Malr1ne debuts for Team Liquid with a double dose of Earthshaker at PARI Universe
PARI Universe kicked off with its Group Stage on October 22nd, and with that came a full day of Dota 2 action. While quite a few teams were on display on day 1, many eyes turned to Team Liquid, as they came out swinging with their complete roster and Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak debuting with his new team.
It was also a debut for Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi’s latest roster, featuring multiple players from Nigma Galaxy and a few new additions.
Malr1ne starts off strong
Malr1ne’s debut series would see two Earthshaker mid-lane picks against 1win Team. Although maybe not the flashiest – there were no extremely game-changing Echo Slams, he was the centre of the Liquid turn around in Game 1 and a constant in the teamfights too. Going up against Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov’s Earth Spirit is no easy task, but Malr1ne made light work of the laning phase and transferred that into map presence when required.
Game 2 was where he came to life, going 11/1/14, and ending the series with a massive 79% kill participation overall, proving his worth. Liquid’s 2-0 victory offers some great insight into their future with Malr1ne and where they can hopefully get to against the likes of PARIVISION, Spirit, and Yandex being in control of the current patch. The next few days will be even more telling, as they face off against a few of these teams.
Day 1 concluded at PARI Universe
Earlier in the day, we saw Team Yandex and Team Spirit in action, and they had no problems dispatching their opponents, which came in the form of both GamerLegion and LEGION, respectively. The two grand finalists of the recently concluded BLAST SLAM VIII remained strong, taking 2-0 wins in their first series of the tournament – almost entirely expected.
Astra Invicta and PARIVISION closed out Day 1, with two legendary coaches that were once teammates going head-to-head. Unfortunately for Astra, they couldn’t match the Malr1ne debut, even after putting up a strong fight. With another 2-0 to close out the day, PV took the win, while Astra would look to their next series again BetBoom Team for their first win on Day 2.
Day 2 of PARI Universe kicks off on October 23rd, with another four series of Dota 2. The two teams that did not play on Day 1, OG and BB Team, will get their first taste of action, while Liquid and Malr1ne will hope to continue their strong start to the event.
