Invictus Gaming advances to the Round 3 of the Upper Bracket at the Nanyang Championship Qualifiers defeating CDEC.Youth 2:1.
Game One
After Invictus Gaming’s first warm-up series against FTD.B, they were to face off against the new CDEC.Youth squad reminiscent of Team CIS at TI4.
CDEC.Y opened their draft with a strong meta pick of Tusk and Undying aiming to secure the laning phase with the superior presence of Decay and Tombstone. IG responded with a Bounty Hunter and Lina in order to secure the advantage of the other two lanes. Although IG attempted to use Sven as a counter measure for CDEC.Y’s Phantom Lancer, this is not going to be a comfortable game for Rabbit because of the mobility of other heroes in the CDEC.Y lineup. With Dark Seer and Dragon Knight picked by IG, they looked to strengthen their team fight and mid game presence to pressure the PL, whereas CDEC.Y went for an untraditional Puck to disrupt the possible combo of Dark Seer’s Vacuum Wall.
Before the horn, Chuan’s Bounty Hunter walked aggressively into the enemy’s jungle to secure wards and ended up giving first blood, but the cost was huge for CDEC.Y as they used 3 sentry wards to secure the kill. Although Chuan gave up first blood, he managed to secure the lane for Ferrari’s Dragon Knight with constant harassment killing Puck twice before the 5 minute mark. The laning phase concluded with a smart counter gank form CDEC.Y in the top lane with the strong combo of Undying’s Tombstone and Dazzle’s Shadow Wave, team wiping IG. CDEC.Y continued to pile on their advantage securing Roshan at minute 15, pushing down multiple towers, and killing Sven at the ancients. IG managed to retaliate with a successful defense in the bottom tower but CDEC.Y continues to mount their advantage with superior farm and the second Roshan, and with a sloppy play from Dragon Knight getting caught at the Dire jungle, CDEC.Y took out three heroes on IG’s side and swarmed into their base taking Game One.
Game Two
CDEC.Y secured Queen of Pain and Bounty Hunter as their first picks looking to have an active early game and a strong laning presence in the mid lane. IG again went back to their Lina pick and a Spirit Breaker second pick to ensure the initiate team fights initiations and ganks. CDEC.Y strengthened their team fight potential with a Dark Seer and Luna, which indirectly buffed Queen of Pain’s team fight presence due to the Vaccum Wall combo. IG’s draft was more subtle as they look to delay the game for the Anti Mage with the split push ability of Broodmother. Dazzle provided the much needed protection for Anti Mage to help IG transition into the mid game.
Once again, Bounty Hunter successfully secured an advantage for the mid lane this time on CDEC.Y’s side, taking first blood from Ferrari’s Lina. After that BH rotated to the bottom lane securing another two kills for the aggressive tri-lane of CDEC.Y. The mid game equalized despite CDEC.Y’s early advantage. Because of bottom lane’s failure to secure farm for AM, Luo was forced to go for a fighting oriented build. Sloppy plays were coming out of the side of CDEC.Y allowing IG to scramble back into the game. AM was gradually stabilizing with an open safe lane and Broodmother continued to lead the race in net worth. More heroes continued to get picked off on the side of CDEC.Y and AM’s farm has surpassed everyone on Dire at the 25 minute mark. AM’s farm continued to accelerate with more items coming out and the new IG carry has completely taken over the game. With a disastrous team fight at the Roshan pit for Dire, Rabbit crushed CDEC.Y with his 10000 gold lead over Luna, grabbing a much needed victory over CDEC.Y in Game Two.
Game Three
CDEC.Y and IG both had similar openings to game two. CDEC.Y picked up QOP and Winter Wyvern, whereas IG first picked Lina for the third time this series and grabbed Gyrocopter as a comfort pick for Rabbit. CDEC.Y seemed to love their Rubick as they opted for Rubick and Dragon Knight. IG chose to strengthen their mid game team fight fire power as they picked Sand King for Chuan, one of his signature heroes. Windrunner was the last pick for the young squad putting her in the untraditional position 1 for Ame, and IG went for the Legion Commander last pick.
At minute two, IG displayed their aggression killing off three heroes securing a promising gold lead. Bottom lane was completely dominated by Rabbit’s Gyrocopter against June’s QOP. The same was happening to Luo in the offlane where he was unable to find farm against Ame’s Windrunner. CDEC.Y did not disrupt Chuan’s jungling at all allowing him to pick up his blink dagger at the 10 minute mark, which was disastrous for CDEC.Y. QOP was able to recover a slight bit of farm with pick offs. The mid game began with a substantial advantage of IG. The decisive fight of this game happened at the 12 minute mark, initiated by the Sand King, IG was able to take out two heroes immediately but June’s perfectly placed Sonic Wave hit all five heroes almost recovering the damage done by IG. However, QOP and DK were unable to sustain through the fight and Rabbit took a Rampage off CDEC.Y with the continuous burst damage of the Rocket Barrage. CDEC.Y was unable to recover from the devastating fight and IG’s victory was already imminent. With the BKB picked up by Gyrocopter, CDEC.Y was unable to contest the tower pushes of IG, the smoke gank at 24 minutes wiping CDEC.Y was the icing on the cake as IG takes a strong and decisive victory of the series over CDEC.Y.
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