Coming into the grand final with a one-game advantage, LGD.cn gave the crowd a little shock in the first game but they were able to stay compose and take game two and game three to be crowned the champion of D2L Season 4.
LGD had a long and tough road coming to Las Vegas for the tournament. Nearly having their spot cancelled due to miscommunication, they had to land in Los Angeles due to the Polar Vortex and drive overnight to Sin City to compete in the tournament. Their first opponent Fnatic, who was also their final opponent, did not give them too much trouble on the first day and the first seed from the east was able to take the series 2-0.
LGD had a good night rest subsequently and was set to face their fellow countrymen Vici Gaming, who defeated fourth place finisher Alliance in the semis. After winning the first game utilizing a Tiny-Io combo, Vici Gaming came back with their trademark push strat forced game three. The deciding game was unexpectedly one-sided because LGD great laning phase stopped Vici Gaming from pushing their towers. The 46 minutes "gg" call from Bai 'rOtk' Fan meant LGD was the first grand finalist of the tournament.
In the pre-interview, captain of LGD Ning 'xiao8' Zhang told fans that they were expecting to face Vici Gaming in the grand final and commended Fnatic on their win in the loser bracket final. After Jimmy 'DeMoN' Ho complimented Zhang on their teamplay, Zhang elegantly replied, "Thank you but I think we will be taking the championship back to China."
And indeed they did. Coming off a huge game one win, Fnatic equalized the match score at 1-1 and were only two games away from causing possibly the biggest upset this year. LGD rallied back in game two and game three with complete domination and took home the $25,000 first prize. Fnatic, alongside their two-stand-ins, won second place and $15,000 in cash.
D2L prize distribution:
1. 
LGD - $25,000
2. 
Fnatic - $15,000
3. Vici Gaming - $7,500
4. 
Alliance - $2,500
Fnatic vs LGD: Good game
Game 1
LGD received a default win for qualifying through the winner bracket
Game 2
The pressure was on for LGD in game two because their heroes were clearly not geared to take on Fnatic in the late game. Placing the Dragon Knight on the middle lane and the Storm Spirit on the safe lane, LGD did not have the best of start because Yao (DK) gave away the First Blood to a smoke gank by the Crystal Maiden and the Naga Siren after he tried to farm past the river. In a desperate attempt to keep the Shadow Fiend down, Rubick and Visage also smoked towards the middle lane but they were eventually surrounded by Fnatic and gave away another two kills.
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Three kills up, Fnatic built up a 2,000 gold lead by 8 minutes. LGD replied with a tower kill on the bottom lane while Shadow Fiend farmed the stacked jungle camps. DeMoN was playing very cautiously because he knew the Storm is level 6 and may jump on him from a wide distance. After a few minutes, DeMoN came out of the jungle and his prediction immediately came true. Storm zipped onto Fnatic's tier-one tower and together with the Dragon Knight, killed Shadow Fiend for the very first time. Shadow Fiend's second death did not take too long to come as the same scenario happened again, but this time, at least Fnatic got the Doom as a revenge kill.
Fnatic took an uncontested Roshan after that by baiting Doom to teleport top and using the Song of the Siren to keep the remaining of LGD at bay. Fnatic did not put the first Aegis to good use and it got destroyed by Storm right before it was about to expire. Because of the engagement on Shadow Fiend on the bottom lane, Fnatic teleported all their heroes in and they headed straight for the bottom tier-one. LGD intended to defend their tower but without five, the Rubick became a casualty and Dragon Knight wasted a Black King Bar charge to teleport out.
Once DeMoN bought his Black King Bar, LGD knew they couldn't engage into Fnatic anymore and spent a lot of time just wandering around helplessly trying to farm. LGD desperately tried to push but their pushes kept ending up in their own demise and by 27 minutes, the Shadow Fiend picked up a Scythe of Vyse to further worsen the matter for Storm Spirit. LGD ended up giving away the second and third Roshan at 35 minutes. With their newly acquired Aegis and Cheese, Fnatic pushed bottom and had no problems taking down both the barracks before they backed off.
LGD's final attempt to win the game came when they picked off Luna farming on the middle lane but a buyback before LGD pushed into the base resulted in a five-man wipe. Another five-man wipe four minutes later forced xiao8 to call the "gg".
Game 3
LGD played game three with a little role switch, putting Yao's Nature's Prophet on the off-lane, Xiaotuji's Dragon Knight on the middle lane, and xiao8's Storm Spirit on the safe-lane. The game started off rather sloppy with Fnatic or Kunkka first making the mistake of missing his X Torrent and Boat combo which would have definitely killed the Dragon Knight. Instead, Fnatic chased the Dragon Knight until the Nyx Assassin teleported in to help. He missed his Impale on the lone Crystal Maiden but his miss allowed Fnatic to retreat safely. The real First Blood came on the top lane where LGD tri-lane was able to burst Bristleback down while at the same time, Fnatic engaged on Dragon Knight again. Chasing Dragon Knight to the range of his tier-one, a Dragon Breath got Elder Titan so low he died from a tower hit. Crystal Maiden subsequently died to the Nature's Prophet who teleported in. Dragon Knight walked away safely.
DeMoN continued to miss his X Torrent combo and his second try got the Elder Titan killed again. After dying on the middle lane to a gank a minute later, DeMoN moved top and got picked off trying to X Mark the Storm Spirit. His death led to the destruction of two outer towers on the top lane. Following suit, Elder Titan and Alchemist attempted a gank on the Storm Spirit on the bottom lane a few minutes later but they did not have enough firepower to kill him. Another counter-attack by the Nyx Assassin landing a two-man Impale meant the death of the two heroes and two more towers.
Fnatic's big break came when LGD pushed middle and caught Kunkka who was wandering too near to the tower. Kunkka bought back immediately and landed a Boat which killed the Storm Spirit and the Dragon Knight but a quick buy back from the Storm was able to turned the tides around by killing the Crystal Maiden and the Kunkka again. It was more or less over for Fnatic at that point because LGD is now up by 10,000 gold. LGD continued to starve and pick off Fnatic before pushing at 35 minutes with a 25,000 gold lead.
Game 4
A lot of effort was spent by Fnatic to kill the Clockwerk and although he did get away the first time due to a lucky Stout Shield proc, Yao went down when Doom and Crystal Maiden came in smoking from the back the second. At the same time, Elder Titan played by Trixi got himself a substantial amount of experience by hiding in a blind spot on the bottom lane. When LGD's supports left the lane, Elder Titan walked back to the safety of his own tower but died shortly after to a smoke gank spearheaded by Dragon Knight. Clockwerk also died seconds after Elder Titan but LGD got the tier-one tower on the bottom lane while Fnatic got none.
At 10 minutes, the kill score, gold difference and experience difference were still kept relatively even until Fnatic players started making careless mistakes. After killing Elder Titan on the middle lane, Yao randomly threw a rocket onto the middle tier-one and spotted Crystal Maiden. A hook and a Cog ensured her death and a free tier-one tower for LGD.
LGD did a spectacular maneuver at 15 minutes faking the push on the top lane. Fnatic, obviously not in any position to defend, pushed the middle lane but little did they know, that it was a trap set by LGD. A teleport by the Dragon Knight was followed by a Clockwerk hook on Doom which resulted in the death of the hooked and the Death Prophet.
Using their Dire side advantage, Fnatic attempted Roshan using the Exorcism but LGD was able to scout it out using the Familiars when Roshan had a quarter hp left. Yao hooked into the Rosh pit and initiated the battle. With the Spectre haunting in and Dragon Knight taking on the Dragon Form, LGD caused mass chaos and killed three of Fnatic. Yao also stole the Aegis after Fnatic killed the Roshan.
Yao continued to play fantastically, setting up kills after kills for his team, including one where he gave vision on an Elder Titan who was on the verge of teleporting back to his base but only to be Glimpsed back by the Disruptor. By 21 minutes, despite the kill score being 21-10 in favour of LGD, LGD only led by 3,000 gold and 3,000 experience.
Further escalations indicated that regardless of the small lead, LGD heroes are superior at teamfights and losing more and more battles while killing none. Fnatic conceded at 25 minutes.
