TI11 Finals weekend first match between Aster and Liquid – Matu and co. send home China’s last hope

Team Liquid took on Team Aster in the first match of the finals weekend at TI11. The first match of the day featured the last remaining team from the China region, against the WEU underdogs. The series went on for a full 3 games, and Liquid came out on top. All 3 games were jaw droopingly intense, with the stakes being higher than ever for both teams. With Aster fighting for the pride of their region, and Liquid fighting for Matumbaman's career to live on another day. But in the end, the last Chinese team at TI11 got sent home as Liquid moves on to top 3.

Quite the meta has developed over The International 2022. One that's centered around Marci, Leshrac and Primal Beast. And after the week long break between the tournament and finals weekend, teams have had a lot of time to theory craft ways to deal with the meta. Game 1 of finals weekend at TI11 featured a new strategy from Aster, with a Underlord and Spirit Breaker duo. This combo worked extremely well, as Spirit Breaker tends to struggle with follow up damage. But with Underlord, he can follow up with the rest of his team.

With game 2, both teams brought some new faces. With Aster showing off a SirActionSlacks special, Omniknight. While Liquid brought out a entire blue draft that included a Matu Morphling. Although Matumbaman has played Morphling historically, the pick didn't work too well in the match. As Ori's Pudge went rampant alongside Monet's Sniper.

The debut game of the TI11 finals weekend was a crazy back and fourth slug fest between Aster and Liquid. The game was really back and fourth, with Liquid having an advantage early, while momentum swung back to Aster towards the mid game. While Liquid was on the backfoot, they managed to take a huge fight, shattering the glass cannon sniper of Aster's Monet. Team Liquid then proceeded to run right down mid lane and rush the throne of Aster. And if the Thunder Awaken series was anything, Liquid sure know how to give everyone at the arena a heart attack finale of a match.

TI11's Game 3 between Liquid and Aster had a weird draft on both ends. Aster drafted both a support Naga Siren and a Drow Ranger. Although on paper, the picks worked well to deal with Liquid's Undying and Pango, Liquid's draft had a surprise of its own. Team Liquid's first 4 picks were pretty standard for the team, with Lina and Pango cores and Tusk, Undying supports. You can check the full draft out for all 3 matches here on Dotabuff.

But in quite the surprise last pick, Matumbaman picked Nightstalker. The extremely unconventional pick somehow worked in the game as the hero played insanely well against Aster's lineup. Nobody, even the Coach of TL, Blitz expected the pick to work out as well as they did, well except for Insania, who had full confidence in his teammate.

Unfortunately, the last hope of China Dota has been eliminated at TI11 with Aster. Now, the only remaining teams are only European teams left in the TI11 playoffs, which is quite the surprise. However, this only means competition is both as fierce and as familiar as ever. Stick around tuned to Esports.gg and find out who's crowned the champions of The International 2022.

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