Both teams seeded an elf on turtle rock, but it was MYM's Moon who took the lead from Soju early on. With both players going for demon hunter/naga/bears, it was a mirror in every possible aspect. There was little to choose between the two players but Moon's aggressive creeping gave him a hero advantage which tipped the game in his favour.

Moon

The second map was terenas stand and both players adopted similar strategies once again. This time, however, Soju opted for a keeper second. After a long drawn out game, which degenerated into a base trade towards the end, it was Soju who came out on top, having crippled Moon's army with a demon hunter kill. Moon finished the job on secret valley, however, with an un-scouted tower push. Soju held on for a while but with no moon juice and a handful of towers in his base, it was only a matter of time before MYM went 1-0 up.

Next up were Grubby and Remind. They started off on gnoll wood where neither player was able to gain the upper hand early on. Once tier two hit, however, Grubby was able to kill both of Remind's heroes and do significant damage to the elf's base. From there it was an impossible struggle for the Korean and Grubby took a 1-0 lead after killing the demon hunter a second time.

2-0

The early game on terenas stand was also a stalemate but tier two proved less disastrous for Remind this time around. The elf player picked up a Panda and almost killed Grubby's blademaster as it harassed him. Both players then retreated to creep - Grubby with a typical orc army and Remind with dryads and a few huntresses. The next skirmish was outside Grubby's base and gave the orc player a distinct advantage after he took out 13 food of Remind's, losing almost nothing himself. The elf came back again with 60 food but to no avail. The sound of dying dryads filled the air as Grubby gave MYM a 2-0 lead.

With TeD gaining so many plaudits recently, it was fitting that Reign got SK back on level terms. On twisted meadows, Soccer bravely went for bears but was hard countered by Reign's frost wyrms. The outcome was more or less inevitable but the elf player did well to pull the score level on map two. It wasn't enough to stem the tide, though, as Reign successfully picked up the third map and put SK on the score board.

2-2

At the same time, another orc was keeping SK in the game. Taking on Susiria on ancient isle, Lyn put up two straight maps to give SK parity once again. The orc player went for wyverns to counter Susiria's ghouls and destroyers. It paid off perfectly as Lyn ended the game during the first real battle.

The second game on echo isles followed a similar pattern: wyverns and raiders overpowering ghouls and destroyers. The game was over inside 15 minutes and the comeback was almost complete.

Comeback?

The decisive 2v2 was next with SK needing a win to stay in the match and the tournament. The orc/elf combo of Remind and Soju were up against Susiria and Soccer, who were playing their normal races on twisted meadows. Tier one was typically uneventful but Soccer tried a tower push on Remind's base early into tier two. SK defended it successfully enough, though, trading a demon hunter for two TP scrolls. MYM were back almost immediately but after a long, casualty-heavy battle, it was SK who emerged with the lead.

On lost temple, Soju spiced things up a bit, opting to build an ancient of war in Soccer's base. The pressure gained SK a kill on Soccer's priestess and gave them a useful early advantage. SK pushed their advantage further with a strong harassment of Susiria's base. The game dragged on a while longer but after killing Soccer's tree of life, Remind cornered Susiria without a TP and killed his entire army. SK were through to the final.

Final

SK heads into the final, needing to beat World Elite twice. The game is due to start any moment now and you can follow SK-Gaming's coverage right here