S4 - The Axe call that got AdmiralBulldog screaming

We are back here again, featuring Alliance’s original member, Gustav "s4" Magnusson. While the Liquipedia page states that s4 is highly regarded for his Magnus and Puck plays, perhaps s4’s bio page could use a massive update.
After all, it’s not the first time that s4 showed off his Axe performing beautifully placed Axe Calls in pro games.
An Old Friend of s4
Besides being Alliance’s very own CEO, AdmiralBulldog is also a very close (too close) friend of s4. While s4 is busy pursuing his pro career ever since TI3 Alliance roster disbanded, AdmiralBulldog went on to venture into much menacing industries, Twitch streaming.
Ever since, s4 has occasionally gotten so close to claiming the second Aegis of his career but it was always a grasp’s away. Anyways, AdmiralBulldog often watches Alliance’s games while he streams, and with the return of s4, it couldn’t be a livelier time to be an Alliance fan.
Unfortunately, besides making it into the grand finals of ESL One Birmingham 2020 – Europe & CIS regionals, Alliance’s “comeback” has been rather lackluster for many fans to enjoy. After their exceptional debut at Birmingham 2020, only to fall after facing Team Secret, their performance was a huge bummer at the BLAST Bounty Hunt.
Alliance saw themselves out with a fifth place finish (out of 6 teams), making their recent victories at ESL seemed like a fluke.
Against the Bears
It was Alliance versus Virtus.pro at the BEYOND EPIC: Europe/CIS. The game was initially in favour of Alliance, where Virtus.pro seemed to be having a tough time dealing with NikoBaby’s Lifestealer. Yet, VP had one thing going for them, which is the late game, assuming they could reach that time.
Thanks to Zayac’s Techies pick, the game was dragged way longer than Alliance hoped to play. And at 28 minutes, Alliance got team-wiped after getting caught in a bad position, surprising instead of death by Techies’ bombs.
AdmiralBulldog: “Thank God, I thought we were gonna throw the game”
Finally, and fortunately, viewers did not need to watch a gruesome hour long comeback game just because there’s a Techies in the game. Instead, Virtus.pro was caught in an awkward situation as their entire movement was being watched by s4.
He managed to land a beautiful 3-man Axe Call while putting Storm Spirit at very low HP. While he didn’t manage to kill the elusive Storm Spirit, it was still enough to cripple Virtus.pro’s line-up, as they killed both Spectre and Techies, the 2 heroes which would have been troublesome for Alliance to push against.
Besides the glorious scream by AdmiralBulldog, he also showed signs of relief that Alliance did not throw the game which is supposedly in Alliance’s bag since 20 minutes.
Playoffs or Elimination?
As for Alliance, they have completed all their group stage games while several teams are expecting to play for the upcoming 3 days. Although Alliance gets to enjoy their well-deserved rest as they have 3 days of break, they did not perform too well as they end with an outcome of 2 wins and 3 losses out of the 5 series played.