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Dota 28 years agoIsaac "RedCrayon" Celis

SL i-League StarSeries Season 2: F.R.I.E.N.D.S-hip prevails and send compLexity home

In an upset, the former VP squad, F.R.I.E.N.D.S send compLexity Gaming home with a 2-1 win over the NA squad.

Game One

In the early game and laning phase, compLexity dominated with their aggressive rotations. CoL continually caught out Maxim 'yoky.' Kim on the Slardar: once before the rune spawn at top and twice more before the five minute mark, giving coL a Tier One tower. In the coL offlane however, F.R.I.E.N.D.S (FRIENDS) supports effectively zoned out Rasmus 'Chessie' Blomdin on his Broodmother, giving Ilya 'ALOHADANCE' Korobkin some solid farm. CoL got up to a four to zero kill lead in six minutes, but FRIENDS finally got on the board with a double kill bottom at seven minutes.

The double kill signaled a momentum shift for the ex-VP squad as they took a great fight at nine minutes. A great arrow by Sergey 'God.' Bragin caught a coL squad offguard behind their Tier One mid, and FRIENDS took the tower plus three from the NA squad. It seemed once the Slardar and Io hit their timings for Blink and Relocate, the FRIENDS squad really came together and pulled back from their less than stellar laning phase.

As the game went on, coL and FRIENDS continually traded kills, each team consistently wiping the other. A great Roshan fight at 26 minutes gave coL a two for three trade and an Aegis which they used to push up onto the FRIENDS high ground. CoL took the tier four and a rax but get wiped, underestimating the damage output of ALOHADANCE, who was quietly farming up throughout the game. FRIENDS pushed coL back and pressured the NA highground where coL tried for a re-engage. Again, it came down to the stellar positioning of ALOHADANCE and some very nice Disruptions by Alexsander 'NoFear' Churochkin on the Shadow Demon to wipe coL again and give FRIENDS the win.

Game Two

 

CoL looked to answer back from their defeat in game one with a similar draft. They switched out the Axe for a classic Batrider for  Kyle 'swindlemelonzz' Freedman and an Oracle for Simon 'Handsken' Haag. Similarly, FRIENDS went for the Mirana-Shadow Demon duo again, hoping to capitalize on its success in the first game.

In the early game, FRIENDS took control of the midlane with a four man rotation resulting in a triple kill for G, making some great space for ALOHADANCE's Morphling in the safelane, who had uncontested farm. With an eight kill lead around eight minutes, FRIENDS looked in prime position to transition into the midgame well, but a disastrous fight a minute later cost the CIS squad four, evening up the scoreboard and putting coL back in the game.

CoL came together during the mid-late game as swindlezz hit his Blink timing, rotating constantly with his brother Zakari 'ZfreeK' Freedman on the Earth Spirit. Together they were constantly able to find and secure a pick off on ALOHADANCE, who was trying to play a catch-up game having died a number of times. A notable misplay at around 14 minutes resulted in a solo kill for swindlezz on his Batrider. CoL closed out the game in just over 30 minutes.

Game Three

Seeing the success of the Batrider-Earth Spirit duo in game two, FRIENDS decided to pick up the two themselves in the first phase while coL went for the Shadow Demon, which had great success for FRIENDS. CoL went for some great teamfighters with a Kunkka support and a Tidehunter offlane, rounded off with the ever popular Timber mid. FRIENDS countered with a brilliant last pick Sand Kng to contest the lumberjack mid.

This last game of the series started out much slower than the previous two, with both teams feeling the pressure of elimination. Both safelanes played aggressively trading kills on each offlane, coL coming out on top with an early Tier One before five minutes. The game stagnated after that, with the two kills being the only ones for about eight minutes. Midgame, coL seemed to come together as the patented compLexity death ball started to form, pushing two of FRIENDS' tier two towers down. However, it was ALOHADANCE's pressure on his Slark that constantly fractured coL's offensive stance and forced them to pull back instead of pushing down objectives as five.  Ultimately, it was a lack of pressure from compLexity that lost them the game, allowing ALOHADANCE to get absolutely massive and take control of the late game. As a bonus to the FRIENDS win, ALOHADANCE played a flawless game with zero deaths: a great turnaround from his abysmal performance on Morphling in game two.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S move on to the second round of the lower bracket, where they hope to continue their run onto the finals of StarSeries Season Two.

 

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Isaac "RedCrayon" CelisLoL refugee. DOTA lover. EE fanboy. Hit me up about anime, dota and anything else you can think of

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