Team Secret Gets Eliminated from ESL One Germany 2020

In spite of having an amazing start at ESL One Germany 2020, Team Secret completely lost its way in the Playoffs Stage and got defeated by mudgolems (in the Upper Bracket) and then by Team Liquid (in the Lower Bracket). Both times, Puppey’s squad lost with a score of 0 – 2, which pretty much proves they were tilted. It’s hard to tell what happened behind the scenes, but one thing is clear: Secret began this tournament with the expectation that they were going to win it. They had won the previous 7 events and qualified for the Playoffs of ESL One Germany 2020 with 3 consecutive wins. Then, all of a sudden, they started to struggle against opponents that should have had no chance against them. We’ll never know what caused this but here’s what happened.

Team Secret – mudgolems

After winning its first Upper Bracket match against Nigma (2 – 1), Team Secret had to fight against mudgolems for a place in the Upper Bracket Finals. As a former member of Team Secret, FATA- knew exactly how to play against Puppey in this match. He drafted IO and Undying in both matches and just used the map to perfection, accumulating a bigger and bigger net worth advantage. The fights were chaotic, going back and forth. But almost at all times, mudgolems seemed to have the edge.

Team Liquid – Team Secret

This match started with a complete disaster for Secret: 2 deaths in the fight for the runes. A lot more deaths followed them, simply because Liquid employed a trilane tactic that we rarely get to see in this meta. And thanks to this tactic, they managed to kill IO on multiple occasions. Secret then took a massive gold lead (11K) and it looked as though they were going to win. But Liquid somehow won several team fights in a row and brought things back to even. In the end, their Phantom Assassin and Huskar proved too strong to fight into and Secret lost game 1.

In game 2, things escalated quickly and Team Liquid won in just 26 minutes. Their cores, consisting of Spectre, Storm Spirit, and Timbersaw, had a very good game and managed to overtake Secret’s cores by a lot. Practically, Puppey’s team was left with only the Lifestealer as a farmed core. Everybody else struggled. And after a couple of lost team fights, they simply decided to give up, understanding that the Spectre was now unstoppable.

 

Photo credit: Valve