image courtesy of PGL
EG redeemed themselves after the underwhelming performances in the group stage and wiped the International 2016 champions 2-0 in front of the home crowd.
Game One
The draft started with an early Shadow Demon and Alchemist reveal from EG, while Wings went for a mid game suited lineup with Witch Doctor and Juggernaut. Wings ended the draft with a Shadow Shaman as a last pick to unveil a hidden push strategy, while EG added a Lifestealer to the Alchemist.
The early game started with a quick first blood after four of EG cornered Chu "shadow" Zeyu's Juggernaut in his jungle and quickly dealt with him. The two teams started exchanging kills, with Zhang "Innocence" Yiping having a great impact on the game after killing the courier bringing Alchemist’s bottle and successfully rotating top for a double kills. Thus, the Invoker gained the upper hand in the lane and Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan was forced to go into the jungle with the Alchemist.
Wings went for a push and got the offlane tower after only six and a half minutes. The mid one did not stand for long and was taken down by the Chinese two minutes after. This prompted EG to stay close to each other and protect their farming carries. Wings lowered the tempo down and despite getting the first Roshan in the game, trouble was looming, as Alchemist was coming online.
Around the 22nd minute EG destroyed two towers in a row in the offlane, losing tier two top in the process. Wings tried to contest EG in farming by picking Hand of Midas for the Clockwerk, but EG had already built quite the advantage. After half an hour of play, EG again demolished two towers in the mid and after a successful skirmish got a tier three tower mid. Only a few minutes later, EG pushed bottom and this time got a ranged barracks. Wings were visibly cracking under the pressure, but still resisted a five-minute onslaught after several epic team fights before EG eventually took down the second barracks. Just when it seemed that Wings would prolong the game, EG launched a surprise attack on the top lane and killed Shadow instantaneously. Without buyback his team fell and had to call the “gg”.
Game two
EG went with more of the same with Shadow Demon, this time paired with Luna as first pick, alongside an uncharacteristic for EG Leshrac pick. Wings went for an emphasis on physical damage with Slardar, Weaver and Lycan.
It was EG again that first spilled the blood of their enemies against the Dazzle in the Dire safe lane. The kill had both Shadow Demon and Leshrac, who went on to dominate in the early game and give EG what proved as an unsurmountable advantage. The two supports kept rotating to the bot and top lane, making the score 6-1 in favour of EG after eight minutes of play and EG soon took down two tier one towers down (mid and top). The push went on and by the end of eleventh minute, EG had already destroyed four towers.
EG continue to dominate, while everything that Wings were doing seemed to go wrong - 3 to 20 in terms of Wings and fifteen thousand net worth ahead. Around the 28th minute EG went for a bot lane push after taking Roshan and took the set of barracks, at the cost of losing the Luna and giving a fair amount of gold to Wings, but still retaining their advantage.
At the 34th minute Wings picked up BKBs and managed to team wipe their enemies. EG started playing more carefully and did not commit to a push, before taking Roshan at the 39th minute. Soon after that a slow siege was initiated by them and Wings did not have the heroes to kill the illusions. The second set of barracks fell around the 42nd minute and only a minute later mega creeps were marching down the base of Wings. The Chinese took a last stand, but it was in vain and EG deservedly triumphed.
