What a day it has been at ESL One Bangkok. The upper bracket final was a real spectacle of a match between BetBoom Team and PARIVISION, the two most prominent Eastern European teams in the scene right now.

PARIVISION capitalize on BetBoom’s mistakes to reach Grand Finals at ESL One Bangkok

The series itself went the distance with all three games, but this doesn’t actually tell the full story of how momentum shifted in an instant in the middle of the set.

Tilted Beyond Reason

What actually happened was a full-on choke job by BetBoom Team. They captured a pretty easy win in Game 1 off the back of Matvey “MieRo`” Vasyunin’s Axe play, making everyone watching think that this was just another formality for BetBoom enroute to their second consecutive major grand final appearance.

Things looked mostly the same in Game 2, with BetBoom enjoying net worth lead of around 26,000 gold by the 35 minute mark. Emboldened by their massive advantage, they tried to end the game right then and there by diving past PARIVISION’s tier 3 towers, but their rivals countered beautifully in order to repel them for the time being.

Then, it all went from recoverable, to bad, to really bad in the span of about two minutes. PARIVISION managed to find Gleb “kiyotaka” Zyryanov’s Lina way out of position thereafter, blowing the game wide open despite the fact that BetBoom still led by 20,000 gold at that point. Then again, this figure would have been somewhat misleading anyway, considering that BetBoom had an Alchemist in their draft.

Regardless, BetBoom would just completely collapse after the Lina pickoff. Smelling blood in the water, PARIVISION marched onto the Dire side of the map, taking a massive teamfight victory in the process. Another senseless kiyotaka death later, and PARIVISION were ready to start laying siege to the high ground.

At this point, they were much too strong and in a much better position than their opponents. BetBoom’s hopes of advancing to the grand finals in two games evaporated in a hurry, much to the shock and disbelief of everyone in the building.

Now tilted off the face of the earth, BetBoom tried and almost succeeded at redeeming themselves in Game 3, but Volodymyr “No[o]ne” Minenko and Edgar “9Class” Naltakian would have none of it. Their Puck and Nyx Assassin play ensured that the series belonged to them, thus affording them their first ever grand final appearance in a major Dota 2 tournament.

The Slumbering Steed Awakens

Over on the other side of the bracket, Team Liquid went up against Team Spirit in a lower bracket elimination match. This one also proved to be an exciting time for spectators and Liquid fans alike, with three games played in total.

The first two games initially implied that this could have been a true back-and-forth series, but Game 3 was when Liquid finally remembered that they’re the reigning International champions. They ran roughshod over Spirit in the final game of the set, finishing the game with 42 kills to a mere 13 on Spirit’s side.

TL ESL One Bangkok
Copyright: Enos Ku, ESL FACEIT Group

Michael “miCKe” Vu’s signature Nature’s Prophet was the highlight of it all, dishing out insane amounts of damage and being all over the map as Nature’s Prophet usually is. With no answer to the fury of Team Liquid, Spirit tapped out after just 33 minutes of play. Liquid really needed this win after some poor performances over the last couple of LAN tournaments, and seeing them in the top 3 at ESL One Bangkok is a good sign going forward.

The Final Day is Set

Now we have just one day of action left to look forward to at ESL One Bangkok. PARIVISION await the winner of BetBoom versus Liquid in the lower bracket. By all accounts, PARIVISION are looking poised to win their first major, but Liquid in particular are looking very scary from the lower bracket.

BetBoom are obviously the team to beat given their amazing form as of late, but I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking they might just be crushed mentally after losing to PARIVISION in a series that was supposed to be easy for them. It wouldn’t even surprise me to see them just roll over and get eliminated in two games tomorrow as a result. They’ll certainly try to put up a fight, but I’m not sure they’ll be able to recover from what transpired today.