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Dota 28 years agoAndreea "divushka" Esanu

Team Secret snatch the upper bracket start at MDL Autumn Playoffs from MVP Phoenix


image courtesy of eslgaming

The decider series in group A of MDL Autumn brought together for the first time the revitalized rosters of Team Secret and MVP Phoenix and the excitement for the match got even higher as old teammates went up against each other for the first time.

With two former MVP Phoenix members on their side, Pyo 'MP' No-a and Lee 'Forev' Sang-don, Team Secret had to play for the first time against the Korean team they’ve crippled in the recently closed Fall Shuffle. Forev was part of MVP for over two years while MP spent a bit over one year with the Korean overlords and their experience with their former team is certainly bringing a lot of intel to their new captain, Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov, which translated to a first win of Secret over MVP Phoenix post TI6.

Game One:

First game of the bo3 series got from bad to worse for Secret, who went with a Drow Ranger/ pushing strategy, that didn’t work at all. Their playmaking potential from Storm Spirit was countered with a Silencer pick from MVP and the Shadow Shaman pushing key element never came to fruition as the Korean team was the one playing the aggressive game.

Starting with an aggressive trilane-Shadow Demon-Silencer-Kunka against the farming Drow ranger, MVP Phoenix delivered the action during the laning stage and delayed Drow’s progression tremendously, while Kim 'Velo' Tae-sung  on his safe lane Timbersaw against Secret’s Axe had no problems staying ahead in terms of farm and levels. Despite trading kills with every engagement, Secret was unable to secure any kill for Drow Ranger, 20 minutes into the game MP still sitting on a negative personal score(0-2-7). The game looked totally lost for Secret at the 26 minute mark, when MVP secured the first Roshan kill and with the Aegis on Phantom Assassin they started to push for the enemy base.

Despite a good first high ground defense from Secret, they didn’t have the manpower to deal with the next push and the GG was called after MVP Phoenix secured the second Roshan kill of the game.

Game Two:

For the second game MVP chose to give Drow - Storm Spit combo a go, empowered by an Ogre Magi and a Kunka support meant to add more mobility to the already hard to catch Storm.

However, Puppey came up with a strong defensive line up with heavy armored heroes and the multiple save abilities to slow MVP’s aggression in the early stages. The first blood was drawn at the fourth minute mark by Secret in the safe lane and over the course of the laning stage only a few kills happened, with MVP still being the ones forcing the issue with their constantly roaming supports. MVP gangs were successful most of the time and their single target initiation brought them the mid game advantage they were looking for, but once the big team fights started to happen Secret’s double saves (Astral Imprisonment plus Disruption) neutralized completely MVP’s Storm Spirit and enabled them to come on top with Tidehunter’s Ravage counter initiation.

Several team fights with the same disastrous outcome for MVP pushed the series in a decider game three.

Game three:

For the decider game of the series MVP went once again with a strong ganking line-up centered on the Huskar-Oracle combo, while Secret had a superior team fight and good defensive mechanics. Again MVP’s early game was in their favor, but the pickoffs didn’t bring enough of a lead to face Secret’s team fight potential.

Losing the group A decider series, MVP Phoenix will start the MDL Autumn 2016 playoffs tomorrow from the lower bracket while Secret will join Newbee, and Evil Geniuses in the upper bracket.

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Andreea "divushka" EsanuI can resist anything but temptations... Follow me @DivDota

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