Day one of The International 5 SEA qualifiers has ended with MVP.Hot6 and Rave topping group A and group B respectively. The focus of day one is mostly on group A with six of the ten matches played while only four matches were played in group B.
Rave back to their old self
In the few months before The International 5, Rave faced several issues which impedes their ability to train together. As a result, Crissy, Cast and Ry0yr were forced to play online tournaments from the Philippines which had a noticeably huge impact on Rave's performance.
A month after that, with the help of Senator Bam Aquino, Rave was able to obtain their visa to go to The Summit 3 and South Korea following the event. With only ten days to train, they showcased excellent discipline and adaptability to the patch in their series against Invasion and Signature.Trust.
Currently at the poll position in group B, Rave would need only to finish 1-1 against both Can't Say Wips and MVP.Phoenix tomorrow to finish top two. Assuming Rave beats MVP.Phoenix in their opening match tomorrow, they will be guaranteed a winner bracket start in the SEA qualifier playoffs.
Jerax got MVP.Hot6 on his back
After three tiring series, MVP.Hot6 (5 points) currently sits on top of group A with Mineski (4 points) and TnC (4 points) breathing down their neck. Starting the day against G-Guard, MVP.Hot6 dominated the Malaysian veterans in game one but unfortunately succumbed to Yamateh's Tinker in game two.
If that demotivating loss wasn't enough, TnC pulled out their pocket strat (Bloodseeker) in the next round and shut down MVP.Hot6's Leshrac on the middle lane. However, MVP.Hot6 rallied back in game two with a Bloodseeker pick of their own, showing off the team's versatility and wide hero pool, to draw the series at 1-1. MVP.Hot6 finished their day with a convincing win over the underperforming 5eva.
With a mere one point lead over TnC and Mineski, it will come down to their final match against Mineski tomorrow to decide if they make it to the playoffs.
Jerax, 4-position player of the team, should receive a special mention for his excellent plays on Lina and Earthshaker. More than often, Jerax made plays that ends with the enemy carries getting picked off. Sporting the Glimmer Cape in most games, Jerax is a prime example of how the item should be used in a ultra-aggressive line-up.
Bloodseeker, flavour of the SEA qualifier
It is understandable that every region has their own playstyle and one of the hero picks that makes South East Asia qualifier unique would be Bloodseeker. First picked by TnC to counter MVP.Hot6's Leshrac, the hero was picked in the following game by Hot6 to synergize with Zeus and Pugna to give their push an extra oomph.
The hero was banned and picked several times since and we expect the trend to continue tomorrow.
| Team A | Ban/pick | Opponent | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invasion | bans | Can't Say Wips | L |
| TnC | picks | MVP.Hot6 | W |
| MVP.Hot6 | picks | TnC | W |
| Mineski | picks | TnC | W |
| MVP.Hot6 | picks | 5eva | W |
| 5eva | bans | MVP.Hot6 | L |
Utter disappointment: Signature.Trust
Coming into the qualifier as one of SEA longest standing teams, Signature.Trust has performed rather well in the last few tournaments they joined prior to the qualifier. While they are not the favourites to finish top two in their group but nobody expected them to go 0-2 in both their series against Rave and MVP.Phoenix.
In both the defeats, Signature played passive games and returned to their 4-protect-1 strat immediately after they started losing a few towers. This old-fashioned strat Signature tend to run is weak in this current meta. The tendency to do that is even more evident in their games against Rave where the games lasted for more than 30 minutes but it did not take more than 25 minutes for MVP to crush Signature in game one, and 40 minutes to dominate them in game two.
Signature could only pray for a miraculous turn around in which all the top placing teams lose their games tomorrow while they win all of theirs. In any case, the chances of that happening are quite slim.
Signature.Trust will be playing against Can't Say Wips and Invasion tomorrow.
