Team Secret began day three of the TI6 group stage winless, as a 0-2 loss against Newbee ensures a berth in the TI6 lower bracket for them.
Game One:
Secret entered game one desperate for a victory after a winless day two in the group stage yesterday. In the draft, they once again picked up the safe lane Faceless Void for Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev, and decided on a Razor as their other core for Jackie 'EternalEnvy' Mao. Newbee countered by drafting control with a Nyx Assassin pick and secured a strong laning stage with an Undying for Hu 'Kaka' Liangzhi.
EternalEnvy did well in lane mid against the Timbersaw of Pan 'Mu' Zhang, but the rest of Secret quickly fell apart around him, as rotation into their jungle from the Timbersaw found first blood on Johan 'pieliedie' Åström’s Mirana. After that things worsened for Secret, as their rotations could never quite seem to connect. With the Nyx providing scouting vision, Newbee began to push down towers and assert their dominance taking control of the map.
Mu began to snowball out of control, continuously killing off the cores of Secret with the help of his team, often catching Envy out of position trying to farm his jungle. As mid game stage approached, Secret had a serious lack of damage on their team, while Newbee pushed their net worth and vision advantage to pin Secret farther and farther into the Dire side of the map.
At the 25 minute mark, Secret attempted a Roshan kill, but Newbee was waiting for them. A chaotic fight around the pit eventually pushed Secret back and Newbee was able to finish up Rosh. At the last second however, Arteezy Time Walked in on his Void and snatched the Aegis. He had no escape plan though, and was quickly killed off twice inside the pit as the rest of Secret retreated.
After that fight the game remained firmly in Newbee’s control, as they began to pressure Secret’s high ground, forcing them to call good game 36 minutes in.
Game Two:
In game two, Secret decided to pin their hopes on a classic Arteezy signature hero, the Invoker, while Newbee responded with the first Spectre pick of the tournament for Zhi Hao 'Hao' Chen, one of his own signature heroes.
Secret looked better in the laning stage in this game, as Arteezy jumped out to a nice net worth lead against Mu’s Batrider in the midlane. Hao was given free farm however, and was able to secure a fairly fast 19 minute radiance, marking the beginning of the end for Secret.
As the game progressed, Arteezy quickly became Team Secret’s only hope, as EternalEnvy on the Luna was constantly caught out and killed by Newbee as he tried to farm dangerous areas of the map. Sam 'Bulba' Sosale’s offlane Nyx was unable to really make any sort of impact and was caught out several times as well. The Spectre became more and more farmed, as the game marched towards it’s inevitable conclusion, and Team Secret were forced to face the fact they will enter the playoff stage of TI6 on an 8 game losing streak, in the lower bracket.
