One of the most highly anticipated matches of TI9’s Group Stage Day 1 saw DPC top-ranked team, Team Secret, take on TI7 champions, Team Liquid.
Earlier in the day, Team Secret started their TI9 campaign with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Alliance, and followed it up with another 2-0 rout of Newbee.
Things weren’t as smooth for Liquid, who were upset 2-0 by Newbee in their first match, but managed to steady the boat with a 2-0 victory over Chaos Esports Club in their second match.
In game one, both teams started out cautiously, until Secret broke the game open at the 19-minute mark, capped off by an ultrakill from Secret carry Michał “Nisha” Jankowski’s Alchemist.
From there, Secret started to snowball, and pushed into Liquid’s base a few minutes later. Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng’s Ember Spirit picked up an ultrakill of his own, and ended the game with a Godlike killstreak.
Game two started off more promisingly for Liquid, with Ivan Borislavov “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov and Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi both securing early kills.
Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there, and game two turned into a repeat of game one, with Secret breaking the deadlock again at the 19-minute mark, courtesy of a massive Echo Slam from MidOne’s Earthshaker.
From there, Secret steamrolled to the end, finishing off Liquid in dominating fashion with another sub-30-minute game, and ending their day with a perfect 6-0 record.
Secret looks like the team to beat this year, while Liquid ends day one in disarray with a disappointing 2-4 record. It will be back to the drawing board for the Dutch squad as they look to improve their standing in Day 2.
Be sure to check out our coverage of The International 2019 Group Stage for more TI9 action.
