
Dota 2: ESL One Hamburg 2019 – Day 4 Recap
| Tags: Dota 2
| Author Eliana Bollati

The action is heating up at ESL One Hamburg. Our Lower Bracket series saw our teams fight some long and punishing battles. Let’s see how the day played out.
Wind and Rain vs Beastcoast
Our opening series in the lower bracket saw Beastcoast face off against Wind and Rain in a grueling Bo3.
Game One
Wind and Rain had the upper hand through the laning phase. They took out first blood, with Nefrit’s Nyx Assassin picking off Wisper’s Puck. Then they followed it up with another pick-off on Scofield, bringing them to two kills in the first two minutes. By the time the game reached 10-minutes, WAR had secured themselves a 3k lead in the gold and were pushing into the mid t1 towers. Things were not looking great for Beastcoast.
Wind and Rain seemed to have Beastcoast’s number. They held the net worth lead for most of the game and were racking up the kills. It was 23–11 at 25-minutes. At 45-minutes, WAR were pushing into Beascoast’s high ground and the kills were 43–19, victory was in their sight. But a fantastic high-ground defense let Beastcoast hold their mid t3. It was the beginning of the turn, as Hector’s Lifestealer took over. At 51-minutes, WAR’s lead in the net worth had fallen from 11k to 1k.
Hector and Chris Luck cleaned up as Beastcoast flipped the offense switch and snatched the game right out from under Wind and Rain. After almost 66-minutes, WAR called GG. Game one’s victory was firmly in the hands of the boys from SA.
Game Two
After being denied what seemed like a sure win in game one, Wind and Rain came into game two hungry to take it home. Beastcoast took out first blood this time, but once again, WAR had a very tidy laning phase. They took the small advantage they established in the games first 10-minutes and ran with it straight to a quick and clean 30-minute victory.
Beastcoast had no chance of shutting them down, the final score was 29–8, a massive 21-kill lead for WAR. W1sh- had a superb Windranger game, ending on a KDR of 8/0/3, but it was Buugi who really dominated the kills this game. The highest over all on 12/1/8.
Game Three
Game three saw WAR come in confident off the back of their quick stomp in game two. W1sh- took out first blood on Chris Luck’s Broodmother in mid-lane, and then the next two kills also went WAR’s way. But unlike the previous games, this was not a clean and easy laning phase for Wind and Rain.
The net worth see-sawed back and forth, as both teams went on the all-out assault. As the game pushed past the 45-minute mark, Beastcoast were able to turn a mid-lane push from WAR into a Roshan and a free Aghanim’s for Scofield’s Shaman. Wind and Rain’s net worth lead was slashed, there was just a 1k gold difference between the teams at 47-minutes.
Wind and Rain had the upper hand, with most of Beastcoast’s base down and the lead in the kills. But with two down on the side of WAR, including Nefrit’s Dragon Knight, Beastcoast had an opening. All they needed to do was strike hard, and fast.
At 58-minutes, WAR again had to submit defeat to an aggressive turnaround from Beastcoast, who took the series 2–1 advancing to the next LB round.
Still, Wind and Rain delivered an outstanding performance. Buugi took out a massive 41-kills across this series, the highest of any player. Yol also topped the assists, a total of 79 across all three games.
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Virtus.Pro
Next up we saw NiP battle it out against Virtus.Pro for a chance to move on to round two of the Lower Bracket.
Game One
Game one was off to a slow start, with both teams choosing passive line-ups in the drafting phase. First blood didn’t come out until six minutes, going to VP as No[o]ne took out a kill on Gunnar’s Pugna in mid. Virtus.Pro had a slight advantage in the gold and experience through the early game. But it swung back NiP’s way with a successful assault on VP’s mid-high ground as the game approached the 30-minute mark. It was about to be another long back-and-forth brawl.
Clever rotations and strong defenses came out on the side of both teams as they pushed this game out past 60-minutes. But in the end, Virtus.Pro had the stronger momentum. They looked like a completely different team compared to some of their losses earlier in this event, and it was obvious that the new roster is beginning to adapt and synergize with each other’s playstyles.
After 79-minutes, Virtus.Pro finally closed in for the kill, taking out game one of the series with an 9-kill lead.
Game Two
After the long and hard battle of game one, game two’s start was lightning fast. Solo took first blood for VP at nine seconds in, with both teams coming in with more aggressive drafts than last time. The laning phase seemed to be going well for NiP, they shut down VP’s defensive tri-lane quite efficiently.
But as the game neared the 20-minute mark, Virtus.Pro started to ramp up the aggression. Skeeter found himself caught out of position more than a few times on his Bloodseeker. Epileptic kid by contrast, was having a free farm game on his Phantom Lancer pick. His itemization provided him with a lot of survivability, and he ended with a KDR of 12/1/10.
It was a swift, 33-minute stomp as VP secured themselves a second win, taking the series 2–0.
A disappointing result for Ninjas in Pyjamas, although they put up a strong fight in game one, they faltered against VP’s brutal offense in the second game to face elimination.
Vici Gaming vs Beastcoast
Beastcoast were back to face-off against Vici Gaming in our last series of the day, and the first of our second-round matches in the Lower Bracket.
Game One
Game one saw Vici take first blood just past the two-minute mark, but the advantage moved to Beastcoast’s favour with a sneaky Roshan at 14-minutes that helped them earn a 2k gold lead.
Still, Vici were holding well against the SA roster’s offensive, and the kills were an even 13–13 as the game passed 20-minutes.
There was a lot of back-and-forth and some tight team fights that left Vici looking a little like the underdogs until they finally tool the third Roshan of the game, at 40-minutes and got themselves a lead in the kills. Beastcoast managed to hold against Vici’s aggressive mid lane push, taking down 4 heroes and turning things around to push back down mid themselves. But Vici disciplined defense saw both of Beastcoast’s cores fall thanks to a double dreamcoil from Ori’s Puck. With the opportunity open to them, Vici pushed back again to take game one of the series at 45-minutes.
Game Two
With game one down, both teams had a lot riding on a victory in game two. We saw a slightly slower start to the laning phase, it was almost five minutes in before Beastcoast drew first blood. Ori’s Pugna played very aggressive in mid, and we saw a long, drawn out back and forth team fight at 12-minutes that didn’t seem to go either team’s way. The kills and net worth stayed fairly even until the game hit 20-minutes in.
A pick-off by Chris Luck’s Meepo on Eurus gave Beastcoast the boost they needed. They took the mid T1 and swung into Roshan. With the aegis on Meepo, Beastcoast started their march up to Vici’s high ground.
There was no way for them to shut down the killer combination of K1’s Wraith King and Chris Luck’s Meepo. Vici did their best to hold out against a push into their bottom racks at 32-minutes. Buy backs were coming out thick and fast on both sides, but this time Vici couldn’t push Beastcoast back. The bottom racks fell, and then the mid fell seconds later. Vici called GG at 34-minutes, and Beastcoast took the win to equalize the series.
Game Three
Vici took first blood, with Pyw’s Rubick rotating in for a pick-off on Chris Luck in the mid lane around the one-minute mark. Top lane was also going their way. The Faceless Void/Lich combo that Eurys and Dy were running could put out a lot more aggression early game against the unusual Abaddon/Winter Wyvern combination Wisper and Stinger were playing. By the end of the lanes, it seemed like Vici had full control, they had a comfortable 7-kill lead. As the 18-minute mark passed, they’d stretched that lead to 16.
But K1’s Alchemist was just beginning to come online, and Chris Luck’s Ember Spirit was hunting. Beastcoast were ready to start making plays. They took all four 20-minute bounty runes, and the net worth advantage swung their way.
Over the next 10-minutes, Beastcoast decimated the lead that Vici had built themselves. At 23-minutes they were pushing into Vici’s high ground. No matter what they threw at K1’s Alc, they couldn’t take him down. He tanked through the creep waves and the mid racks fell at 24-minutes. A quick Roshan at 28-minutes and Beastcoast were ready to bring this game home. They took the win at 30-minutes, and took the series 2–1, taking out the tournament favorites and sending Vici Gaming home.
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