Week 2 of the Nexon Invitational Super Match has concluded, Speed Gaming and Team Dignitas take home $10,000 each after coming in 3-1.
Facing each other off for a shot at the top prize of $15,000, teams battled it out in a best-of-one round robin format on both November 7th and November 11th, with their scores determining their prize money. As the second week of the Nexon Invitational Super Match concludes, Speed Gaming and Team Dignitas take home the prize money of $10,000 each, leaving Korean team MVP Hot 6 with nothing.
Match 1: MVP Hot6 Vs Team Dignitas (0-1)
The first match of the week started off well for Team Dignitas, as they quickly gained the upper hand and carried their lead through the game. With a good opening into the game, Winter and 1437 led the charge in the ganks and eventually fastened the lead in Dignitas' favour. However, DeMoN's Invoker gameplay was somewhat questionable throughout the game, as he fed several kills throughout the game. Eventually, Dignitas came through with Inphinity's farmed POTM, which was able to win them the game.
Match 2: Speed Gaming Vs MVP Hot6 ( 1-0)
Drafting Io and Spectre, Speed Gaming and MVP started on the same foot. Things started picking up close to the 20 minute mark, as bOne7's Juggernaut and Spectre progressed smoothly into the mid-game, with very strong ganking abilities. Eternal Envy's Spectre was able to farm and Haunt into teamfights, which, combined with bOne7's blink dagger on Juggernaut as well as Wisp, gave Speed Gaming extreme mobility, and eventually the game.
Match 3: Team Dignitas Vs Speed Gaming (1-0)
Speed Gaming went for the heavy clash pick, utilizing Faceless Void, Queen of Pain and Lich. It did not pick up any speed (no pun intended) and non-stop rotation from the supports of Dignitas together with DeMoN's Night Stalker and even Inphinity's Mirana shut down Faceless Void as well as rendering Nyx Assassin rather inefficient. SingSing and Aui put up a great fight, ensuring survival within the match but in the late game, Dignitas made the better decisions and Speed could not get the desired combos off. Dignitas ended day one with two won games and none lost.
Match 4: MVP Hot6 vs Team Dignitas [Round Two] (0-1)
The Korean teams have not had a good run in the competition and Dignitas ensured further foreign dominance. With early game reign thanks to DeMoN's NS, Inphinity's Clockwerk and a bLeek's Viper, they further extended their lead by purchasing multiple Hands of Midas on their team. With their extended lead, Team Dignitas dictated the flow of the game, managing to win the game within 28 minutes.
Match 5: MVP Hot6 vs Speed Gaming [Round Two] (0-1)
This time around, MVP tried a different approach, drafting Weaver and Nature's Prophet for their team against Speed Gaming's Clockwerk and Lifestealer. With MVP HooNj's Puck against SingSing's Kunkka, SingSing managed to completely dominate the mid lane, snowballing uncontrollably into the later stages of the game. With superb ganks on bOne7's Clockwerk and Eternal Envy's Lifestealer, however, MVP managed to hold out for a fairly long amount of time against Speed Gaming due to their ability to split push. The point point at which MVP could no longer fend off Speed Gaming came around, though, and Speed Gaming seized the opportunity, taking the win 40 minutes into the game.
Match 6: Team Dignitas Vs Speed Gaming [Round Two] (0-1)
With Speed Gaming up against Team Dignitas once again, Dignitas drafted fairly item-oriented heroes, with Magnus, Lifestealer and Weaver on their team. Realising this, Speed Gaming capitalised on their draft and opted for a pushing and ganking line up, with a Lycanthrope, Venomancer and Elder Titan. Seizing the opportunity to punish Dignitas for every mistake that they made, it boiled down to Dignitas not having map presence throughout the game, which gave Eternal Envy free farm for his Lycanthrope. Even with DeMoN's decent play against SingSing's Puck, the rest of Team Dignitas could not deliver, and eventually Speed Gaming claimed victory 30 minutes into the game.
Click here to watch the matches.
| Group B prize distribution | |
|---|---|
| Team | Prize money |
| Speed Gaming | $10,000 |
| Team Dignitas | $10,000 |
| MVP Hot6 | $0 |
Following the the trend seen last week, Korean teams have not been faring well so far against their overseas counterparts. Fnatic and Team Liquid have crushed Korean Team UnderRated last week, leaving them with the equal score of 4-0.
Next week's Nexon Invitational Super Match will feature Teams Alliance, DK and Koreans fOu in a slightly different format and prize allocation, for that particular week only. Week three will have 3 days of matches, from November 15 through November 17. These matches will be played in a best-of-three round robin format, and teams will be be allocated $7,500 per win. This format is only in place for week three.
