Team Liquid delivers a cinematic victory over a highly vaunted rival PGL Wallachia Season 4 by defeating PARIVISION 3-2. It’s been a long time since we had such a nail-biting finish to a grand finals, so we recommend watching the replay.
But if you’re looking for just the highlights, here’s a breakdown of all that happened at PGL Wallachia S4.
Team Liquid wins PGL Wallachia Season 4 (Image credit: PGL)
Recap of PGL Wallachia S4
It goes without saying that it’s an understatement on how much the odds were against Team Liquid to win against PARIVISION . For the record, Team Liquid nine loss streak against PARIVISION, dating back to past tournament encounters. PARIVISION even defeated Team Liquid in the Upper Bracket Final at PGL Wallachia S4, which is certainly bad bracket for the latter’s morale going into the grand finals.
Yet, when the spotlight shines onto the two rivals at the grand finals, some of the most intense matches unfolded.
Team Liquid versus PARIVISION at PGL Wallachia S4 Grand Final
Despite being the underdog going up against PARIVISION, Liquid managed to swiftly snatch the first two games off PARIVISION. This surely caught PARIVISION off-guard with Liquid delivering a generally good performance and execution in both games.
Then, in Game Three, despite Liquid’s best efforts to close out the game for a clean victory, PARIVISION was not letting this grand final series slip so easily. Ultimately, Alan “Satanic” Galliamov’s Templar Assassin was too big of a powerhouse for Liquid’s heroes to deal with, and hence PARIVISION took their first win.
At this point, the loss was still possible and Liquid still had just two shots to close out the grand finals at PGL Wallachia S4.
PARIVISION’s Rat Dota Strategy
With the grand finals on the line, PARIVISION did not hesitate to pull out their cheesy ‘Rat Dota’ strategy. Pioneered by legendary TI Champion, Henrik ” AdmiralBulldog ” Ahnberg, Rat Dota is infamously known for being one of the nastiest methods to secure a victory, typically with Nature’s Prophet.
However, PARIVISION made this strategy even more notorious than its original by adding Underlord into the hero combo. With two global teleportation at PARIVISION’s disposal, it was a cat-and-mouse game for Liquid to catch PARIVISION while Nature’s Prophet performed repetitive split-pushes and chip skills at Liquid’s base. With no answer to PARIVISION’s Rat Dota strategy, Liquid eventually lost game 4, drawing the grand finals to only one decisive game 5.
When Liquid did not first-ban Nature’s Prophet and Underlord in game 5, fans were devastated by their decision and thought the worst for them. After all, we already celebrated how obsolete Liquid was at countering PARIVISION’s Rat Dota strategy. Moreover, PARIVISION upgraded their Rat Dota combo by picking Kunkka too. On paper, this enables Nature’s Prophet to single-handedly attack Liquid’s base with X Marks the Spot ability to return safely afterwards.
Team Liquid (Image credit: PGL)
Decisive Game 5 at PGL Wallachia S4
This was arguably one of the most disgusting methods to win a game, which PARIVISION pulled off perfectly well too. Despite Liquid’s lead, they weren’t able to deal with Nature’s Prophet constantly chipping away at their base. And as the game dragged into the 70-minute mark, the hero was capable of massively destroying the throne with attack damage independently. Yet, Liquid managed to force PARIVISION into a bad fight after they bought back. Satanic, who was away from his team to push buildings instead, took a game-losing decision to join the five-man fight with his team.
This ultimately costed PARIVISION the game, as they got team wiped. Reflecting back at this final moment, many fans believed Satanic should have continued pushing the base and destroy the throne alone. Not committing to their initial strategy in the first place costed them the decisive series in PGL Wallachia S4 .
Did you predict such a wild Grand Finals from PGL Wallachia Season 4? If you did, maybe you should consider a wager next time – check out our guide to Dota 2 betting for more info.