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BBL Crush Giants’ Playoffs Hopes, Liquid Retain First Place at Allied Esports Odyssey

The last day of the Group Stage at Allied Esports Odyssey delivered some crazy results and an impressive upset.... Fabio | 16. August 2020

The last day of the Group Stage at Allied Esports Odyssey delivered some crazy results and an impressive upset. Liquid are now firmly slotted in first place, whereas the Ninjas narrowly managed to enter the playoffs thanks to FPX and Giants. 

BBL 2-0 GIANTS

Yesterday, we discussed a scenario in which Giants would be able to surpass the Ninjas and claim a playoffs spot. For that, they would only have needed a 2-0 win against BBL. That shouldn’t have been to difficult, considering the zero-win track record of the Turkish team.

Well, that’s not what happened. On the first map, Haven, Giants were able to find a comfortable 8-4 lead after the first half. But Ali Osman “AsLanM4shadoW” Balta led the charge for BBL, as they slowly grinded the Spaniards out. They eventually reached the 12-12 scoreline and went into overtime. There, it took BBL 8 rounds to finally get two consecutive wins at 17-15.

Following this heartbreaking defeat, Giants had run out of steam. Additionally, they had just lost their chance at a playoffs spot, even with a win on the second map. But they didn’t get that, handing BBL the 2-0 win. What’s worse, the Turks even surpassed them in the standings, sending Giants to the last place of the event.

NIP 1-1 FPX, LIQUID 1-1 G2

The rest of the matches had almost no stakes for the teams involved. Every contestant was firmly locked into the playoffs, only the order could have been changed up. The Ninjas got a decisive win against FPX, who struck back on map two for the 1-1 trade. The same happened in the Team Liquid vs. G2 Esports match-up. G2 may have delivered an easy victory on Ascent, but Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom went absolutely wild on the second map. With 31 kills, doubling any efforts of his team mates, he got his team a 13-8 victory on Haven.

WHO IS THE BETTER TEAM?

This question is incredibly difficult to answer and the fact that the top four teams all traded maps on the last play-day doesn’t help at all. The Ninjas are arguably the weakest squad in the playoffs, but after that, it’s difficult to establish a hierarchy. While Team Liquid did manage to secure first place in the Group Stage, they also lost maps to FPX and G2. In their match against the Phoenixes, the end results were so close that one clutch less could have completely altered the score lines. Fortunately for Liquid, they will meet NiP in their opening match. This should give them a good opportunity to advance, whereas G2 Esports will likely struggle against FPX in their match.

The games leading up to the Grand Finals will all be Best-of-Ones. This means that the map pick may well decide the winner between the teams that have tied their games so far. The matches will soon commence and the trophy of Allied Esports Odyssey will be awarded this evening.