Fnatic vs Wings Gaming
ESL One Manila Day 2 kicks off with the first semi-final match of Fnatic & Wings Gaming. Before the Start of the match, Dota 2 Philippines Fnatic DJ’s photo quoting him “I hope the Filipino fans will support me and I want to win not only for myself but also for my country.” Fnatic DJ Djardel Jicko Mampusti is the last standing Filipino in the ESL One tournament since Mineski was eliminated in the first day by compLexity. DJ performed incredibly well across all 3 games against Wings Gaming with his Enchantress. Unfortunately, Wings were able to snatch game 2 and 3 thus securing their spot in the finals.
Empire vs Liquid
Empire ended ESL Manila day 1 by defeating the crowd’s favorite, Team Secret. Empire, composed mainly of young players, are faced by tougher challenged as they are up against one of the most stable teams since the post TI5 shuffle, Team Liquid. It is also the first appearance of Team Liquid in the tournament which means they had ample time to prepare against team Empire. Team Liquid didn’t let such opportunity be wasted as they continued there sweep gaining the last slot in the finals of ESL One Manila.
Wings vs Liquid
The underdogs vs the seniors of Dota. Wings had an incredible performance throughout ESL One Manila since the qualifiers. Being able to beat the 3 of the top chinese teams in the qualifiers is more than enough to say that Wings Gaming clearly deserved their spot in the tournament. They were able to beat compLexity and Fnatic(formerly Team Malaysia) which were both contestants in last year’s TI5. Liquid, having the 2nd place curse since the Shanghai majors will have to strive and anticipate Wings as they have the advantage of being the underdog and exemplified different play style and quickly adapts to the enemy’s play style as shown in their previous matches. Wings proved time and time again as the tournament went on that they’re not to be under-estimated with their teamplay and quick decision making skills that helped them sweep a clean 3-0 in a Best-of-Five match against Team Liquid granting them the ESL One Manila Championship trophy.
Wings take home $100,000 USD together with their first international tournament title in ESL One Manila.
Photos courtesy of Wykrhrm Reddy