picture source: cnet.com
The Southeast Asian regional qualifiers have already decided the first team traveling to Kiev this April. Faceless took down Mineksi in the bo3 upper bracket finals to become the first team to qualify for the upcoming Major.
Expected to have a flawless run through the SEA regional qualifiers, Faceless encountered a few bumps in the road, dropping a game to TNC during the group stage and one to Bazaar. These losses prevented them from topping the group, which would have allowed icieiceice’s boys to choose their opponents in the first round of the playoffs bracket. The SEA playoffs begun with what many would have predicted to be the winners finals, TNC vs Faceless, a series in which the Filipino squad again managed to snatch a game from Faceless, but fell in the decisive game three. And so, Faceless moved on into the winner's finals while TNC will have another shot at qualifying to the Kiev Major via the lower bracket.
In the winner’s finals, Faceless faced off against Mineski and the series opened with an impressive performance coming out from the Filipino squad.
Game One:
Securing a draft emphasizing early ganking and good laning stage sustainability with the Warlock and Juggernaut heals, Faceless executed their strategy perfectly. Earth Spirit’s constant ganks on Ryan 'Bimbo' Jay Qui’s mid lane Outworld Devourer put him at a serious disadvantage and allowed Faceless to snowball through the laning stage and take the tier one towers without delay. Feeling unsafe in any of the lanes, Mineski sent all their cores to farm gold and levels in the jungle and tried to avoid team fights as much as possible.
Towards the fifty minute mark, the Slardar-Lifestealer infest bomb combo finally came online for Mineksi, and Faceless got caught off guard a few too many times due to poor vision on the map. A couple of successful ganks, followed by a disastrous Roshan attempt by Faceless in which Bimbo snatched the Aegis, brought Mineski back into the game.
Despite repelling Mineksi’s high ground push a few times and securing the second Aegis spawn for themselves, Faceless couldn’t breach the Pinoy defense and, as the game progressed, their team fight potential faded away against the six slotted Lifestealer and OD.
Game Two:
The second game of the series was a completely different story as Faceless went with an Alchemist - Ogre Magi, Bloodlust combo. Mineksi began the laning stage very aggressively in an attempt to delay the Alchemist’s progression. But, most of the time, their ganks and rotations ended badly as Faceless were always prepared to react with multiple heroes. Instead of playing the usual farm focused Alchemist, Anucha 'Jabz' Jirawong went for a very active style, getting involved in all the early skirmishes, which resulted in most of his item progression being sorted out in under twenty minutes. Armlet, Radiance, BoT and Manta were completed by the 18 minute mark and Faceless pushed the series into a decisive game three with one single high ground push.
Game Three:
In the last game of the series, Faceless out-drafted their adversaries with a first pick Ogre Magi and a last pick Troll Warlord and continued to surprise Mineksi with an unusual item build that included a Shadow Blade on the Lone Druid. Although they had a dominant laning stage, Faceless got outmaneuvered again in the Roshan Pit by Mineksi, who snatched the Aegis from Troll’s hands eighteen minutes into the game. Perhaps a little bit tilted by the second aegis steal of the series and with Mineski finally having BkB’s on their main damage dealers, Ursa and Shadow Fiend, Faceless started to lose the team fights and allowed their opponents to make a comeback just like in the first game. However, Mineski were not quite farmed on all their heroes to force the high ground and Faceless’ saving grace was in the second Rohan spawn. With the Aegis on the Lone Druid, they managed to breach the high ground and closed the series claiming the first ticket to the Kiev Major.
This will be their second presence at a Valve event, after they also managed to qualify at the Boston Major, last December, where they got eliminated by Digital Chaos in the first round of the single elimination main event bracket.
Mineksi will have another shot at a qualifying spot tomorrow, in the lower bracket finals, where they will play against the winner of Clutch Gamers vs TNC. Southeast Asia along with China are the only two regions with two qualifying spots for this Major.
