TI 2023: Azure Ray knock out BetBoom to make Top 4 at TI12
Azure Ray will next face Gaimin Gladiators in the lower bracket semifinals to determine which team will advance to the final day of the tournament.
There are only four teams left in contention for the Aegis of Champions halfway through the second day of The International (TI) 2023's Finals Weekend.
Chinese powerhouse Azure Ray knocked out Eastern Europe's star-studded BetBoom Team with a 2-1 victory in the lower bracket quarterfinals, setting up a showdown with three-time Major champions Gaimin Gladiators in the lower bracket semifinals at the end of the day.
Azure Ray kicked off the series by drafting a tanky tri-core of Lifestealer for Lou "Lou" Zhen, Necrophos for Lu "Somnus" Yao, and Dawnbreaker for Yang "Chalice" Shenyi. Meanwhile, Xu "fy" Linsen on Tusk and Jiang "Tianming" An on Pugna provided save mechanisms and sustain.
BetBoom opted for a high-damage tri-core of Chaos Knight for Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko, a mid Templar Assassin for Danil "gpk" Skutin, and an offlane Kunkka for Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko. Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Kherte on Phoenix and Vitalie "Save-" Melnic on a surprise pick Techies brought magic damage and crowd control to round out the lineup.
Game one was a back-and-forth, drawn-out slugfest. BetBoom had a good start in the laning stage before Azure Ray won key midgame teamfights that gave them the gold lead moving forward.
However, the Eastern European squad was able to put up a stubborn defense that dealt their Chinese opponents heavy losses with every push as the game wore on late. As the action neared the hour-mark, BetBoom was peaking in strength, had the Aegis protecting gpk, and looked like they could take the win.
Instead, Somnus outlasted all of BetBoom in a lengthy clash around Azure Ray's base that ended with multiple BetBoom heroes dead without buyback. With that, the Chinese team were the ones to claim game one after an action-packed 58 minutes.
Somnus put up an excellent 16 kills and 13 assists on just two deaths in a game that ended with Azure Ray down 31-35 in kills. Meanwhile, gpk had 15 kills and nine assists on five deaths in the loss.
BetBoom were quick to shake off their game one loss and absolutely dominated Azure Ray to the tune of a lopsided 35-5 kill lead in 32 minutes.
An off-meta mid Dragon Knight pick for gpk worked out beautifully for BetBoom as he had a clean six kills and 13 assists. Pure also had a perfect 12-kill, 10-assist performance on an offlane Chaos Knight.
With their tournament lives on the line in game three, both teams went for strong teamfight compositions.
Azure Ray went with Luna for lou, Kunkka for Somnus, Brewmaster for chalice, Phoenix for fy, and Clockwerk for Tianming. Meanwhile, BetBoom picked Morphling for Nightfall, Invoker for gpk, Legion Commander for Pure, a support Muerta for Save, and Enchantress for TORONTOTOKYO.
BetBoom had a fast start and held the gold lead through the early game. However, back-to-back takedowns on Nightfall between the 15 to 17-minute marks allowed Azure Ray to start pulling ahead.
As the game started slowing down, BetBoom were able to prevent Azure Ray from capitalizing on their gold lead and it looked like things would have to be decided in the late game. However, a massive pickoff on Nightfall just outside of BetBoom's base at the 38-minute mark allowed Azure Ray to break the game wide open and eventually closed out the 2-1 series victory after 42 minutes.
With their victory, Azure Ray have guaranteed themselves at least a 4th place finish as well as US$171,962 in winnings. They will next face Gaimin Gladiators in the lower bracket semifinals to determine who will make it to TI 2023's final day.
Meanwhile, BetBoom exit the tournament in 5th-6th place with US$101,685 in consolation.
TI 2023's Finals Weekend will be hosted in the Climate Pledge Arena from 27 to 29 October in Seattle. There, the eight remaining teams will be battling to decide who will be crowned as this year's Dota 2 world champions.
For everything you need to know about TI 2023, check here.
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