. Although the first game was easy, Talon put up a challenge in the second one. Sadly, it wasn’t enough for them to win the match.
Lower Bracket – Day 2
After the end of the action on Day 1 of the Upper Bracket, it was time to watch the epic battle in the Lower Bracket. Unsurprisingly, the matches there are usually way more interesting because every mistake is final.
The Lower Bracket is where everything is possible, and the first match of The Lima Major 2023 was not an exception. Tundra Esports, one of the biggest favorites in this Major, failed to win its match against Aster. Although the latter had some problems in the Group and the first match of the Upper Bracket, the Chinese team won.
The first game between the two wasn’t that interesting, but the second and the third ones were amazing. Tundra and Aster gave everything they had, but ultimately, the Chinese won and eliminated the current TI champion.
EG vs BC
The second match of the Lower Bracket was also pretty interesting because it featured the two South American teams. Sadly, BC and EG had to face each other early on, and since the Major’s taking place in Lima, the crowd was on another level.
To be honest, we expected this match to be more interesting than it was. BC defeated their opponents in the South American DPC 2023 once, so most people expected them to win. However, Chris Luck and the rest were way more motivated to win this time and had no problem on both maps.
EG won both games in around 30 minutes and used a similar draft. The same applied to BC, who got their hands on Treant, Leshrac, and Tiny in both matches. Even though their draft looked good on paper, EG’s Riki and DP combo carried the team yet again as it eliminated BC from The Lima Major 2023.
Team Spirit vs PSG.LGD
Another epic series in the Lower Bracket of the Playoffs featured Team Spirit and PSG.LGD. This was yet another rematch of the TI 10 Grand Final, so it was exciting to see whether the Chinese could come on top. Sadly, they didn’t have enough power to defeat their formidable opponents and lost the match.
The first game between Team Spirit and PSG.LGD ended after 43 minutes. LGD’s draft relied on Spectre to carry them in the late game, but the Eastern European TI champion and its signature Magnus and Ember Combo prevented this from happening.
After winning the first match, Team Spirit chose their famous Drow Ranger strategy. It looked good on paper, but LGD had a much better draft with Ursa and Storm. The two aggressive heroes had the needed tools to jump on top of Drow, so it wasn’t surprising the team won.
Despite equalizing the match, LGD wasn’t able to win the series. The team picked a similar draft to Game 2 but went for Ember instead of Storm. Although this seemed a good decision on paper, in reality, it couldn’t stop Team Spirit from winning.
Slowly but steadily, Team Spirit gained the needed momentum and won the match.
The next couple of days will be even more interesting than the last few. We expect to see loads of epic series, so make sure you follow BLIX.GG for the latest Dota 2 news.
