The second week of the SEA Games 31 LMHT qualifiers began on February 22 with two matches: Burst The Sky Esports vs. CERBERUS Esports and GAM Esports vs. Team Secret. Currently, SKY is in excellent form with two consecutive victories leading up to this match. Meanwhile, the reigning VCS Winter 2021 champion is struggling in the lower half of the standings, and the runner-up GAM has only one win and one loss so far.
The reality has shown how good SKY’s form is. From the first game, they pressured the CES players right from the laning phase. Although “God Dog” managed some counterattacks, the mistakes of the young players coupled with SKY’s focused gameplay left CES with no opportunities in team fights. SKY won game 1 in just over 26 minutes of play.
Moving into the second game, both teams maintained a back-and-forth battle, trading blows bit by bit. It seemed that victory was within SKY’s grasp as they led their opponent by over 4,000 gold at one point, but a disastrous team fight at the Dragon pit allowed CES to regain control. Although SKY reestablished their lead, a mistake by Aomine helped CES win the decisive fight and equalize the series 1-1.
In the third game, SKY did not perform significantly better than CES. However, this team effectively exploited their advantages over the reigning VCS Winter 2021 champion. Although CES managed to steal Baron, with the Dragon Soul and a massive advantage, SKY easily pushed down each lane and finished the game after 33 minutes.
As for GAM, with their current excellent form, the yellow and black squad faced no difficulties in securing their second consecutive win in the SEA Games 31 LMHT qualifiers. With an easy 2-0 victory over TS, GAM climbed to the top of the SEA Games 31 qualifiers standings. Together with SKY and SBTC Esports, these three teams have a high chance of advancing to the next round of four teams.
As for CES, with only a second-string lineup, “God Dog” has been too out of sync compared to their opponents. With a gradual decline in the lower half of the SEA Games 31 qualifiers standings, CES’s goal this season may just be to focus on the VCS Spring.