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BOOM Esports fall to PSG.LGD, no more SEA teams left in TI11

BOOM Esports bowed out of The International 11 in 9th-12th place after losing to PSG.LGD in the second round of the lower bracket. With their exit, there are no more Southeast Asian teams that can play in front of their home crowd in Singapore. (Photo: Valve Software)
BOOM Esports bowed out of The International 11 in 9th-12th place after losing to PSG.LGD in the second round of the lower bracket. With their exit, there are no more Southeast Asian teams that can play in front of their home crowd in Singapore. (Photo: Valve Software)

There are no more Southeast Asian teams left at The International 11 (TI11) in Singapore.

BOOM Esports, the last SEA representative, were knocked out of the tournament by Chinese juggernauts PSG.LGD, who swept them 2-0 in their elimination match at the second round of TI11's Main Event.

PSG.LGD overcame a shaky first day of the Group Stage to secure an upper bracket berth as the third seed of Group A with a 12-6 record.

The finalists of TI10 were looking like the biggest favourites to raise the Aegis of Champion once again, but they got knocked down to the lower bracket by Team Secret in a 2-0 sweep.

Meanwhile, BOOM Esports had to fight tooth and nail for their spot in the Main Event.

BOOM only managed a 5-13 record ahead of the final day of the Group Stage and were in danger of getting eliminated before they could even play in front of their home crowd.

In order to make it to the Main Event, BOOM needed to score a 2-0 victory in their last Group Stage match against EG. Not only that, the Southeast Asian squad then had to win tiebreakers against the other bottom teams in their group.

But somehow, BOOM managed to sweep EG and force a three-way tiebreaker between them, Soniqs Esports, and BetBoom Team. They then defeated Soniqs and BetBoom in turn to secure a place in TI11's Main Event.

BOOM pulled off one of the biggest upsets of TI11 when they knocked out TI10 champions Team Spirit in the first round of the lower bracket, which set them up for another elimination match with the other TI10 finalist.

BOOM opened the series by going for one of the strongest hero/ultimate combos in the game: Phoenix and Mars for Saieful "Fbz" Ilham and Erin "Yopaj" Ferrer, respectively. Timothy "Tims" Randrup would be responsible for saving allies with Tusk while Souliya "JaCkky" Khoomphetsavong's Lifestealer would dish out the right-click damage.

PSG.LGD drafted strong lanes to close the map, with Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida's Slardar and Zhao "XinQ" Zixing's Snapfire acting as a deadly offlane duo that could also easily take down the Phoenix Supernova in teamfights.

Wang "Ame" Chunyu 's Monkey King and Zhang "y`" Yiping 's Chen were set to dominate the top part of the map.

The lanes went very well for PSG.LGD, as their focus on securing the early game paid off. During a fight at the mid lane, XinQ was able to secure an early Triple Kill, which gave his team full control of the game.

PSG.LGD had a 5,000 gold lead at the end of the laning stage, which they made good use of to further dominate the map. BOOM was still able to find a couple of support kills but it wasn't enough to come back.

Controlling the map allowed the PSG.LGD to take down Roshan 17 minutes into the game, making it near impossible for BOOM to fight back. In response, the Southeast Asian squad did all they could to avoid engagements and try to wait out the Aegis timer.

JaCkky was able to find some farm around the map but the rest of the team kept falling further and further behind. Luckily for BOOM, Phoenix doesn't require items to be useful, and Yopaj was in fighting shape after securing his Black King Bar.

It was a very passive mid game, PSG.LGD had no intention of throwing their advantage while BOOM knew they were behind and were wary of fighting. When the two teams did clash, it was no surprise that PSG.LGD came out massively ahead.

It took PSG.LGD just under 30 minutes to win the first game of the series, but in all honesty, it was over the moment XinQ got his Triple Kill. The draft was hugely in PSG.LGD's favor and they executed it perfectly.

PSG.LGD switched gears in game two, picking Visage for Faith_bian and Earthshaker for XinQ. While both heroes are good in team fights, they can't dominate the lane. But the Chinese team didn't forego the laning stage entirely, as y's Undying was tasked to win the top lane for Ame's Drow Ranger.

There was notably a lot of physical damage on PSG.LGD, but it would take time for them to come online.

Meanwhile, BOOM's game two draft was a little more familiar to the team. Andrei "skem" Ong's Enchantress was perfect to secure the bottom lane, while Tims, always an aggressive player, went for Hoodwink. Yopaj would have to set the tempo for the team using Kunkka.

The top lane went well for BOOM, as XinQ was forced to pull creeps behind his tier one tower. Visage is a notoriously weak laner until he reaches level six and that fact allowed JaCkky to have complete free farm.

While game one was decided within the first 5 minutes thanks to XinQ's triple kill, it was BOOM who took a good early fight in the mid lane this time around.

The Southeast Asian squad was the one to grab the lead in the 10-minute mark, as they did well in all three lanes and had secured multiple kills for Yopaj. The weaker lanes from PSG.LGD were heavily punished and BOOM was the one setting the pace of the game.

Both teams wanted to group up and take towers with their offlaner, but with BOOM's advantage, this meant if the two teams clashed, the Southeast Asian squad would win every fight.

PSG.LGD realized this and switched game tactics, focusing on split-pushing and waiting for Ame to come online. BOOM wasn't willing to allow Ame to farm freely though and so went on the offensive.

BOOM's cores rushed Black King Bars in order to continue their snowball in the mid game. They also decided to opt for an early Gem of True Sight to help keep PSG.LGD in the dark.

However, PSG.LGD's overwhelming physical damage output allowed them to take a huge fight at the 20-minute mark. Not only was Yopaj brought down, Skem also died and gave away the Gem.

The early game advantage of BOOM began wearing off while PSG.LGD started to peak and secured an Aegis on Ame. The lead for the Chinese team continued to grow as they won another teamfight four minutes later.

The game came down to who could perform better in teamfights. Unfortunately for BOOM, it looked like they had already missed their timing by then.

PSG.LGD weathered the early game storm and looked set to take the series. The team took down the second Roshan of the game at the 32-minute mark and pushed into BOOM's high ground. An incredible dodge by Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang on Ember Spirit allowed them to take the series and stay alive in TI11.

Despite their best efforts to mount a comeback, BOOM could do little to stop PSG.LGD from taking the 2-0 series sweep after 34 minutes of action.

PSG.LGD's victory has guaranteed them at least a 7th-8th place finish as well as over US$420,000 in winnings. The Chinese juggernauts will continue their campaign for that ever-elusive Aegis against South America's Beastcoast in the third round of the lower bracket.

Meanwhile, BOOM Esports bow out of the competition in 9th-12th place and with over US$340,000 in consolation. With their exit, there will be no more Southeast Asian teams that can play in front of their home crowd in Singapore.

TI11 will be hosted in Singapore from 15 to 30 October and features a revamped format and a longer schedule.

TI11's Main Event will be a double-elimination bracket and is split into two phases, the first being held from 20 to 23 October while the second will take place from 29 to 30 October.

For everything you need to know about TI11, check here.

PSG.LGD roster:

  1. Wang "Ame" Chunyu

  2. Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang

  3. Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida

  4. Zhao "XinQ" Zixing

  5. Zhang "y`" Yiping

BOOM Esports roster:

  1. Souliya "JaCkky" Khoomphetsavong

  2. Erin Jasper "Yopaj" Ferrer

  3. Saieful "Fbz" Ilham

  4. Timothy "Tims" Randrup

  5. Andrei "skem" Ong

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