image source: dota2ti on Instagram
In a short series, which lasted just under an hour, LGD showed why they were one of the frontrunners in the group stage and eliminated DC from the International 2017.
With a strong showing against Digital Chaos, LGD keeps the Chinese presence strong at the International 2017. With this victory, LGD makes the International 2017 a showdown between Europe, CIS, and China.
Game One
LGD dominated Digital Chaos in game one, closing out the victory in an insanely quick 22 minutes. Draftwise, DC might have had the crowd on their side picking a signature Meepo for the young Abed ‘Abed’ Yusop, but the Chinese were unphased. With some strong AoE in Yang ‘eLeVeN’ Wei Ren’s Magnus and Yao ‘Maybe’ Lu’s Mirana, LGD had little trouble dealing with the Geomancer. Compounded with DC’s own lack of AoE, to deal with the Chaos Knight illusions, DC seemed to be at a disadvantage.
In the early stages, focus was on the bottom lane, where LGD and DC constantly traded kills. On the other side of the map, Mason ‘mason’ Venne’s Lycan and eleven’s Magnus got free farm in the top lane. With the power of Howl on their side, Abed decided to go for an aggressive Meepo build, picking up a very early Diffusal blade, hoping to on the offence and find kills around the map. Unfortunately, DC were unable to find the aggression they wanted, as LGD decided to strike back. Along with this, the Chinese squad constantly split the map and remained slippery throughout the game, always engaging on their terms and not on DC's. After two abysmally one sided fights from around 15-20 minutes, DC called a quick GG, looking to reset after a poor start.
Game Two
Game two saw both teams pick some comfort heroes, with a Sand King and Sven for Sam ‘Bulba’ Sosale and mason respectively, while LGD went with their tried and true trio of Magnus, Kunkka, and Death Prophet. It was, however, the last pick Anti-Mage for Wang ‘Ame-‘ Chunyu that proved to be the nail in the coffin for DC.
Early on, both teams were relatively even in the laning stage, with the exception of Ame-, who had a terrible time in his safelane thanks to DC's aggression. Bulba was much more active on his Sand King, backed up by DuBu’s Ancient Apparition and their rotations picked up a number of kills around the map. Likewise, LGD’s rotations also proved effective, as both teams traded kills. Despite being relatively even, the exception came from eleven’s Magnus in the top lane. Like in game one, DC were unable to stop the Magnus from farming, and despite being in the offlane, had his Blink Dagger in relatively short time. As objectives began to fall around the map, DC looked to be in better position compared to game one.
Perhaps learning from their failure to initiate last game, DC were the ones who were truly aggressive this time and they found three kills in the LGD forest around 16 minutes after destroying their tier two tower. A few minutes later, at 22, DC took Roshan thanks to eleven whiffing a big RP in the midlane. Armed with the Aegis DC looked for a highground push at 24, but Ame-‘s AM, who had a poor start in the laning stage, took DC’s tier three and forced them back empty-handed. At this point, Ame- had caught up in terms of farm, and DC seemed to have no answer for the hero. A few minutes after fending off creeps, DC found a good pickoff on eleven and transitioned into another highground push. Unfortunately, they were once again unsuccessful, as LGD held their position. LGD stormed down the middle lane off that victory and took down the middle melee barracks. At this point, the game was all but over as Ame- had racked up an astonishing 410 CS at 28 minutes. A few minutes later, Ame- picked up a rampage in an impeccable team fight by LGD. DC, knowing that their tournament lives were on the line, decided to go for a desperate Roshan kill, which ultimately failed, as despite claiming the aegis, they lost four and the burned through mason's second life. Shortly after, DC called GG in just over 30 minutes.
LGD moves on to face OG in the next round of the lower bracket, where both teams play for elimination once again.
