?Alliance defeats Team Secret in the first round of the SL|i-League playoffs. They will face Team Liquid tomorrow.
Barely crawling out of the group stage, Team Secret faced Alliance in the first round of the playoffs with the loser eliminated.
Game One
Alliance opened up their draft with two signature picks for s4 and AdmiralBulldog in the TI3 era - Puck and Lone Druid. They proceed to add Undying and Slardar to their team composition which further strengthened their team fight potential. Whereas Team Secret looked to dodge fights with a well-rounded lineup of Furion and Bounty Hunter for pickoffs and Dazzle Gyrocopter for team fight.
Although Bounty Hunter attempted to secure a comfortable offlane for Furion, Alliance was able to capitalize on several mistakes on Secret’s side and killed off the Secret offlaners twice. Mid lane was also dominated by s4’s Puck. The game was looking troublesome for Secret heading into the mid-game when Alliance’s heroes obtain double Blink Dagger on Slardar and Puck. However, as the mid game progressed, Secret has done a good job in dodging fights and ganks while attempted to secure a farm advantage with stacking ancients and Hand of Midas on the Gyrocopter. But Lone Druid was neglected the whole game and began to top the net worth chart with Midas and Radiance at minute 20.
However, things began to fall apart at the 25 minute Roshan fight when Alliance was completely out-maneuvered by Team Secret’s team fight execution. With heavy sustainability by Dazzle and the mobility of Furion and Ember Spirit, Secret was able to team wipe Alliance, pick up a gem, and secure the Aegis on Gyrocopter. With a huge advantage, Secret demolished Alliance again and again finally breached high ground at minute 30 taking two lanes of barracks. Alliance exited the game shortly after knowing that they had no way to comeback from this farm deficit.
Game Two
Team Secret returned to their Gyrocopter this game but changed up the style of their lineup. They opted for a Broodmother pick which was hard for the Alliance lineup to handle, and secured Batrider as their team fight initiator. Along with Oracle and Tusk, Gyrocopter should have a great time unleashing his damage. On the other hand, Alliance stuck with their game plan all the way back in TI3 with a pushing lineup of Chen, Lone Druid, and Vengeful Spirit.
Broodmother was the biggest casualty of Secret during the laning phase. Although Secret aimed to create a lane advantage with Broodmother, Chen’s rotations was able to shut down her early game. Luckily Broodmother is still a great counter against pushing lineups because of the prowess of her split push.
Progressing out of the laning phase, the nature of Alliance’s lineup and the activeness of QoP allowed them to pull slightly ahead. But Gyrocopter was still sitting comfortably on top of the net worth chart while accumulating ancient camps. Needless to say Alliance’s plan to use Chen as an early game advantage did limited work as every single tower still stood strong for Secret 18 minutes in. At minute 19, Secret abused the nature of the jungle terrain and team wiped Alliance with heavy damage from Batrider’s Firefly and Gyrocopter’s Flak Cannon. Alliance were unable to get out of the jungle due to the long range lockdown of Oracle and the Sticky Napalm of Batrider.
21 minutes in, Secret began their attempt to break high ground. With the incredible amount of heal from Oracle, the formation of Secret seemed unbreakable. Alliance however chose a great timing of having BKB on Terrorblade and Radiance on Lone Druid to fight, killing off two cores on Secret. Alliance turned the whole game around at the Roshan fight team wiping Secret once again and recovered their 10,000 gold disadvantage. From this point on, Secret seemed to have crumbled after that decisive Roshan fight. With a successful smoke gank at minute 35 by Alliance, Gyrocopter was once again killed off and a lane of barracks was lost. Secret knew that they couldn’t match Alliance’s late game and therefore went for an all-in Roshan play which was immediately reacted by Alliance. At the last fight Alliance once again team wiped Secret with a key swap breaking the Lasso by Batrider and a greatly placed Sonic Wave by QoP. Secret exits the game and Alliance equalized the series 1:1.
Game Three
Team Secret was finally able to draft their infamous Puppey Chen in the third game of the series. They also opted for the Oracle pick again because of its effectiveness in game two. With the Timbersaw in the front line, the Zeus and Terrorblade pickup was reasonable and justified as they could maximize their damage output behind the Timbersaw. On the other side, Alliance once again picked up Lone Druid third game in a row and the signature Batrider for s4. Spectre seemed to be a greedy pick but Alliance’s duo support could guarantee a comfortable early game for her. Overall it seemed like Secret had the better draft due to the lineup synergy.
S4’s performance has been outstanding this series. But nothing could top his performance this game on the Batrider in the laning phase. Although he was killed off early by Zeus, he managed to recover with a double kill and proceeded to dominate the whole game with a seven minute Blink Dagger. The active movement of Batrider supplemented the farm of the Spectre as Loda was able to sneak in assist gold haunting into Batrider Lasso kills. However, even with an amazing performance by Batrider, the nature of Alliance’s lineup denied the opportunity for them to resist the constant push from Secret.
Once again, the Roshan fight helped Alliance secure a fundamental advantage as they were able to team wipe Team Secret with Terrorblade being the lone survivor. With this team fight victory, the farm of Lone Druid and Spectre cruised smoothly along catching up closely to the Terrorblade. Terrorblade being the only farmed hero on the side of Secret proved to be lackluster. Team fights seemed to be unwinnable for Secret as they were unable to get away from the stickiness of Haunt, Lasso, and the Lone Druid bear during team fights. Secret’s defeat seemed to be imminent. 32 minutes in, Alliance began their first and last high ground siege. Without any means to defend this push, Secret fell under an ultra-kill by EGM.
Alliance advanced to the semi-finals and will be facing Team Liquid tomorrow, January 16, Saturday, 14:00 CET for a spot in the grand finals of Starladder|i-League.
