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　　Alliance bested Team Liquid 3/0 in in the ASUS ROG DreamLeague lower bracket today, eliminating the North American squad from the tournament. Alliance will go on to face their rivals Na'vi in the lower bracket finals tomorrow to determine who will meet Fnatic in the ASUS Rog DreamLeague Grand Finals.

　　GOING MAN MODE @s4dota

　　— Conrad Janzen (@QuantumPope) November 29, 2013

　　Game One Alliance Bans: Lich, Elder Titan, Timbersaw, Weaver, Clinkz

　　Game One Alliance Picks: Clockwerk, Crystal, Miaden, Io, Chaos Knight, Outworld Devourer

　　Game One Team Liquid Bans: Bounty Hunter, Nature's Prophet, Lifestealer, Batrider, Puck

　　Game One Team Liquid Picks: Gyrocopter, Visage, Beastmaster, Rubick, Storm Spirit

　　I, unfortunately, missed a lot of the action the first game arranging things for our folks on site. As such, I'll use this to as an opportunity to talk about the philosophies behind the drafts for the series.

　　When you take a gander at the drafts through all three games the methodology and trends are apparent. Alliance doesn't want Team Liquid's Sam 'Bulba' Sosale on Elder Titan; Alliance take's out Elder Titan early in each game in the series. Lich is also a hero that Alliance respects immensely. Lich would be first ban each game save for game two, in which Alliance would opt to use their first pick to get him for themselves. Team Liquid would spend their early bans on off-lane heroes like Nature's Prophet or Bounty Hunter, and they were also keen on making sure that Batrider would never make it to the field.

　　Game Two Alliance Bans: Elder Titan, Nature's Prophet, Bane, Night Stalker, Naga Siren

　　Game Two Alliance Picks: Lich, Venomancer, Dragon Knight, Doom Bringer, Pugna

　　Game Two Team Liquid Bans: Bounty Hunter, Lifestealer, Batrider, Magnus, Luna

　　Game Two Team Liquid Picks: Clockwerk, Mirana, Gyrocopter, Crystal Maiden, Lone Druid

　　Team Liquid started this game so unbelievably well, and would still end up seeing the game slip through their fingers. Team Liquid would start by forcing Henrik 'AdmiralBulldog' Ahnberg, who was playing Doom, completely out of his lane and into the jungle. Then Bulba's Clockwerk would rack up kill after kill after kill. If my memory serves me correct he had eight of the first nine kills for Team Liquid.

　　Despite just about everything going wrong that could go wrong in the early game, Alliance stayed composed and brought themselves back into things. Alliance would go on to get three Necro Books and just brute force their way through towers late game. Doom someone, spawn three sets of Necro creeps, take a tower. Rinse and repeat until you win.

　　Game Three Alliance Bans: Lich, Elder Titan, Timbersaw, Visage, Storm Spirt

　　Game Three Alliance Picks: Clockwerk, Weaver, Venomancer, Chen, Shadow Fiend

　　Game Three Team Liquid Picks: Nature's Prophet, Bounty Hunter, Batrider, Outworld Devouer, Doom

　　Game Three Team Liquid Picks: Lifestealer, Rubick, Dragon Knight, Mirana, Dark Seer

　　Alliance's Gustav 'S4' Magnusson was an absolute monster this game, and deserves the MVP for the series just for how absolutely frightening he was during this match. Team Liquid banned out the Batrider and Outworld Devourer, and S4 just shrugged picked Shadow Fiend. What a Shadow Fiend it was. The mid-game right click damage and Raises would keep Team Liquid on their back feet. At one point during the match Team Liquid would pick a great team fight near their middle tier-three tower, snag two Alliance heroes, and then chase a retreating Alliance into the Radiant woods. S4, after some contemplation, would turn around and right click and Raise two Team Liquid players to their immediate deaths, and then chase his remaining foes back into their base.

　　To borrow a phrase from Twitch chat: What a player.

　　Photo Credit: Adela Sznajder, and DreamHack