Dota 2: EPICENTER Major

It was a full day of lower bracket matches today at the EPICENTER Major, with four of our teams eliminated.

Let’s see who ended up heading home at the end of day five.

PSG.LGD vs Forward Gaming

Game one showed that PSG.LGD can still outmanoeuvre when they’re outdrafted. It was a difficult game for Maybe’s Storm Spirit pick. He had to play in to Sneyking’s Batrider and YawaR’s Wraith King. But even with the stronger draft, Forward Gaming just couldn’t find their feet.

By 12-minutes in, LGD had themselves a 2k lead in the net worth and a lead in the kills too. Forward got some good pick offs. They had a couple of well initiated jumps that helped them take down LGD’s cores and looked like plays that could change the game.

But in the end, LGD proved their dominance, taking game one at 42-minutes, with the score 31-14 kills.

Fy was doing loads of work on his Tusk in this game. Setting up kills and saving his teammates. But the real star of this game was Chalice on his Omniknight, whose clutch saves pulled Maybe and Ame from the brink of death multiple times.

https://youtu.be/8mcPz93pbIA?t=49

Game two seemed to start even worse for Forward. LGD had a clear lead in the laning phase. They forced Forward to reposition to a tri-lane top to try and secure some farm on YawaR’s Lifestealer. Things just never started to shape up for the NA team. As LGD brought the aggression and dictated the pace for the entire game.

Ame’s surprise last pick Slark just slaughtered this game. He got free farm in bottom lane all through the early game. By the time the clock passed 15-minutes, it seemed like he was going to be impossible for Forward to take down. He went 14/0/6 by the end of this game. Wiping the floor with CCnC, who only managed 1 kill for his 8 deaths in game two.

After 34-minutes, LGD took the series 2-0, eliminating Forward from the Major.

Team Secret vs OG

Our second series of the day saw Team Secret facing off against OG.

Game one was a bloodthirsty affair. It was another last pick Slark game, this time Ana was on the hero. He had a great early game, free farming in top lane while JerAx created plenty of space for him. JerAx’s Spirit Breaker was a real play maker in the early game. He was 3/0/3 at 9 minutes, involving himself in pretty much all his team’s early kills.

The aggression from OG just never slowed down, and it kept Secret on the back foot. OG were pushing their high ground by 27-minutes. They took out game one in a clear-cut victory.

We saw a bit of a slower start to game two. There were some trades in the early game, and Secret tried to control the pressure this time. They threw bodies at OG trying to deny their first Rosh push at 18-minutes. It took OG three attempts to secure it, they finally took it at 23-minutes.

But the payoff for delaying the objective was not enough to help Secret take control of the game. OG were relentless and Secret were just unable to match their pace. The kills were 26-9 at 26-minutes and OG were pushing the high ground.

Secret did their best to hold. But there was no stopping Ana on his Juggernaut this game either. He was 17/0/3 at 41-minutes when GG was called.

OG shut Secret down, taking the series 2-0.

This was perhaps the most lacklustre performance we’ve seen from Team Secret all season. Mid0ne had an especially rough series. His Gyrocopter pick in mid game one only managed to secure 5 kills and was barely averaging 400gpm. Game two was even worse for him, only 4 kills for 7 deaths.

Alliance vs Royal Never Give Up

Our next series of the day was Alliance versus Royal Never Give Up.

Game one saw RNG establish an early advantage for themselves. It looked like they might clean Alliance up with a quick short stomp. RNG had secured all the T2 towers, and early Rosh objectives to head up high ground and take the mid rax by 32-minutes.

But Alliance were not out for the count yet. They stretched the game out to 64-minutes, holding out until the bitter end. The final score was 46-29, a 17-kill lead for Royal Never Give Up. Setsu had a great game on the Broodmother, he went 13/5/13. But it was Flyby who was the real star, setting up fantastic plays with his Mars ultimate.

RNG came in strong for game two as well. They took the first three kills. Alliance didn’t take their first kill until 10-minutes in, but sometimes slow and steady wins the race.

https://youtu.be/PI5vPFqH8YU?t=73

Alliance turned the tables as soon as Micke’s Gyrocopter came online. Taiga’s Io made him unstoppable from this point. The big turning point came around 30-minutes. Alliance turned a three-hero buyback on the side of RNG into a double dieback and a lane of rax mid. It only took two more minutes for RNG to call the GG. The win went to Alliance, forcing this series to the full three games.

With everything riding on this third game, both teams came in playing to win. RNG managed to secure the first kills. But again, things swung Alliance’s way around the 15-minute mark. In a repeat of game two, Alliance outplayed RNG in every team fight. This was a phenomenal game for Micke’s Juggernaut. His KDA was 11/3/15 at the end of the 40-minute game.

Alliance secured victory for game two, knocking RNG out of the Major.

Gambit Esports vs Ninjas in Pyjamas

Our final series of the day was Gambit vs NiP.

Things were looking close at the start of game one, as both teams traded kills and objectives throughout the early game. The back and forth started to slow down once the game reached 25-minutes, however.

Now, Gambit started to dictate the pace. Taking out NiP’s T2 towers to give themselves plenty of space for their high ground assault. Gambit pushed for the mid rax at 31-minutes, patiently playing through NiP’s defence. They baited out the BKB’s and knowing that NiP had nothing to stop them, they finally made their final push at 37-minutes. NiP called GG at 38-minutes; the kills were 14-27. 13 kills in Gambit’s favour.

This was a phenomenal game for Daxak, his KDA was 9/0/13. The amount of structure damage he dealt out was a defining factor in helping Gambit take this win.

https://youtu.be/LU7NZybl9g4?t=4

Game two saw NiP give away the Lone Druid pick to Daxak a second time. But this wasn’t the only trouble that they were facing. Gambit ramped up the aggression early, putting down plenty of vision which gave them valuable info on all of NiP’s movements.

By 17-minutes, they were pushing the top high ground. They kept this pressure up, wrapping around and avoiding NiP’s team fight. Methodically taking down each high ground objective, one at a time. At 28-minutes, with their mid and bottom rax down, Ninjas in Pyjamas finally fell to Gambit’s disciplined assaults. Gambit took out the series 2-0.

Tomorrow is a break day in the games. Tune into all the action from the rest of the playoffs on the official EPICENTER Twitch on Friday.

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Image via EPICENTER