Pre-tournament favourite Shane "rapha" Hendrixson booked his spot in the IEM American Championships final today despite looking far from his best versus Chance "Chance" Lacina. The SK star needed five maps and a series of overtimes to overcome his opponent and will need to seriously up his game tomorrow if he's to avoid an upset. His opponent in the final, Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty, looked in top form as he cruised past Sander "vo0" Kaasjager in three maps and is already being talked about as a possible favourite for tomorrow's clash.
"DaHanG" was quitely confident coming into the event, telling ESL-TV that he felt the new patch played to his advantage and hinting that he was finally ready to get one over on "rapha". The EG player pointed to his improved practice results versus "Chance" and "dkt" in recent weeks and suggested that his SK rival has been somewhat inactive in comparison. A two to nil victory in the group stages gave weight to his claims and fears presist that we are seeing a weaker "rapha" in action this weekend.
"rapha" has admitted in the past he often has trouble hitting top form in the group stages but his performance versus "Chance" in the semis will have worried him. The IEM Dubai champion has looked uncharacteristically weak on T9 all event and was poor on T7, DM13 and DM6 against his semi final opponent. He'll be worried about "DaHanG's" aggressive style on the newer maps in particular but will be hoping his experience can pull him through when the pressure is on.
Viewers can follow all the action on
ESL-TV here on TEK9 with the third/place playoff kicking off at 20:20 CET tonight.
RelatedESL-World
Voo has the third place! :)