Fourth-seeded Team Liquid shocked No. 1 seed and reigning world champion Invictus Gaming 3-1 in the semifinals of the $1 million Mid-Season Invitational on Friday to move into Sunday's finals in Hanoi, Vietnam.
It was a stunning loss for IG, which had cruised through the group stage at 9-0 before giving up one game to SK Telecom T1 earlier in the week. IG had been attempting to become the first team to go 10-0 through the group stage of the competition.
Liquid built a 2-0 lead against IG, including rallying from a deficit in Game 1, before IG was able to get on the board in Game 3. However, the North America hopefuls returned to dominating form in the fourth game to close out the match.
Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng posted 10 kills and no deaths in the final game, becoming only the third AD carry to accomplish a 10-or-more-kill game with no deaths at MSI. It was the second time he has done so.
Team Liquid finished group play with a 4-6 record and needed to beat G2 Esports on Tuesday to squeeze into the knockout stage.
On Saturday, SKT will face G2 in a matchup of the second and third seeds, respectively. The winner will meet Team Liquid pm Sunday with the $400,000 first-place check on the line. The runner-up will take home $200,000, with IG and the other losing semifinalist winning $100,000.
--Field Level Media