DWI vs MSI
Game 1
There's a slow start to this first game, as the 2 double-stun lanes both go up against passive and defensive lanes. Freshpro's Thunderbringer is soloing bottom lane versus WaffOmgz's Madman, and finally gets the Bloodlust kill at 7:50 in. Thunderbringer farms well early game, leading in levels and gold. After he goes down in a teamfight, he buys back immediately to use his ultimate to kill Defiler, but fails!
MSI has a firm grip of early game, but a nice teamfight at the 22-minute mark shows the power of DWi's AoE ultimates as they take out 4 people and lose none, making the game more even again. The game stays even for quite a while, all the way till the 42 minute-mark where a teamfight goes MSI's way, and a follow-up push leads to a genocide, a tower kill and two barracks kills. Trixi has the play of the game as she avoids a kill by Madman, running away with double-digit HP, juking him out in the forest.
DWi pushes back strong even without their barracks, keeping the game exciting all the while. At the 55 minute-mark both teams know that Kongor is due to spawning, and Hellbourne wants that token badly. MSI tries going in after the Kongor attempt starts, with a Valkyrie ultimate, but there are wards everywhere, and AMXZaku's invisible Behemoth lands a great Fissure and an Ultimate, and DWi cleans house, killing 4 heroes, losing 2, but picking up the Token from their successful Kongor kill. The follow-up push only ends up taking out one defensive tower, though.
The game has an absolutely spectacular ending, with both teams destroying each other's last defensive towers one by one at the same time, the bases as good as completely empty at the 67 (!) minute mark. A good old-fashioned base race. DWi has one single solitary ranged barracks left though, preventing MSI from getting Mega Creeps.
One final massive teamfight at the 69 (!!) minute mark ends with DWi being the last ones standing, and MSI finally concedes with "gg fun game" and "gg holy shit" being some of the remarks uttered.
Game 2
The opposite to the previous game, the early game is very action packed, with lane-switches and ganks everywhere, with the kill score stand at 5-4 after only 5 and a half minutes - with plenty of Smack Downs, as expected with Freshpro in the game, but DWi counters with Smack Downs of their own. At least a third of the first 16 kills have been Smack Downs!
Both teams trilane at Legion top, with Hellbringer/Glacius/Swiftblade versus Witch Slayer/Andromeda/Chronos. Swiftblade gets the early kill advantage, but he loses out on farm due to the Hellbourne's superior harass potential. Meanwhile Madman who solos bot against Arachna completely out-farms every single person in the game, and makes great use of it, going around the entire map, killing everyone (with added Freshpro-style Smack Downs).
AMXZaku plays his Swiftblade like a roaming ganker, and in fact, picks up a Portal Key (!) before any DPS item whatsoever. It's hard to argue against it though, as he's doing well with a good kill-score and decent farm. The port-spin-Smack Down combo is incredibly entertaining at least. This game must have the highest Smack Down-to-kill ratio of anyone I've ever seen.
At the 32 minute mark you see one of the coolest things I've seen in ages. DWi spots Chronos farming bottom lane a lone, the ENTIRE team teleports back, and blows Malphas and everything to get him down. Chronos is fast and Time Leaps away at the first sign of trouble, but Portal Key Swiftblade comes right behind him. Chronos, desperate, drops a Chronofield and activates a Homecoming Stone, but Swiftblade uses his Swift Slashes JUST before it hits and stays in the ultimate animation and manages to kill off Chronos. And incredible move, and that Portal Key has definitely paid off for AMXZaku.
The game goes back and forth nonstop, these teams are very evenly matched. They both have powerful carries with good items, they both have great initiation, they both have great teamfight capabilities - and it seems to go either way in different fights. 43 minutes into the game it's still anybody's game.
After all the hurt Swiftblade has put on kay´'s Chronos this game, it must be incredibly satisfying for him to do what he does at the 46-minute mark - he waits for Kongor to almost be dead, then teleports in, Chronofields, gets the Kongor kill and picks up the token, then proceeds to lose it immediately to the Swift Slashes. Still, a nice steal. While all this happens, Trixi's Slither is pushing DWi's base, getting their top tower and the melee barracks down.
MSI gets an easy Kongor kill and decides to try to end it at the 58 minute mark, but they run into one hell of a defense from DWi, who end up completely shutting down their attack, killing four heroes, using up Chronos's Token of Life, double-killing him. A beautiful move in there that led to their victory, as pointed out by HenryD, EternalEnvy's Hellbringer uses his Tablet of Command to push out Arachna from Chronos's ultimate, and Arachna can turn around, unleash her Geometer's Bane images and rip apart MSI.
The final push comes at the 63 minute mark, Madman and Chronos so incredibly strong with all that farm that they can take out everyone of the DWi team. After catching Swiftblade on his own and taking him out, they could finish the base 5 on 4. Another excellent and very entertaining game, the series is evened out to 1-1 and we're going to a game three.
Game 3
MSI starts with a trilane top with kay´'s Chronos supported by budgi and duQi playing Hellbringer and Andromeda. DWi counters with a trilane of their own, but play it very passively, and as a result, Crhonos get some incredible farm early on. DWi moves their entire team up there to gank Chronos, but only gets Andromeda, and loses a middle tower as a result.
Trixi's Forsaken Archer farms incredibly well, sitting at 400 gold per minute at the 19 minute mark, already picking up a Geometer's Bane. That, and Chronos's strong farm gives MSI the early game advantage, in both experience and gold.
MSI just takes control and completely holds on, never letting go. Already at the 25-minute mark, Thunderbringer gets a Hat Trick Smack Down (Smack Trick!) and DWi goes ahead and concedes already.
MSI wins, 2-1, and moves on to the final, and DWi goes to the third place battle.
Game 1
There's a slow start to this first game, as the 2 double-stun lanes both go up against passive and defensive lanes. Freshpro's Thunderbringer is soloing bottom lane versus WaffOmgz's Madman, and finally gets the Bloodlust kill at 7:50 in. Thunderbringer farms well early game, leading in levels and gold. After he goes down in a teamfight, he buys back immediately to use his ultimate to kill Defiler, but fails!MSI has a firm grip of early game, but a nice teamfight at the 22-minute mark shows the power of DWi's AoE ultimates as they take out 4 people and lose none, making the game more even again. The game stays even for quite a while, all the way till the 42 minute-mark where a teamfight goes MSI's way, and a follow-up push leads to a genocide, a tower kill and two barracks kills. Trixi has the play of the game as she avoids a kill by Madman, running away with double-digit HP, juking him out in the forest.
DWi pushes back strong even without their barracks, keeping the game exciting all the while. At the 55 minute-mark both teams know that Kongor is due to spawning, and Hellbourne wants that token badly. MSI tries going in after the Kongor attempt starts, with a Valkyrie ultimate, but there are wards everywhere, and AMXZaku's invisible Behemoth lands a great Fissure and an Ultimate, and DWi cleans house, killing 4 heroes, losing 2, but picking up the Token from their successful Kongor kill. The follow-up push only ends up taking out one defensive tower, though.
The game has an absolutely spectacular ending, with both teams destroying each other's last defensive towers one by one at the same time, the bases as good as completely empty at the 67 (!) minute mark. A good old-fashioned base race. DWi has one single solitary ranged barracks left though, preventing MSI from getting Mega Creeps.
One final massive teamfight at the 69 (!!) minute mark ends with DWi being the last ones standing, and MSI finally concedes with "gg fun game" and "gg holy shit" being some of the remarks uttered.
Game 2
The opposite to the previous game, the early game is very action packed, with lane-switches and ganks everywhere, with the kill score stand at 5-4 after only 5 and a half minutes - with plenty of Smack Downs, as expected with Freshpro in the game, but DWi counters with Smack Downs of their own. At least a third of the first 16 kills have been Smack Downs!Both teams trilane at Legion top, with Hellbringer/Glacius/Swiftblade versus Witch Slayer/Andromeda/Chronos. Swiftblade gets the early kill advantage, but he loses out on farm due to the Hellbourne's superior harass potential. Meanwhile Madman who solos bot against Arachna completely out-farms every single person in the game, and makes great use of it, going around the entire map, killing everyone (with added Freshpro-style Smack Downs).
AMXZaku plays his Swiftblade like a roaming ganker, and in fact, picks up a Portal Key (!) before any DPS item whatsoever. It's hard to argue against it though, as he's doing well with a good kill-score and decent farm. The port-spin-Smack Down combo is incredibly entertaining at least. This game must have the highest Smack Down-to-kill ratio of anyone I've ever seen.
At the 32 minute mark you see one of the coolest things I've seen in ages. DWi spots Chronos farming bottom lane a lone, the ENTIRE team teleports back, and blows Malphas and everything to get him down. Chronos is fast and Time Leaps away at the first sign of trouble, but Portal Key Swiftblade comes right behind him. Chronos, desperate, drops a Chronofield and activates a Homecoming Stone, but Swiftblade uses his Swift Slashes JUST before it hits and stays in the ultimate animation and manages to kill off Chronos. And incredible move, and that Portal Key has definitely paid off for AMXZaku.
The game goes back and forth nonstop, these teams are very evenly matched. They both have powerful carries with good items, they both have great initiation, they both have great teamfight capabilities - and it seems to go either way in different fights. 43 minutes into the game it's still anybody's game.
After all the hurt Swiftblade has put on kay´'s Chronos this game, it must be incredibly satisfying for him to do what he does at the 46-minute mark - he waits for Kongor to almost be dead, then teleports in, Chronofields, gets the Kongor kill and picks up the token, then proceeds to lose it immediately to the Swift Slashes. Still, a nice steal. While all this happens, Trixi's Slither is pushing DWi's base, getting their top tower and the melee barracks down.
MSI gets an easy Kongor kill and decides to try to end it at the 58 minute mark, but they run into one hell of a defense from DWi, who end up completely shutting down their attack, killing four heroes, using up Chronos's Token of Life, double-killing him. A beautiful move in there that led to their victory, as pointed out by HenryD, EternalEnvy's Hellbringer uses his Tablet of Command to push out Arachna from Chronos's ultimate, and Arachna can turn around, unleash her Geometer's Bane images and rip apart MSI.
The final push comes at the 63 minute mark, Madman and Chronos so incredibly strong with all that farm that they can take out everyone of the DWi team. After catching Swiftblade on his own and taking him out, they could finish the base 5 on 4. Another excellent and very entertaining game, the series is evened out to 1-1 and we're going to a game three.
Game 3
MSI starts with a trilane top with kay´'s Chronos supported by budgi and duQi playing Hellbringer and Andromeda. DWi counters with a trilane of their own, but play it very passively, and as a result, Crhonos get some incredible farm early on. DWi moves their entire team up there to gank Chronos, but only gets Andromeda, and loses a middle tower as a result.Trixi's Forsaken Archer farms incredibly well, sitting at 400 gold per minute at the 19 minute mark, already picking up a Geometer's Bane. That, and Chronos's strong farm gives MSI the early game advantage, in both experience and gold.
MSI just takes control and completely holds on, never letting go. Already at the 25-minute mark, Thunderbringer gets a Hat Trick Smack Down (Smack Trick!) and DWi goes ahead and concedes already.
MSI wins, 2-1, and moves on to the final, and DWi goes to the third place battle.
Load vs. SK-Gaming
Game 1
AngryTestie is back, and he's named AngryTestie this time - probably because Fogged is not playing this time, and neither is PokeDex. LOAD goes for late-game, with Chronos and Soulstealer picked up and played by Dodo and bkid, while SK forgo trying any real hard-carry, instead focusing on teamfight excellence and strong pushing ability, with Testie playing Defiler and Draskyl playing Hellbringer.
It doesn't quite work out that way though, as LOAD plays strong early game, keeping up on kills and farms, so when the team-fights actually happen they have the advantage, and a couple of good decisions give them an early lead, 14-6 at the 17 minute mark.
LOAD makes it through the mid-game team-fights, without any serious losses, and the further it goes, the more farm Chronos and Soulstealer gets. At the 24minute mark, LOAD gets a Genocide, with Chronos getting a Double Tap and Soulstealer reaching his Bloodbath streak, and a minute later, Chronos gets a Champion of Newerth streak of his own. The LOAD carries seems too hard to stop right now.
LOAD goes to kill Kongor at the 28-minute mark, and SK fails in stopping them, LOAD turning the assault around with four kills on their own, losing nothing but the token Chronos picked up. SK concedes immediately afterwards. 1-0 to Loaded after the first game.
Game 2
SK goes tri-carry with Swiftblade, Forsaken Archer and surprise Moon Queen pick. LOAD relies on Puppet Master, and to a lesser degree Pharaoh to carry for them, but pick up the powerful Accursed/Soul Reaper combination played by Dodo/merc.
Swiftblade starts off strong in his trilane, going 4-0 early on. Pharaoh is doing great mid versus AngryTestie's Moon Queen, though. The other lanes do decently, hindering Moon Queen and Forsaken Archer, but Swiftblade's farm is out of control, getting his Runed Axe before the 15-minute mark. LOAD hasn't out specific efforts into ganking him or stopping him, and that might cost them a lot.
A several-minute long teamfight in the bottom lane emphasizes SK's advantage, their carries getting some great kills and great farm. They're ahead over 8.5k in gold and 10k experience. They continue the pressure without letting up, and LOAD actually vote to concede in the early 20-minute mark, but the vote fails to go through.
It doesn't take long however to get another vote going, and that one goes through - a Genocide spells the end for this game, 1-1. Time for a third game.
Game 3
The third game start off interesting already at the picking screen, Draskyl picking up one of my absolute favorites - Corrupted Disciple. They continue the tri-carry idea with Moon Queen and Swiftblade rounding out that trio, played by Testie and tabako. Soulstealer wasn't banned this game, and bkid picks him up.
Just like last game, Swiftblade gets up to a phenomenal start in their trilane, getting kills and farm left and right. LOAD switches up their lanes entirely, and moves Hellbringer from down bottom where he was 1v1ing Corrupted Disciple, up top with Glacius to deal with Swiftblade and the trilane. Hellbringer does a pretty nice move after dying in a team-fight, controlling his Malphas around and getting two kills from beyond the grave.
The midgame is very back and forth, SK gaming edging sligtly ahead, specifically Testie on the Moon Queen, getting great farm, and with zero deaths. I'm keeping a personal eye on Draskyl on the Corrupted Disciple, and he's doing pretty good, if not spectacular.
LOAD has a huge advantage in tower kills though, having taken down all 6 of SK's while having lost none themselves at the 29-minute mark. They go for a base attack at that point, and get pushed back by SK, albeit being forced to deny a tower. This, thanks in big part to a buyback from Moon Queen. They follow this up with a Kongor kill, and when LOAD tries again, the exact same thing happen, MQ dies, but token kicks in and she's up again and can unleash her ultimate, turning back LOAD's assault.
Team Loaded shows no sign of letting up, they keep the pressure on. SK defends furiously though, walking away with more kills than deaths every time, but slowly but surely, more and more buildings are dropping in their base. The game kicks in overdrive, nonstop action as LOAD keeps pushing and SK keeps fighting back.
A HUGE team-fights ends up killing 4 heroes on both teams, leaving Slither versus Hellbringer, fighting 1v1 - Hellbringer cheats with Puzzlebox however, turning it to 3v1, and he manages to scare Slither away and annihilating the barracks, making that two lanes completely cleared now, while LOAD still have 4 outer towers up. Actual team-fights go very even, but LOAD has such a strong advantage everywhere else. In the end, there's nothing SK can do, LOAD is just too powerful. After nearly an hour long game, the shrine falls and LOAD moves on to the finals.
Game 1
AngryTestie is back, and he's named AngryTestie this time - probably because Fogged is not playing this time, and neither is PokeDex. LOAD goes for late-game, with Chronos and Soulstealer picked up and played by Dodo and bkid, while SK forgo trying any real hard-carry, instead focusing on teamfight excellence and strong pushing ability, with Testie playing Defiler and Draskyl playing Hellbringer.It doesn't quite work out that way though, as LOAD plays strong early game, keeping up on kills and farms, so when the team-fights actually happen they have the advantage, and a couple of good decisions give them an early lead, 14-6 at the 17 minute mark.
LOAD makes it through the mid-game team-fights, without any serious losses, and the further it goes, the more farm Chronos and Soulstealer gets. At the 24minute mark, LOAD gets a Genocide, with Chronos getting a Double Tap and Soulstealer reaching his Bloodbath streak, and a minute later, Chronos gets a Champion of Newerth streak of his own. The LOAD carries seems too hard to stop right now.
LOAD goes to kill Kongor at the 28-minute mark, and SK fails in stopping them, LOAD turning the assault around with four kills on their own, losing nothing but the token Chronos picked up. SK concedes immediately afterwards. 1-0 to Loaded after the first game.
Game 2
SK goes tri-carry with Swiftblade, Forsaken Archer and surprise Moon Queen pick. LOAD relies on Puppet Master, and to a lesser degree Pharaoh to carry for them, but pick up the powerful Accursed/Soul Reaper combination played by Dodo/merc.Swiftblade starts off strong in his trilane, going 4-0 early on. Pharaoh is doing great mid versus AngryTestie's Moon Queen, though. The other lanes do decently, hindering Moon Queen and Forsaken Archer, but Swiftblade's farm is out of control, getting his Runed Axe before the 15-minute mark. LOAD hasn't out specific efforts into ganking him or stopping him, and that might cost them a lot.
A several-minute long teamfight in the bottom lane emphasizes SK's advantage, their carries getting some great kills and great farm. They're ahead over 8.5k in gold and 10k experience. They continue the pressure without letting up, and LOAD actually vote to concede in the early 20-minute mark, but the vote fails to go through.
It doesn't take long however to get another vote going, and that one goes through - a Genocide spells the end for this game, 1-1. Time for a third game.
Game 3
The third game start off interesting already at the picking screen, Draskyl picking up one of my absolute favorites - Corrupted Disciple. They continue the tri-carry idea with Moon Queen and Swiftblade rounding out that trio, played by Testie and tabako. Soulstealer wasn't banned this game, and bkid picks him up.Just like last game, Swiftblade gets up to a phenomenal start in their trilane, getting kills and farm left and right. LOAD switches up their lanes entirely, and moves Hellbringer from down bottom where he was 1v1ing Corrupted Disciple, up top with Glacius to deal with Swiftblade and the trilane. Hellbringer does a pretty nice move after dying in a team-fight, controlling his Malphas around and getting two kills from beyond the grave.
The midgame is very back and forth, SK gaming edging sligtly ahead, specifically Testie on the Moon Queen, getting great farm, and with zero deaths. I'm keeping a personal eye on Draskyl on the Corrupted Disciple, and he's doing pretty good, if not spectacular.
LOAD has a huge advantage in tower kills though, having taken down all 6 of SK's while having lost none themselves at the 29-minute mark. They go for a base attack at that point, and get pushed back by SK, albeit being forced to deny a tower. This, thanks in big part to a buyback from Moon Queen. They follow this up with a Kongor kill, and when LOAD tries again, the exact same thing happen, MQ dies, but token kicks in and she's up again and can unleash her ultimate, turning back LOAD's assault.
Team Loaded shows no sign of letting up, they keep the pressure on. SK defends furiously though, walking away with more kills than deaths every time, but slowly but surely, more and more buildings are dropping in their base. The game kicks in overdrive, nonstop action as LOAD keeps pushing and SK keeps fighting back.
A HUGE team-fights ends up killing 4 heroes on both teams, leaving Slither versus Hellbringer, fighting 1v1 - Hellbringer cheats with Puzzlebox however, turning it to 3v1, and he manages to scare Slither away and annihilating the barracks, making that two lanes completely cleared now, while LOAD still have 4 outer towers up. Actual team-fights go very even, but LOAD has such a strong advantage everywhere else. In the end, there's nothing SK can do, LOAD is just too powerful. After nearly an hour long game, the shrine falls and LOAD moves on to the finals.
On Saturday, the Finals will be played between MSI and LOAD, and the 3rd place battle will take place between SK and DWi. With the quality of the games played so far, these games will undoubtedly not disappoint.
Links
HonCast - HonCast - home of the tournament
