Sole survivors of the lower bracket, Sparking Arrow Gaming took full revenge over Vici Gaming, who defeated them at the start of the playoff stage, to claim the China Division title of Beyond Epic.
Sparking Arrow Gaming (SAG) took down three of the four strongest teams in China over the past week to make a name for themselves and rise as the champions of Beyond Epic. They put a target on their back starting with the group stage, where they took the top seed with victories over Team Aster and PSG.LGD. In the opening series of the playoff stage, Vici Gaming put a stop to SAG’s momentum and sent them to the lower bracket with a hard fought 2-1 win. However, the defeat made SAG fight even harder for their goal and both PSG.LGD and Royal Never Give Up got bested and eliminated by those who would proceed to take all the glory.
SAG bounced back from the lower bracket and were presented with the opportunity to take revenge over Vici Gaming, who had a clean run through the upper bracket series. The Beyond Epic grand finals were held in a best-of-three format and SAG fought tooth and nail to end the affair 2-0. VG got away with the Luna Vengeful Spirit combo in the first game draft and held the gold advantage for the first 25 minutes. SAG’s plan to counter Vici’s push power relied on a carry Nature’s Prophet picked last in the draft, along with good lockdown spells from the support duo (Puck and Clockwerk) to keep their adversaries in control. It took two good team fights in a row for SAG to rush the top lane up to the Ancient and snatch the game one victory from VG who had no buybacks to defend.
Game two unfolded in a rather different manner, SAG getting the first pick and locking in their now famous Zhong “圣子华炼/ God King ” Liushuai Terrorblade. Vici tried to counter God King with a support Grimstroke and to outpace the SAG line-up with a carry Slark and a mid lane Zeus, but the plan didn’t work out at all. SAG won their lanes and forced team fights early with a mid lane Templar Assassin in the front lines to execute VG 2-0.
Beyond Epic: China final standings:
1stt place: $20,000 – Sparking Arrow Gaming
2nd place: $10,000 – Vici Gaming
3rd place: $7,000 – Royal Never Give Up
4th place: $5,000 – PSG.LGD
5th-6th place: $2,500 – CDEC Gaming, Invictus Gaming
7th-8th place: $1,500 – Team Aster, EHOME.Immortal
The Europe and CIS division of Beyond Epic will also come to an end today. Team Nigma are the first grand finalists and they will fight for the title in a best-of-five series against the winner of the lower bracket finals Team Secret versus Team Liquid.
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