The most Gosu tournament of all times – GosuCup. The first has finally ended. The tournament, which hosted 32 teams, lasted about four months and managed to unveil a more experimental and creative side of the game. It was an exciting journey, many lesser known teams managed to upset some giants in thrilling clashes. All fell but Fnatic, who breezed through and eventually took the crown.
The grand finals were played between FnaticMSI.Dota and xFz.int. Fnatic coming from the winning bracket had a one game advantage going into the match.
Game 1 - Report:
 xFz.int | fnaticMSI.Dota |
| Bans | |
    |     |
| Picks | |
 |   |
  |   |
  |  |
| Lanes | |
| Sentinel xFz.Lacoste_ (Mid) xFz.bane (Top) PlaymatEOfkuSh (Top) xFz.Baja (Bot) xFz.GordaN- (Bot) | Scourge MiSeRyTheSLAYER (Top) Fnatic.Kwom (Mid) MiioMiio|Ducky (Bot) [Pajkatt] (Bot) fnatic.Miracle (Top) |
The picks reveal an interesting strategy: Fnatic really wanted to push towers. This became even more evident when the two major pushers Broodmother and Krobelus were given a solo lane. So accommodate the two solo lanes, Vengeful Spirit, Sand King and Puck had to tri-lane for the initial few minutes after which Venge started to roam around the map. xFz.int decided to go unconventional as well by picking a rare Lich/Phantom Lancer combo. It should be noted that Warlock was not in his usual baby-sitting role.
The game pretty much developed as both teams expected, although it did lean towards xFz.int as the triple lane by Fnatic didn't really manage to ruin their opponent’s early game. Playmate was able to outfarm Misery. The first blood came in the second attempt of ganking Lacoste by Kwom and Miracle and with that the ganking phase kicked off. As game progressed the pushing power of Fnatic’s strategy became more and more evident as they managed to take down six xFz.int towers without losing even a single tower. This made the game easier for Fnatic due to all the tower gold earned.
Unfortunately for unknown reasons; Kwom dropped from the game. Since the last save was quite old, Fnatic considering their strong position decided to continue. The team hoped to micro the leaver’s DP to victory, they even managed to take the center barracks. As time progressed xFz farmed more and more items (like BKB, Radiance and Ghost Scepter) and, despite a well farmed brood and puck, did overturn the tables. The one man disadvantage proved to be too much and as xFz after a successful battle rushed the mid lane Fnatic realized their defeat and gg'ed.
Game 2 - Report:
| fnaticMSI.Dota | xFz.int |
| Lanes | |
Sentinel MiSeRyTheSLAYER (Bot)  [Pajkatt] (Mid) fnatic.Miracle (Top)  MiioMiio|Ducky (Bot)  Fnatic.Kwom (Top) | Scourge xFz.Mitch (Bot)  z69|DUTCH.NL (Bot) PlaymatEOfkuSh (Mid) xFz.GordaN- (Top) xFz.Baja (Top) |
With the first game in favor of xFz, this was to be the ultimate decider. xFz once again went for a phantom lancer carry with a well rounded combo. Fnatic on the other hand decided to opt for sniper, which has been played more often in competitive DotA of late. With 3 potential carries (POTM, Slardar and Sniper) Fnatic was looking to take this game late.
The early game was pretty balanced with even kills, Phantom lancer and sniper came off best in terms of cs. Early and mid-game was a tennis match with each team balancing out lost battles with ganks or vice versa. GordanN farmed really well with PL managing about 160 cs + tower in about 25 minutes. Fnatic on the other hand managed to take down four of scourge towers while only losing one; this gave them the extra bit of gold and a crucial map control.
The progression of the game was very dull, both teams content with retreating and outfarming the opponent. Soon PL got quite fat with hood/radiance against Slardar's BKB and Sniper’s manta. This point onwards xFz dominated all the battles and it appeared as the game had been decided. But to one’s surprise Fnatic did carve their way into the game with some excellent team fights, a few mistakes on xFz's part and imbalanced carry play by Misery (Slardar). All of sudden with a few battles the tide had turned, it was all going wrong for xFz; Sniper and Slardar were dealing tons of damage not to mention those spicy echo-slams, even with Aegis on PL xFz failed to win a battle. Out of options xFz decided to push, which ended as a catastrophe - Fnatic won the battle with Sniper getting a triple kill and Earthshaker a double kill. The game had been decided and soon xFz called in "gg" to make Fnatic the first ever champions of GosuCup.
Final standings:
1.
FnaticMSI.Dota2.
xFz.int3.
Team-ThermaltakeThat’s it for this edition of GosuCup. Work on the sequel is already underway and so we will be back better than before.
