BLAST Bounty Hunt Day 3 reached the elimination stage and the first to fall were Ninjas in Pyjamas and Alliance.
Unfortunately for NIP, the tournament ends without any extra Bounty money collected, which means that they bow out with just $5,400 going in their account. They tried to go for the Drop the Dead Donkey Bounty (kill 9 or more of your opponent’s couriers in a single game as a team) in the first game of their series against Team Nigma and partially that’s what ruined their good start. NIP had a core Nature’s Prophet on their side, which obviously is one of the best heroes for an open season hunt for couriers, but around the 18-minute mark he got caught in the dire jungle when trying to hunt a courier and from there on NIP’s game spiraled downwards as he lost his life two more times in the next five minutes and dragged the team after him as they were following him in the team fights.
Nigma had a Luna carry that took over the game past the 22-minute mark, when she got her BkB ready and was able to deal with the Rinki-Grimstroke combo. NIP were still hoping for a turnaround in the late game scenario with Grimstroke getting an Aghnaim’s Scepter and creating a Dark Portrait of Luna, but although the trick worked for a few times in the high ground defense, Nigma’s initiation options with Vengeful Spirit and Batrider were far superior and allowed them to lock in the first game victory.
The second game featured a heavy pushing lineup from Nigma, who took Nature’s Prophet for themselves and paired with Ember Spirit, Batrider, Abbadon and Keeper of the Light, all exceptional heroes at pushing the lanes and taking the towers down very fast. NIP never had any bit of advantage in the game and were the first team to exit the BLAST Bounty Hunt.
Alliance fowled them shortly as they got crushed 2-0 by Team Liquid. The first game between these two started very slowly, with the first kill coming close to the six-minute mark on Samuel “Boxi” Svahn’s Axe.
The next three kills were landed five minutes later, also on Liquid heroes. But once Liquid were ready to force the five man team fights, they started to roll over Alliance and corner in their base. The second game was an all Boxi show on Mirana, who carried his team from the offlane position to finish the game with an 18/2/15 K/D/A.
Alliance are one of the two teams to have actually completed a Bounty challenge in the tournament, hence, although they are eliminated in the same 5th/6th place as NIP, they take home $12,560.
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